Unhappy at work? You’re not alone

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/03/2016 (3510 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Would you know one if you saw one? I mean those disgruntled workers so frequently found in our workplaces. Just what are they doing?

For one thing, a disengaged worker typically exhibits anger and unhappiness no matter what change is made to accommodate them. They are chronic complainers who don’t like their job, they don’t like their boss and they blame everyone else around them. You’ll recognize a disengaged employee because they show little or no enthusiasm and certainly don’t volunteer to step out of their job boundaries to help anyone else.

A disengaged worker shows little or no initiative and simply waits for someone to tell them what to do. Then, while waiting for instructions or more work assignments, they are often secretly scouting the shopping channels and/or playing Internet solitaire. Of course, they quickly switch back to an appropriate-looking document when the boss is nearby. They have no interest in career progression and won’t do anything to upgrade themselves. Finally, the disengaged worker is often the last to arrive at work and the first to pack up for home before quitting time.

I certainly know a disengaged worker when I see one, but I still find it rather incredible that research studies are continuing to report that at least 50.8 per cent of employees are not engaged, while only 17.2 per cent are actively disengaged.

This is alarming.

So, is this the true cause of those low productivity scores reported by economists? If so, what should we do about it?

Let’s step back for a moment and talk about how employee engagement is defined.

Human-resources researchers refer to it as an employee’s willingness and emotional commitment to doing their job to the best of their ability and sometimes going beyond their job description for the good of their organization.

Three key forces are known to typically drive employee engagement. The first driver is the employee’s relationship with their direct manager, so it is rather shocking to learn 80 per cent of disengaged workers report dissatisfaction with their manager.

What does that say about leadership and management in our organizations?

Secondly, more than 70 per cent of disengaged employees state a lack of trust and belief in the abilities of their senior leader. As you might expect, this distrust of leaders leads to distrust of the strategic direction being promoted by senior leadership.

Interestingly, in spite of a lack of trust, at least 54 per cent of study participants were still proud of and loyal to their organization. All in all, the studies reinforce the belief that employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers/leaders.

Still, there are often other contributing factors to employee disengagement. These include a worker’s inability to fulfil their primary job duties in the time allotted, attendance at wasteful meetings and too many managers giving direction. As well, there is often poor job-task allocation between colleagues, resulting in role confusion. S

Others report a lack of understanding of the employer’s vision, as well as being caught in the fallout from interdepartmental conflict.

Yet at the same time, research shows employee engagement is considered one of the biggest contributors to overall productivity and company profitability.

For instance, Gallop, the well-known survey company, has conducted multiple “meta-analysis” employee-engagement studies over the years. They found that employee engagement was consistently connected to customer satisfaction, profitability, productivity, turnover, safety incidents, shrinkage, absenteeism and quality and defects. Profitability for those with high employee-engagement rates was typically about 22 per cent above average.

However, since employee engagement is strongly correlated to an individual’s psychological state of mind rather than a technical skill, it is not easy for management to turn things around, especially if more than one employee is disengaged. In this case, the entire morale and culture of the organization is negatively affected.

While I don’t purport to have all the answers, the following are some tips to help you get started to prevent employee disengagement.

Leadership assessment — since employees leave managers versus their company, it’s important to start at this point. Take time to examine the affect your leadership style is having on employee engagement. Apply psychometric assessments for each of your leaders, identify the strengths and areas of challenge, then create a map of the attributes of your senior team. What is the skill capability with respect to coaching employees versus policing for failure?

Make the tough decisions — in many cases, once employee engagement hits rock bottom, one or more leaders/managers must be transitioned out of the organization or else change will not occur. These are tough decisions, but they must be made. Determine new success criteria for the updated leadership style in the restructured leadership team and recruit the skills you need. Don’t forget to conduct the psychometric assessments so skill and personality gaps are filled and all team capabilities are measured and matched to your new desired culture.

Ensure consistency — conduct an organization review in totality and/or at least in the departments where new leadership is required. This gives you an opportunity to determine earlier system failures, identify the pockets of employee discontent and/or the inconsistent application of processes or policies that will enable you to set specific culture building goals for the new leadership.

Engagement activities — there are numerous activities that can be undertaken, but communication is key, especially helping employees understand where the company is going and how they fit into this goal. Trust-building activities also need to be key. Ask for employee input and suggestions, and you’ll be surprised how those front-line workers can contribute new ideas to increase processes and productivity. Go back to simple activities such as lunch and learn, a suggestion box, management by walking around and fun reward-and-recognition strategies. Celebrate milestones frequently.

Nip gossip in the bud — leaders get busy and forget employees are watching their every move. So when a change of direction is going to occur, understand there will be a lot of rumours. Quell the rumours as soon as possible by sharing what you can, but be honest. Where possible, use question and answer sheets so that all managers are sharing the same message. While every employee may not agree, understanding often brings about acceptance. Build a culture of openness.

Employee-engagement statistics are continuing to show continuing challenges, so it is time every leader take a look at what’s happening in their organization.

There are several assessment tools in the marketplace to identify your issues. However, the key is to do something with your information. Asking for employee opinion and then failing to take steps to rectify the challenges identified will guarantee your engagement project will fail.

This is a leap year, so you have an extra day to get it right! Go for it.

Barbara J. Bowes, FCHRP, M.Ed., CCP is president of Legacy Bowes Group and is an author, executive coach, career specialist and professional speaker. She can be reached at barb@legacybowes.com