An article, “The High Cost of Employee Disengagement” (http://www.wistechnology.com/articles/983) is not only informative, but also quite startling. As a leader of your organization you are also likely to find the content disturbing because it presents such a challenge to us as leaders. I suspect we all think we are doing a better job than we really are.
I am in the midst of an organizational assessment for a regional professional service firm. Fortunately, I am finding the vast majority of their employees are engaged which is demonstrated through their hard work and committed to results. Further, the great news is the leaders want to know how the entire organization can be more successful, thus the request to conduct the assessment. While most of their employees are already engaged, I want to help them see the ROI potential they have by providing the direction and culture through which ALL the employees can become fully engaged.
The Gallup Organization’s most recent Employee Engagement Index reports:
- Active disengagement costs the US $300 billion a year in lost productivity at a time when we cannot afford it (just imagine the positive impact on our economy if we could turn this around)
- 17% or 22.5 million workers are actively disengaged (unhappy, busy acting out their frustrations, angry, alienated, poisoning others, involved in idle chatter, etc.)
- Each one of these disengaged employees costs their employer $13K per year in lost productivity
- Only 22% of workers are truly engaged working with passion and commitment to their company
- At least 71% are on cruise control
So why do 7 out of 10 workers feel a high degree of apathy? And, more importantly, what can you as a leader do to avoid this drain on your organization?
For decades, employees have been saying the same thing in almost every employee survey report. Their lack of engagement comes primarily from managers whom they perceive do not care about them, lack of clarity about the goals of their organization, poor communications (lack of information needed to do their job well, about company performance, and about their own personal performance), the perceived inability to influence the results of the organization, and weak accountability.
Those of us in the organizational development (OD) profession would say the source is the lack of an effective organizational culture. A culture that lacks leadership, a clear vision of where the organization is going, an appropriate organizational structure, accountability and measurements of success, an intentional communications systems, etc. When employees have clarity about where the organization is going and how they can add value, when they believe their manager cares about their welfare and their contribution, they feel respected, valued and are rewarded appropriately, and when they have the information and tools to do their job well, the vast majority of the time they will be engaged, committed and contribute positively.
So if you have an abundance of ‘water cooler conversations’ going on in your own organization, take a quick assessment of what might be missing from your culture that is allowing so many employees to spend some portion of their time unproductively. Leading by example and holding everyone accountable for results are critical to producing results through highly satisfied employees.