Employee Engagement Programs: Signs Your Employees Are Disengaged (And What to Do About It)

How engaged are your employees?

If the response to this question is “I’m not sure.”, it could be time to develop or revise your employee engagement strategy.

Although employee involvement may significantly impact essential business goals and outcomes, we frequently hear about customer engagement.

Highly motivated workers produce:

• Greater corporate profitability and productivity
• Greater sales
• More consumer engagement, loyalty, and satisfaction

Investing in something that can provide all of those advantages is unquestionably worthwhile.

What are Employee Engagement Programs?

An employees’ level of commitment to their daily tasks and a company’s overall success is referred to as employee engagement. A positive emotional connection to the organisation and a sense of purpose in their work goes beyond employee happiness in engaged workers.

Teams with higher employee engagement saw a reduction in adverse outcomes like turnover and absenteeism and a significant boost in organisational success, according to Gallup’s 2020 study on employee engagement and performance. According to the findings, companies with strong employee engagement had 18% more sales productivity, a 10% increase in customer loyalty and attention, and a 23% increase in profitability.

To the point, organisations create employee engagement programs to specify and rank their initiatives for enhancing employee engagement. It allows for identifying the primary determinants of employee engagement, determining the employees’ pain spots, and developing specialised efforts to address those pain points.

All this to say: Every organisation would benefit from concentrating on employee engagement programs.

5 Signs Your Employees Are Disengaged (And What to Do About It)

1. Breaks From Routine

Employees who are engaged have predictable behaviour and are reliable. It’s important to check more closely when patterns change, such as when a once-loud meeting participant becomes quiet or when a top performer’s deadlines are missed. Although it might be a stretch, one of my bosses thought a significant hairdo change was unsettling. It’s time to look into it and start a conversation to get an explanation when someone shows signs of change.

2. A Decline In Work Quality; Missed Deadlines

A drop in productivity or quality of work, as well as a pattern of arriving late or missing deadlines, are two of the most obvious indications of disengagement. When symptoms continue, HR should speak with the employee immediately to find out what’s causing them. If it’s the outcome of disengagement, management ought to consult with the person in question to identify what’s required for re-engagement.

3. Exhaustion, Cynicism, Inefficiency

Long-term burnout, which shows up as fatigue, cynicism, and inefficiency, can lead to disengagement. These workers may have once been active , but lack the means to safeguard their wellbeing. Describe how a person’s health may affect their capacity to recover from burnout. When someone has been operating at maximum capacity for too long, encourage management to reduce their duties.

4. An Apathetic Approach

Apathy or a lack of commitment on the part of an employee is almost always a tell-tale sign that they are disengaged and probably looking to leave. Apathy can be identified by a person’s unwillingness to take part in constructive disagreement, lack of interest in presenting or defending their viewpoints, failure to follow through on promises (not doing what they said they would do), and unwillingness to accept responsibility.

5. Complacency

Complacency is a clear indicator of disengagement amongst workers. Before complete disengagement becomes a problem, managers and employees must have open, two-way discussions about performance, expectations, and general attitude. There are many reasons why people experience complacency, but excellent leaders can assist in identifying the underlying problem and developing a workable solution through open dialogues.

How to Create a Plan for Your Employee Engagement

1. Identify the purpose for which your business exists

Before putting an employee engagement plan into action, a firm must articulate and define its values. Employee engagement increases when they identify with the organisation’s goals, ideals, and priorities.

Start by outlining the mission, guiding principles, immediate and long-term goals, and your business’s steps to improve its brand positioning. Why was the company established, and what principles does it uphold in dealing with clients, suppliers, and the neighbourhood? What qualities do you want in employees?

Employees should be able to articulate and be motivated by the goals and ideals of the company.

2. Review the employee engagement survey results

To create an action plan, you must determine what motivates and engages your workforce. It comprises analysing the survey data to identify your company’s advantages and disadvantages and potential growth areas. To understand the underlying causes and, most importantly, what is effective and ineffective, you must ascertain what motivates employee engagement.

Because they have a significant impact on employee engagement, we should take the following elements into account:

• Learning and growth opportunities
• Promotion procedures
• Parental leave policy
• Health insurance
• Communication norms
• Frequency and type of employee rewards and recognition
• Meaningful work
• Hands-on management
• Supportive work atmosphere

Instead of focusing on the grades, consider the employee feedback you received. Note any trends or recurring topics in the question categories. Managers should discuss the results with their teams. Employee engagement surveys seek to improve a firm, not to make it appear suitable.

Regular meetings, focus groups, and business events can help you learn more about your employees’ engagement.

3. Decide what you would like to alter

It would help to choose the area where you want to focus your efforts. Review the data and determine the top priorities for more research. Start by focusing on two or three points. Making use of these key points can help you develop concrete takeaways.

Consider:

• Which survey findings have the most impact on employee engagement?
• What areas did we do the worst in?
• Which results could we enhance with a few modest adjustments?
• Brainstorm solutions

Identify potential barriers to fixing the issues you’ve found, and then propose solutions. You can better focus your efforts by gathering the team to review the situation. For each of the focus areas you’ve created, create focus groups.

Look for ways to promote a creative and open debate, perhaps by using design thinking principles. Teams can challenge presumptions, consider other viewpoints, and reframe obstacles as chances. Go over your meeting notes and the focus group meetings, and start brainstorming ideas for improving each emphasis area. List as many concepts as possible, then discuss the ones the group finds most appealing.

Learn more about the connections between a given programme and the requirements and priorities of your organisation.

To avoid overspending or a poor return on investment, it’s also crucial to have a concept of the cost estimate (including hidden expenditures).

4. Improve the core element of employee engagement – communication

Once your employee engagement plan has been implemented, concisely inform your team of its progress. Explain to your staff how to use the employee appreciation programme we used as an example and its value and advantages, and allow senior managers to urge staff members to use it regularly.

Any project aimed at increasing employee engagement must, in general, be successful through open communication.

Peer-to-peer and peer-to-management communication should be encouraged by your organisation. One strategy to improve communication is to hold more meetings with employees to discuss tasks and establish priorities. Management may also support employee presentations, in which managers and non-managers give weekly talks on various themes.

Create brand ambassadors who will motivate their colleagues. They help employees relate their job to a larger context by sharing the company’s mission, values, and messaging.

7 Benefits of Employee Engagement Programs

Employee engagement is crucial for several reasons, not the least because it has numerous advantages. In addition to benefits for individuals, teams, and supervisors, there are benefits for the entire organisation.

1. Improved team performance

The team benefits from employee involvement as much as the individual employees. This is since motivated employees to work harder. Additionally, a team that includes motivated personnel works more effectively.

Additionally, employee morale can spread. Team members are more likely to feel invested in their role when surrounded by motivated, driven colleagues who care about their work. Team engagement is influenced by individual performance, and particular arrangements enhance team performance.

2. Enhanced labour productivity

Employees who are highly engaged work harder and more effectively. Why? Since they have a personal stake in the position, they care about how well they do it. They are responsible for their contribution and align with the team’s and the company’s goals. This translates to higher team productivity.

3. Lower turnover rates and improved staff retention

Employee loyalty is essential if you want to develop a high-performing team. Teams find it challenging to produce their best work when members come and go frequently. When long-term employees depart, they leave behind priceless information and experience. Then, it takes a lot of time, effort, and money to train new employees.

A devoted employee who is engaged and satisfied with their work is less likely to leave. Therefore, having more involved employees strengthens, expands, and improves the capability of your team to achieve goals.

4. Achieving team objectives

Speaking of achieving goals, employee engagement is crucial to the performance and accomplishments of your team. It’s only natural for you to concentrate on your team’s objectives as a manager. However, when you turn your attention to employee engagement, it directly and favourably affects your goals.

It would be best if you had team members who share your goal to get you there. And they will if they are enthusiastic about their work and supportive of your strategy.

5. Less absenteeism amongst employees

An additional advantage of staff engagement? Employees that are engaged arrive on time. Disengaged employees are more prone to miss work days and be less completely present when they are present. However, it is simpler to innovate, achieve objectives, and perform at their best level when your team not only shows up every day but also shows up engaged, enthusiastic, and ready to work.

6. Less workplace stresses

Both engaged and disengaged workers might experience workplace stress. Depending on degrees of engagement, the effects of that stress can vary, but managers also have a significant impact.

Some work-related stress is probably easier to manage for engaged individuals with supportive bosses, and it might even serve as motivation. The support is crucial since they know they are not the only ones suffering difficulties in addition to being committed.

On the other hand, once high levels of engagement are dropped, it can result in stress that is harmful to people’s health. Furthermore, this is particularly true when workers don’t feel supported. People cannot perform at their best when under the pressure of their jobs.

7. Lower risk of burnout

One of the major problems facing today’s employment is employee burnout, which the World Health Organisation defines as an “occupational phenomenon…resulting from persistent working stress that has not been adequately handled.”

Burnout has significant repercussions for workers, your team, and your company when it happens to employees. The bad news is burnout. The good news, though? They are less likely to burnout if you keep your staff interested in their work and keep an eye on the stress levels on your team.

5 Successful Employee Engagement Initiatives Used by Top Companies

1. Provide well-planned company offsite or getaways

Think about planning team-building exercises for your staff. We understand if the idea of practising trust falls over the weekend made you roll your eyes.

Team outings and offsite have a poor reputation for being a day of unpleasant activities with individuals you’d rather not interact with. In one study, one-third of the participants said that the team-building exercises either didn’t fit with the business culture or made them feel awkward or humiliated.

Well-planned team-building exercises are a terrific way to motivate workers, foster relationships between teams, and develop trust.

Companies have concentrated on redesigning team-building activities to get more out of them. Companies increasingly plan more enjoyable and natural team-building activities like cooking lessons, fencing, and even sumo wrestling in place of manufactured games. One team-building event provider, for instance, planned a cooking class where participants were split into various groups.

Each group was tasked with preparing a particular course for the team’s supper. They were given a deadline, a long list of supplies, and no instructions. They had to adjust to each other’s working methods immediately, accept that they were all “take charge” types, and collaborate in preparing the meal.

However, because the only need was to prepare lunch, could do everything in a light-hearted, low-pressure environment. Businesses like Facebook must go above and beyond when creating team-building exercises. They draw some of the most gifted individuals from all over the world, and these folks don’t have a lot of patience for pointless games.

Instead, these businesses design incredibly exciting and engaging experiences. Interactive games are one form of expertise they provide, and they have successfully enticed staff members from the marketing, law, and engineering departments. This includes pursuits like contests for the best music video or adventure games with an espionage theme. The objective is to design enjoyable team-based activities that value the members’ intelligence.

To put it another way, an enjoyable activity doesn’t always have to be juvenile.

2. Create clear professional advancement strategies and mentoring opportunities

Companies that support their employees’ professional development tend to retain them longer. According to a survey, 94% of workers would stay with a company that provides excellent prospects for promotion.

This is easier said than done. Some businesses provide promos as a carrot, but they don’t always give them out. Others are constantly shifting the goalposts or are evasive about performance expectations.

This is a poor choice.

During the previous recession, businesses that ranked in the top 10% for employee engagement and career prospects saw profit increases of 26% as opposed to comparable companies that saw a reduction of 14%.

How are leading businesses setting up their prospects for professional growth?

Employees at Mastercard can rotate jobs as soon as they start working there. Additionally, Mastercard actively assists employees in mapping out their career pathways and trajectories and provides tools to aid in identifying the unique talents they require.

Consider the most crucial skills for your business and design training programmes that will enable ambitious staff members to contribute more. All employees should have clear professional development plans, and management and HR staff should take them seriously. Finally, give internal hiring top priority. This encourages staff members to develop their abilities while working for your business.

3. Express your gratitude to your staff in outward displays

66% of workers said they would leave a job if they didn’t feel valued. Some businesses opt to express their gratitude by providing employee benefits. For instance, a fruit basket at the workplace or complimentary breakfast on Mondays are nice touches.

Shouting specific employees for going above and above is a beautiful additional approach to express your gratitude for their work. Using an 8 × 10 glass picture frame, they dubbed the Appreciation Board; Legal Monkeys discovered a way to demonstrate employee appreciation throughout the workweek naturally. Employees physically deliver messages of gratitude to their co-workers, who then keep the note on their desks until they are ready to pass it on to someone else.

The claim that employee appreciation programmes are coerced is among the most common objections. For people to recognise your contribution, it should be natural and routine while also being obvious.

4. Promote and finance actual vacations

The number of Malaysians who don’t take their allotted vacation days is over 40%. Several factors contribute to this. Some workers are concerned that their bosses will think less of them if they take a week off. Others worry that without them, things will crumble.

Others believe that they will no longer receive the exciting assignments once they return from their trip. In actuality, employees don’t even use their vacation days when their employers encourage them to or when they grant unlimited time off. Receiving praise for providing vacation time without employees departing may sound like a gain for firms, but it isn’t.

Skipping vacations increases the likelihood of your team members being less productive, overworked, and occasionally burned out.

What can you then do?

This tactic demonstrates to your staff that you value them as people, not merely as interchangeable parts in a machine. It reflects your concern for their happiness and mental wellness at your company. It’s also a terrific tactic because it demonstrates how a business backs up its claims. To encourage your team to take a holiday is one thing. Paying them to do so is a different matter.

5. Provide flexible working hours for your staff

Work is shifting from the old “butt in seat” perspective. It is unfair to expect employees working from home on the weekends and evenings to be present in person from 9 to 5.

Many dedicated workers strive to improve in their professions. However, they also desire some flexibility to drop off and pick up their children from school and spend time with their families. And it ought to be accessible. Your employees deserve the freedom to work till midnight even if they have to leave at 3 p.m. for an hour to take their children to the doctor.

Numerous firms are beginning to appreciate the benefits of flexible work schedules, particularly in the professional services sector. However, just providing these flexible work schedules is insufficient. This is crucial. Because they work flexibly, 30% of employees believe they are treated less favourably at work.

In other words, a poorly managed flexible working plan won’t significantly aid your efforts to increase employee engagement. However, if it’s a well-planned programme, it can raise employee job satisfaction levels.

Although Dell has a flexible work programme, they have spent time and effort ensuring their employees have the resources and support they need to work flexibly. There was an informal flexible working environment before 2009 (when the company started developing a comprehensive, flexible working programme), but there was no set framework. Without a clear structure, employees find it difficult to determine whether such a “perk” is appropriate for them. Dell ensured a transparent evaluation process that held all employees to the same standard and provided the proper technology and collaboration tools. Dell might prevent the impression that two tiers of employees are evaluated differently in this way.

7 Secrets to Boosting Employee Engagement

1. Create strategic refuelling breaks

In anxious circumstances, mistakes are expected, and your staff members might do their all to remedy them. To recoup that energy, offer opportunities for “recharge breaks” between zoom meetings and after a busy day. Your staff members will be able to return to work with total commitment. They can take short breaks to compose themselves before undertaking more significant projects, which will keep them motivated over time.

2. Host meditation and mindfulness sessions

Meditation can relieve stress, which benefits the body and mind. It enables people to regain their energy and attention, two qualities necessary for productive work. You can set up mindfulness training for your staff and implement a fitness incentive programme. This will encourage them to put in their best effort, reducing tension. Your team becomes highly resilient and engaged as a result.

3. Support fitness / Wellness meetups

Having a sedentary lifestyle at home with minimal exercise might harm your health. Your virtual employees may experience stress and mood fluctuations as a result. It may impair their concentration, which will negatively impact the standard of their work. Positive effects of exercise include mood enhancement, better sleep, anxiety relief, increased attention, and higher-quality work.

4. Hold a game competition after work

Online gaming is prevalent, especially when done with friends. It gives them a way to release their stress and anxiety. Your employees can have fun and forget work-related concerns by participating in a direct online gaming competition. On a day when people are at work, you can have a gaming competition and require everyone to attend. These enjoyable activities will improve the general health of your employees.

5. Streamline peer-to-peer relations

The workplace is a fantastic place to communicate, socialise, and share ideas. This socialising culture is disrupted when workers work from home, making it more challenging for them to communicate successfully. Managers can intervene in several ways to address this problem. You can hold regular online gatherings where everyone can participate and speak with one another. Your employees can connect and socialise using Aerobodies communication solutions like the Workforce Wakeup SystemTM. This will go a long way toward solving the issue.

6. Create chances to connect with people and retention

Keep the lines of communication open with your staff. Ideally, it would help if you talked to them every day. Even if you don’t have anything to talk about today, sending a simple “Good Afternoon” message throughout the week will still be effective. It will remind them that you are always available to support them during this trying time.

7. Offer fresh opportunities

Some employees wish to finish school, find a new hobby or talent, buy a new automobile, or improve their homes. You might lend a hand to them by encouraging them in these pursuits. Employers can cover some of these costs as a thank you for their contributions to the company. There are alternative methods to help your staff if your business lacks the resources to do so monetarily.

To rekindle an employee’s enthusiasm in their career, managers might assist them in finding mentors, sponsors, or co-workers willing to offer shadowing opportunities or resource use. You can offer them more time off or flexible hours to help them take care of the things they need to do. People will be more motivated, and their sense of work security will grow.

Unlock the Best of Your Employees With Engage Life Employee Engagement Programs

In conclusion, a lack of employee engagement is a persistent problem for all employers. It is crucial, especially during times of high stress like the post-epidemic, to design a pipeline of strategic experiences and energising engagements to restore the vitality and wellbeing of your workplace culture. Employers who actively develop opportunities to enhance their employees’ lives and interests will succeed in keeping a more adaptable, engaged staff in both the short- and long-term economies.

Check out our newest service at Engage Life, a professional and engaging program to instantly engage your teams and workplace culture in fewer days if you’re seeking more creative methods to boost employee engagement.