Three Ways to Improve Employee Engagement
Posted on December 08, 2017 by Bob Van Baren, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
Managers, if you want your employees to go from frustrated to fulfilled, rather than frustrated to disengaged, it must start with your leadership.
People are your greatest asset, right? Maybe you have heard that before, but is it true for a business or non-profit? Organizations need people, but they are costing companies $9 trillion (Gallup) in the United States. One of the biggest costs is disengaged employees. According to Gallup, only 33% of employees are engaged in their jobs. I believe employees start with being frustrated, but when that frustration does not improve they transition to disengaged.
Before I give you some tools to lower frustration and improve engagement, it is important to define the two levels of disengaged employees. The first, is the regular disengaged employee who does the very bare minimum of their job. Do not expect them to help outside of their job area or go above and beyond for a customer. The second, is the actively disengaged. They are the employees who are costing you money because they may be trying to hurt your company in some way. It may be the employee who is rude to a customer or constantly shows up late for work.
Now that you have a better understanding of disengaged employees, here are three ways your employees go from frustrated to fulfilled, not frustrated to disengaged.
First, show your employees some positive attention. This is such a simple one, but it is often neglected by managers. Stop ignoring your people. Employees that are ignored are 58% disengaged, 40% actively disengaged and only 2% engaged. (Gallup) This simple fix can pay big dividends for your company.
Second, stop only focusing so much time on weaknesses or negative characteristics. This one is harder because we have been raised to emphasize fixing weaknesses. Sadly, this mindset is still part of our culture despite it’s proven ineffectiveness. Employees who are part of a weakness-focused culture are 33% disengaged, 22% actively disengaged and 45% engaged. (Gallup) This is not as bad as being ignored, but it is still hurting the bottom-line of your company.
Third, focus on strengths or positive characteristics. Every one of your employees has natural talents, why not focus on turning those into strengths. If people are going to be your greatest asset you need to start treating them that way. When there is a strength-based culture, employees are 61% engaged, 38% disengaged and 1% actively disengaged. (Gallup) This change in a culture could dramatically boost a companies’ overall health and success. What are you waiting for? Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Managers, you might not even realize it, but this is what you are doing when you ignore or constantly focus on the weaknesses of your employee.
Managers, if you want your employees to go from frustrated to fulfilled, rather than frustrated to disengaged, it must start with your leadership. However, you do not have to figure this out on your own. That is one of the reasons Vision 2-10 exists. We want to partner with you to begin creating a strength-based culture, which will mean more engaged employees and a bigger return on your investment.
