We’ve all heard the staggering statistic: according to Gallup, only 33 percent of all American workers feel engaged at their jobs. That means 67 percent – nearly 7-in-10 – workers in America are somewhat disengaged at work, if not disengaged entirely.
Look around yourself, at your job, or at the next business you walk into. Does your team have engagement issues? What about the team at your doctor’s office or your mechanic shop – where quality work greatly influences your life!
Chances are – your team, and organizations that you care about and need in your life, have an employee engagement problem.
What Americans want in a job has changed, and it’s time for organizations to catch up before they lose their best and brightest talent.
Before we address how to solve the employee engagement problem, we need to understand the pain points. Obviously, you need to know why your team is disengaged. But before we even get into their disengagement, it’s important to understand how this impacts you as a leader in your organization. Because if you don’t realize how it’s causing you pain, you won’t be interested in helping to find solutions.
Here are five ways employee disengagement could be hurting your organization:
1. Poor productivity: Disengagement leads to lack of focus and halfhearted motivation among employees. When your employees are disengaged, they make more mistakes and waste more time at work.
2. High turnover: If your team doesn’t feel connected to the work they’re doing, they’re more likely to look elsewhere for a job that fits. Millennials in particular are quick to leave a job where they feel disengaged. High turnover rates have real costs for your business. Studies estimate turnover costs about 6-9 months of an employee’s salary.
3. Poor employee health: An employee who feels disengaged is likely to feel burned out or depressed at work instead of motivated. Whether disengagement leads to actual sick days or simply team members choosing to not show up because they’re not committed to their job, employee health matters.
4. Communication and collaboration breakdowns: Disengaged employees often withdraw and avoid working closely with team members and managers. Tensions rise, communication breaks down and your team becomes more unhappy and unproductive.
5. The bottom line: All of the above issues translate into a true impact on the bottom line of your organization. Turnover and wasted time are visible costs, and poor employee health and withdrawn employees use up resources as well. All of these things impact sales and customer service, too. You can’t afford to have team members who feel discontent and unconfident interfacing with clients and customers.
Okay. Kind of depressing, isn’t it? Sorry about that. But it’s the world we’re living in. And we can’t change it until we understand it. So we have to spend some time on the pain. Later this month, we’ll talk about why employees are disengaged, and then we’ll end the month with ways to engage your team and get everyone on the same page with open communication channels that foster collaboration and growth. We promise – the mood around here will improve! And it can at your organization too!
Originally published at matchpace.net