Employees can make or break your business. The fact that they are the bloodline of any business amplifies this power further. Ignoring their needs and preferences is akin to destroying what you’ve worked so hard to achieve. However, with that said, inspiring and engaging employees is not a walk in the park. Afterall, they’re humans, and their demands and preferences change like the time of day.
This all boils down to relationships and communication between managers and employees. If there’s a lack of motivation and communication, engagement levels plummet which directly means that your business suffers in turn.
An aligned and engaged team is a dream for any company. But how do you make it happen? How do you know if your company is suffering from disengagement?
This article is a discourse of the main problems generated by low employee engagement. Check to see if your company is going through any of the following challenges. It might be a sign of employee disengagement.
Decreased Productivity
When disengaged, employees will stop going above and beyond expectations and will simply put a minimal amount of effort into the work they do. They will be slow to complete projects and will very rarely put themselves forward for extra work.
Your company can’t move forward without a productive workforce. Managers often use productivity as a benchmark when evaluating employees’ individual significance to the company. But they learn the hard way that productivity suffers if there’s no effective employee engagement strategy in place. Keeping employees on task is hard when they’re not engaged in their work.
For disengaged employees, work ends up becoming an obligation, time does not pass and procrastination becomes the reality. Time management is impaired, tasks accumulate, and performance is far below the rates expected by the company.
Without a decent probe into the matter, most employers may perceive this as typical laziness. However, it might not be, as a disengaging work environment can turn even the brightest and most diligent employee into an apathetic layabout.
High Turnover Rate
Turnover is the aggregate of worker replacements in a given period at a given workplace. According to Catalyst, the total global quit rates for all industries was 27.9%, If you’re an HR manager, you might look at that number and compare it to your company’s rate and make a simple calculation: if your number is lower, you’re doing great, but if it’s higher, you need to find out where you miscued.
Workers are supposed to feel at home around each other and their employers. Even your longest-standing employees won’t stay there for very long if they aren’t happy. The lack of employee engagement makes them feel less and less as a part of the organization. The low amenity yield generates discontent with the results. After that, comes the regular exchange of employees, which causes a high turnover rate.
A high turnover rate is expensive. Think about the time, money, and energy that goes into onboarding new employees. If people end up leaving after they’re hired, it’s a lot of work with no payoff. Usually, these problems stem from a lack of engagement. People who don’t feel connected to their work have little reason to stick around. If offered a position elsewhere, they’ll bolt out without second-guessing.
Recent data from Work Institute’s Retention Report 2020 estimates that it costs as much as 33% of a worker’s annual salary to replace them, a total of $630 billion annually. If employees churn within the first year, a company can face annual losses of over £11,200 per employee. Take into consideration that disengaged employees are four times more likely to churn, and these costs skyrocket.
Disengagement Costs You Money
As a mentor and leader in your company, you don’t want your employees to feel unhappy or disconnected. Issues related to employee disengagement extend much further than just how they feel, though.
Disengagement not only looks bad, but it also costs you money. A disengaged workforce incurs immense financial costs to a business. According to Forbes, the average annual salary in the United States is about $47,000. A single disengaged employee at this average salary level is going to cost you almost $16,000 per year.
This amount is divided into three metrics namely:
- Absenteeism costs
- Recruitment Costs
- Training Costs
Needless to say, financial losses have drastic effects on a company’s bottom line. The losses incurred are much higher than the cost of creating an engaging environment at work.
Poor Quality Of Products And Services
Along with providing great customer service, pushing out benchmark products and services is a top priority. This is the most direct route towards building an audience. Great products and services come from great employees, which is why you should hire the right people in the first place.
Engaged employees will put their hearts and soul into the work they do. Disengaged employees will not. You will see that the quality of disengaged employees’ products decreases considerably. They will stop checking their work and will put less effort into it in the first place.
Depending on the department in which the disengaged employee is in, it can cause errors in an entire production chain. That is why a gamified working experience is best suited to increase engagement at work. Departments and individuals get to compete based on product quality and service provision.
But, even the most dedicated and dependable employees will fail to produce when suffering from employee disengagement. If people aren’t engaged, you’ll have nothing worthwhile to offer to customers and clients. If you notice a decline in the quality of products and services, it is only wise to check the engagement levels before the situation aggravates.
Toxic Work Environment
You should never ignore disengaged employees. It may only be a couple of people at first, but disengagement is eminently contagious. It will spread throughout the company. Bad attitudes rub off on people, and things get worse if you don’t address the issue immediately.
Coexistence among people in the organization becomes toxic and unsustainable. Conflicts become routine in day-to-day work and, finally, they may even begin to harm each other’s work. This opens up a Pandora’s box that ultimately leads to low productivity and a whole lot of other issues in the workplace.
Increased Absenteeism
Absenteeism is the most noticeable challenge you might face when your employees are just going through the motions. Employees who are disengaged will constantly call in sick. Occasional absenteeism may not be necessarily a bad sign, but once patterns start forming, it’s time to take action and apply some new employee engagement ideas.
For instance, M&S, a leading British multinational retailer conducted an annual employee engagement survey that revealed that absence levels in their stores that sit in the top quartile of engagement scores were 25% lower than those in the bottom quartile. That just proves the connection.
You may see lots of, “unplanned absences”, from employees who simply just don’t want to come in. When employees don’t show up to work on a regular basis, it’s time to dig out the bones.
Lack of innovation
As stated earlier, the lack of employee engagement affects productivity, decreases communication, increases turnover, creates an unhealthy working environment, and lowers quality of work.
This means that people and the company do not endeavour to innovate in various fields, be it technology, processes or solutions. Stagnation becomes routine and everyone ends up stuck in time, while other companies take advantage of the moment to gain a competitive edge in the market.
With new ideas, comes an increase in the quality of products, improved customer service, and increased sales. However, all these benefits come with a small price, engagement. An alluring workplace is more likely to be a hub of innovation.
You may think you have the best of employees, but everyone is capable of improvement. When staff members get better at what they do, the entire organization benefits. Learning new skills requires motivation and employee motivation comes from high engagement levels. This is just one more reason to focus on improving employee engagement in the workplace.
Engagement is built day after day, with positive attitudes, and with a collective effort. There are plenty of reasons why you can’t afford to lose employee engagement. The above examples just scratch the surface. Many of these can spell disaster for your organization, and their repercussions can be long-lasting.
You owe it to yourself to have engaged, happy, and ready-to-perform employees. This is where engagement platforms like Aspirly come in handy. The gamification of the working environment provides a big boost in engaging employees. There will always be factors you can’t control, but focusing on those you can control will make a difference. Be there for your employees and create an engaging work environment for them to thrive within. Reach out to us now and let’s take things to the next level.