Disengagement Disaster
April 22, 2008
Your employees don't seem to care much about your organization's mission or future goals. Only their paycheck reigns supreme. So what? That's the norm, right? Lack of employee engagement is all too common, but that doesn’t mean it’s not costing your company millions.
By Renée Cormier
Are you having problems engaging your people? According to the Gallup Management Journal, which publishes a semi-annual Employment Engagement Index, only 29 percent of employees are fully engaged in their work. That means more than two-thirds of your workforce are merely putting in time. Don't confuse activity with productivity. If you are a business owner with a staff of any size, chances are most of them have checked out mentally to some degree. In fact, 17 percent of employees are completely disengaged and actively sabotaging the efforts of co-workers. That's scary stuff considering this is a problem that costs U.S. businesses more than $300 billion in lost revenue every year.
Recognizing The Signs
Some of the more subtle signs include employees questioning why they are working in their jobs, thinking about finding a new job, and casually scanning employment ads. The more overt signs of employee disengagement are tardiness, absenteeism, increased negativity, and lack of involvement in company events or initiatives. The good news is these are just early warning signs. Employees can be turned around under the right circumstances.
There are many possible causes of employee disengagement, but most experts agree the breaking point comes after an event or realization shocks the employee. It can be a boss making a negative comment, or a realization that the job is not as expected. It is rarely about money, but often about feeling under-valued.
Disengagement can happen to both new and long-term employees. No one is immune from it. Disengagement hinges on the culture of your company or work group. The more poison the environment, the greater the degree of disengagement. Ultimately, disengaged people will either quit or be fired—but in either case you'll be paying for it. Employee turnover costs companies millions of dollars, including the money it takes to replace them (such as ads, agencies, salary, and severance pay) to the more subtle drains on company resources. You have to consider, for example, the time it takes to review resumes and interview candidates, and the cost of lost productivity. Hiring takes time, and making up for an employee’s absence adds to stress, and lowers the overall quality of work, which hurts the bottom line. There's also the cost of paying out overtime to the remaining employees, and the cost of lost business due to missed customer service opportunities. Your results never will be what they could be, or should be, while you are replacing employees.
Mending Motivation
So what can be done about disengagement? Developing your company's leaders is a great place to start. Everyone in a position of authority should be well trained in leadership and human relationship skills—no exceptions. Whether you're the CEO, or a customer service supervisor, you need to know how to unleash passion for your work, and pass it to those around you. It is passion, after all, not orders, that drives results. Authentic leaders are passionate about what they do, and inspire others to do and be their best. Authentic leaders engage their people and therefore drive results more easily than inauthentic leaders. They create confidence, are credible, have a team mentality, and demonstrate they value their people.
Disengaged employees need to be re-engaged to keep our economy strong. Statistics show employees who are engaged produce better results than their less engaged counterparts. C. Coffman and G. Gonzalez-Molina compared business units in the top half of employee engagement to business units in the bottom half of engagement and discovered the engaged groups rated 86 percent higher in customer satisfaction; had a 78 percent higher safety record; a 70 percent lower turnover rate; a 70 percent higher productivity rate; and scored 44 percent more in profitability. These results mean big dollars for our businesses, which begs the question: How much money is your company not making? The answer is: It can always be better.
The first step is determining how bad it really is for your company. The best way to find that out is to call a business development consultant to see where you need the most support. Based on the information they gather, they will make recommendations for you to start training your people (and yourself, if need be) so everyone is aligned with the mission, vision, and values of the organization. You then can begin developing the skills your company needs to be successful in every way.
Renée Cormier is president and owner of POWERHOUSE CONFERENCES, a company dedicated to working with people to produce better business results. Cormier spent the last 11 years as a training and development professional. She uses her experience in business and adult education to develop and implement training programs that provide her clients with business results to positively impact the bottom line. For more information, e-mail renee@powerconferences.ca, or visit www.powerconferences.ca.
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