Did you know that over 70% of employees are disengaged from their workplace? Did you know that this disengagement results in billions of dollars of lost economic production every year? How many of your employees are disengaged and how much is that costing you?
The statistics above come from surveys conducted by Gallup®. Gallup® also provides us with the definitions around this term “engagement.” See if you can identify each of your team members’ level of engagement.
Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.
Not engaged employees are essentially “checked out.” They are sleepwalking through their workday, putting time – but not energy or passion – into their work.
Actively disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work; they are busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engage coworkers accomplish.
Do you recognize a few of these descriptions as people in your company? Is the number of disengaged approaching 70% or more? Hopefully not, yet even if the combined level of not engaged and actively disengaged is lower it impacts the team significantly.
Here’s a simple example to show how. Consider the eleven players on the field at any given time for a football team. Each plays a specific position yet they all work together to move the ball down the field or prevent the other team from moving the ball down the field. In a worst case scenario, 70% are disengaged and you have only three players who are completely in the game.
Assume that the situation is not quite as dire in your work environment, yet there are a few bad apples. In the case of an eleven person team, if even 25% are disengaged, you’ve got three people with oars just sitting in the water. Perhaps one of them is actively rowing against the progress the team is attempting to make. Can you afford even one disengaged person on your team?
For most of the groups I work with, a hearty “no” is the response to this last question. What can be done? As a simple first step, provide feedback to your employees. A glance at the chart below shows that even if the feedback is negative, you will significantly move the needle in terms of employee engagement. Focus on what your employees do right and you will soon all be rowing in the same direction!
Managers who predominantly focus on employees’ strengths reduce active disengagement to an astoundingly low 1%.
