Are disengaged employees holding you back?

The GFC and its resulting job losses have, on one hand released an array of available talent to the market, and on the other hand have fostered many cases of disengagement within the workplace. Shaken by the dismissal of their colleagues, disillusioned by their own frozen-careers or exhausted through delivering ‘more for less’, many employees are fed up with worry and sleepless nights - many blame their leaders and expect them to ‘put it right’.

Disengaged employees are not good for business. Consider some of the ways they can negatively impact your organisation’s bottom line:

• a lack of focus – not delivering close to 100% effort
• distracted – product and service deficiencies result
• bad influence – a negative effect on co-workers
• undermine – leader’s vision and authority
• leave – or cause others to leave
• inappropriate uses of company time – job seeking, time wasting, clock-watching
• lack of focus – company initiatives don’t gain traction
• increased absenteeism
• employee morale falls across the organisation
• employee productivity falls
• no creative or innovative input
• no real drive or incentive to go the extra mile

What causes employee disengagement?

• burnout due to long working hours and lack of recognition in return
• inadequate training, career mentoring, feedback and support
• broken promises
• lack of empowerment
• favouritism/inconsistency
• ineffective leadership
• inflexibility
• an inappropriate environment
• a brand with which no one wishes to be associated
• mis-trust and or micro-management
• career opportunities absent or minimal
• individual contributions not acknowledged
• poor team spirit
• poor internal communication particularly during the GFC when redundancies, changes in work patterns and budget cutbacks were occurring
• Inability to compete with remuneration levels offered by alternative employers (talent competition)

Actively disengaged employees can cost employers thousands, if not millions of dollars. Gallup estimates that the decreased productivity and performance fostered by actively disengaged employees’ costs U.S. businesses around $300 BILLION annually!

Ignore disengaged and actively disengaged employees at your peril!

Employers should make every attempt to find out who’s motivated and who’s not, who’s engaged and behind the leader’s vision and who’s going through the motions. Who’s there for the long-term and what keeps them bound to the company. Who’s contributing, who’s a passenger and who’s a company assassin?

Discover what people most ‘like’ about working for your organisation, what they actively ‘dislike’ and what you need to do to engage, motivate and retain them.

Online employee survey – why you need one now…

Looking at the employee profiles below – doesn’t it make sense to understand the prevailing employee sentiment and levels of engagement within your organisation?

HI offers:

• Free Employer Branding presentation (EmployerBrandGuidanceSystem 2010)
• Free Brand clinic – find out how your brand is performing

Our all-staff surveys probe general levels of engagement and employee perceptions of the value proposition across 12 key areas which comprise the employee experience.

Our surveys will:

• Identify strengths and weaknesses within your existing employment framework
• Indicate ways in which improvements might be made
• Solicit anonymous quantitative input from employees
• Allow comparison/alignment between employee groups
• Provide insight into the levels of sentiment within the workforce

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au