Engaged or Disengaged – Are Your Employees Contributing or Extracting from Your Business?

How much your employees are engaged, or disengaged, can make the difference between success and failure of your business. Understanding the various levels of engagement, which range from actively engaged to toxically disengaged, can help you determine the root of the problem and convert your employees to become happy, productive and provide a maximum return on your payroll investment.

Disengaged employees can be costly to your business, while engaged employees add to your business and help you achieve your goals as a business owner. Most employees don’t just show up with a plan to be disengaged (although some do), it’s usually some external force, whether related to your business, or their personal life.

How to spot a disengaged employee

Disengaged employees are sometimes easy to spot, they’re disruptive, they may drop the ball more often, and in a worst-case scenario, infect your team with negativity and toxicity. They can pull once engaged employees into their world which results in a demotivated team that will become damaging to your business. Your job is to find the root of the problem.

How to manage disengaged employees

When you have identified someone who is disengaged, it’s best to meet with that employee to determine if its an outside force in their personal life that is causing the disengagement, or something internal to your business. Be cautious not to get into privacy issues, simply ask if they have any concerns about the business and encourage them to share their feelings. They may not be forthcoming with any complaints with the business, so it will be up to you to do some detective work to ferret out the true story.

Change your ship’s course

If its an individual employee that is simply a bad seed, it’s best to work out a performance action plan, or begin to consider terminating that employee before their toxicity spreads any further. Get HR advice on this!

If you discover that it’s your workplace, don’t be defensive, be supportive and understanding. Get more feedback from other employees to confirm the initial feedback you received. Employees don’t always come out and tell you that they are not happy, they simply stop working as hard as they once may have. It may take some time and effort to get them to a level of engagement. Remember, employees do not have the same motivation as you, the business owner, they need to feel like their jobs supports their personal life. That’s typically the opposite for a business owner!

Creating a Culture of Contentment

As a small business owner, its your job to create a culture that is positive and productive. If employees feel under-appreciated, or under-valued, those feelings will fester and spread, and eventually it will impact your business negatively. Once you understand that, you can begin to work to invest in your culture, in employee’s happiness and subsequently, in your business, as it will benefit from a good culture and engaged employees.

Here are some ideas on improving your culture:

Monitor engagement – employee surveys and feedback opportunities

Be personable, accessible and transparent – practice servant leadership

Share your company vision – what’s in it for them

Focus on employee development – they want the opportunity to grow

Actively engage with your employees – listen!

Implement a recognition and reward program – people want to be appreciated

Encourage time off – make sure you’ve cross-trained so no one carries too much burden to take time off

Disengagement is a risk factor that threatens you’re the health of your business and can greatly impact it’s performance, but can be addressed through feedback, insight and a commitment to prioritizing employee engagement as part of your company’s strategic agenda.

If you need help on ideas, or even management training, talk to the HR experts at Infinium. We can help!