When it comes to employee engagement, there’s no shortage of information about how to measure and improve engagement levels. But perhaps less talk about the fact that an employee who is not a fully engaged employee may not simply be indifferent. There are different types of disengagement, ranging from mere indifference to active disengagement.
Actively disengaged employees are on the other end of the spectrum from fully engaged employees. While an engaged employee will be productive and proactive, a disengaged employee will simply go through the motions and meet the requirements. An actively disengaged employee will show it, and actually take steps to express his or her dissatisfaction—which will likely end up bringing down morale and productivity as well as impact the customer experience.
- Engaged employees are more likely to be happy, productive, energetic, and enthusiastic, take on additional responsibilities, develop your business by providing constructive feedback and bring new ideas to the table, lead others and create more loyal and happy customers.
- Disengaged (or simply “not engaged”) employees, as we refer to as passengers in the Brilliant engagement model, are more likely to merely meet minimum requirements, not actively seek out or volunteer for new projects, be absent more often, spend more work hours doing other things than actual work, and stop giving input as to how you could improve your ways of working.
- Actively disengaged employees (aka “bored”) are more likely to vent frequently to others, expressing their frustrations and dissatisfactions, publically display a bad attitude, have chronic attendance issues, not be as productive, demotivate others on the team, cost the company in terms of the extra time required to manage them as well as the negative effects of creating poor customer experiences, and they may be looking for a new job.
What can employers do when facing active disengagement? Several things actually, and here are just a few examples:
- Get information about general engagement levels. If you’re not already conducting employee engagement surveys to see where the entire workforce stands, consider starting. It’s easier to measure improvement when you have a baseline; it’s not likely that disengagement is as isolated as you’d like it to be.
- Assess what recognition programs you have in place. Often, disengagement starts when employees feel their hard work is ignored. Perhaps they were passed over for a raise or promotion or didn’t get an assignment they desired, or when they just don´t feel they get regular feedback, appreciation and recognition for the efforts they put in. There are many root causes that may stem from lack of recognition of employee efforts. Having feedback high on the agenda and programs in place to ensure employees get the recognition they deserve can help keep employees engaged longer.
- Talk to employees about their goals, put development plans in place and follow through. Sometimes, employees lose engagement because they are bored or feel that their talents are not being utilized. It can be as simple as having a conversation with employees to understand their career goals—and then taking steps to help them achieve those goals over time.
- Pay attention to workload, stress and unrealistic expectations. Sometimes, disengagement stems from stress and employees feeling overworked—which is often within the employer’s control.
- Look for signs of bad managers. Employee engagement is often directly affected by how the individuals interact with their managers. From analysis we conduct we see leadership being the single most important factor behind employee engagement. If leadership improves, your employee engagement levels are bound to do the same.
- If you’ve singled out actively disengaged individuals, talk with them to find out the root of their dissatisfaction and see what—if anything—can be done at the individual level or at the company level. While it is impossible to have a fully engaged workforce at all times, the key is at least to make sure you don´t have the actively disengaged employees in the wrong positions within your company. In some cases, you may have to consider altering their position or discuss future career opportunities at places outside of your own company.
If you need help to measure and get a higher engagement level, please contact us, and we will explain how.