Disengaged employees can negatively impact the productivity, growth, and bottom line of organizations if left unchecked.
According to research conducted by Gallup, around 17.2% of the workforce within most organizations is actively disengaged. The research also found that the cost of disengagement can be as much as 34% of an individual employee’s salary for an organization.
A Harvard Business Review Report has stated that employee disengagement proves to be an extremely costly affair for the business community. In financial terms, disengagement costs anywhere around $450 and $500 billion each year. That is why companies need to actively seek ways to engage disengaged employees to ensure enhanced business growth.
This is why organizations need to take timely and proactive measures to re-engage disengaged employees.
The one thing that organizations need to understand is that employees that are disengaged might not necessarily be ‘bad’ employees.
They might be amongst the most talented and highest-performing members of the workforce.
Organizations can identify disengaged employees by the drop in their performance and loss of emotional connection with the organization.
Here are a few such indicators:
1. Lack of enthusiasm in the employees concerning the initiation of a new project or task
2. Lack of interest in extending a helping hand to their co-workers even when it is their field of expertise
3. A tendency to behave irresponsibly and ignore task deadlines besides breaking their promises
4. Disengaged employees do not take initiative and just wait to be told what to do next
5. Most importantly, such employees are not curious about learning new things or asking questions about things they don’t understand
Read 5 Signs of Disengaged Employees to be Watched
Organizations also need to focus on understanding the reasons that resulted in the employee becoming disengaged in the first place.
Without addressing this issue, it is almost impossible for an organization to re-engage them.
There might be various reasons for the drop in engagement levels and loss of interest in organizational activities.
They can include differences of opinion with supervisors, or dissatisfaction with compensation, rewards and recognition, or even the work culture.
The task of re-engaging disengaged employees can be challenging. However, it is possible by using the right strategies.
The critical step is to work towards re-establishing and strengthening the broken trust of the employees.
Here are a few tips that can help organizations revive employee engagement levels:
Interacting with disengaged employees individually is essential to assure them that they are valued by the organization.
Such interactions should be with the HR or the one-on-one managers of the employees in question.
The interest of the management in their well-being would assure them that the organization values them.
Lack of appropriate growth opportunities is one of the biggest reasons behind the disengagement of employees.
Hence, organizations should ensure every employee is provided with a career path following their skills and experience.
They need to provide employees with the right training to improve their skills and performance and grow in their careers.
To re-engage employees, organizations need to remind them of their good work and contribution to the organization.
It helps in enhancing their motivation levels, by assuring them that their contribution did not go unnoticed.
Hence, making employees aware that they are key to the organization’s success is sure to boost their engagement.
Also, the organization needs to assure the employees that they will value and appreciate all their future contributions as well.
Sharing the organization’s vision, goals, and challenges with employees clearly and transparently can make them feel more involved.
Hence, this helps in establishing clear expectations of the organization from each employee and providing them with the right focus areas.
Sharing both good and bad news with employees gives them a sense of belonging and empowerment and enhances their engagement.
Organizations should re-engage disengaged employees and enhance overall employee engagement, productivity, and retention.
Sagar Chaudhuri is the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of experience in the corporate world and entrepreneurship. In the past, Sagar has worked with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank in leadership roles. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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