The Drawbacks of Workplace Disengagement

Throughout the recession, organizations have sought to keep their employees engaged and avoid losing their top talent once the job market heats up. Multiple research studies have found that engaged, loyal and motivated employees have a direct impact on their organization's financial performance. In contrast, disengaged employees are a major distraction and detractor for their more engaged co-workers, possessing the power to seriously hinder the overall Engagement level of their employer. Despite the drawbacks of Disengagement, organizations are not doing enough to combat the problem.

Last year, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published a report titled "Re-engaging with engagement," highlighting the findings from its survey of 331 senior-level executives in Europe and the Middle East as well as 80 managers and other executives for additional comparative analysis. Interestingly, 84 percent of survey respondents said "disengaged employees" are one of the three biggest threats facing their business. However, only 12 percent indicated that their organization addresses employees with "continually low Engagement regularly and often."

The following are the five biggest drawbacks of workplace Disengagement:

• Poor company morale.
• Lost productivity.
• High employee turnover.
• Financial damage.
• Eschewing ownership for Engagement.

Unfortunately, many employees eschew ownership for Engagement. This is proven by the fact that only nine percent of Actively Disengaged employees order HR Solutions' Personal Employee Engagement Report (PEER^®), which is an optional and fully-confidential report that not only reports an employee's level of Engagement (Actively Engaged, Ambivalent, or Actively Disengaged) but also makes useful subject-specific suggestions on how an employee can enhance his/her own Engagement in the workplace. For decades, there has been a missing element in the Engagement equation. PEER^® is that missing element, helping organizations build and measure Engagement more effectively and efficiently.

Disengaged employees do not believe the driving force of workplace Engagement should be shared between managers and employees. Instead, they feel their supervisor should engage them in their jobs. By refusing to take ownership of their Engagement level, disengaged employees prevent their organization's Employee Engagement initiative from succeeding. To better manage their disengaged employees, organizations should take the following steps:

• Transition Actively Disengaged employees out of their organization. Most employers allow Actively Disengaged employees to remain in the organization thereby causing infectious negativity and bad business outcomes. These employees also have a negative effect on Ambivalent employees who are then sucked down into the malaise of Disengagement. Often referred to as "vampires," Actively Disengaged employees seek out people to co-opt in terms of negativity. Most management gurus, including Jack Welch, Quint Studer, Jim Collins and Stephen Covey, agree that the odds of turning an Actively Disengaged employee into a productive, joyous and passionate Actively Engaged employee is slim to none.
• Conduct an Employee Engagement workshop to teach employees what Engagement is and how they should aspire to it. Such a workshop should also highlight the behaviors and characteristics that embody an engaged employee.
• Regularly and openly recognize employees for their efforts.
• Give incentives to employees who come up with cost-saving ideas that benefit the company's bottom line.
• Offer positive and constructive feedback to employees year-round, not just during their annual performance reviews.

Regardless of the state of the economy, disengaged employees will always be a part of the workforce. Nonetheless, organizations should create a strategic plan to manage such employees and remove those who do not make an effort to improve. With such a plan in place, organizations will be better able to attract, engage and retain the most engaged employees.