According to research, over two-thirds of American employees are disengaged from their work. This lack of engagement impacts culture and the bottom-line. Inspire your management team to re-engage your employees for their own and the company’s benefit.
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John hates his job. He is miserable. He feels like he’s one cog in an enormous wheel that turns for the company’s bigwigs. John has felt this way for years, but has given up on finding anything better. The paycheck is the only thing John works for, and he does enough work to keep it coming.
He feels invisible and even kind of likes the fact that his manager doesn’t seem to notice him. What’s all this talk of job satisfaction and engagement? John favors “keeping his head low” and enjoying his interests outside of work.
WHAT DISENGAGEMENT LOOKS LIKE
This may sound crazy, but Johns are more common than you think. According to Gallup’s 2017 State of the American Workplace, “The American workforce has more than 100 million full-time employees. One-third, or 33%, of those employees are what Gallup calls engaged at work. They love their jobs and make their organization and America better every day. At the other end, 16% of employees are actively disengaged — they are miserable in the workplace and destroy what the most engaged employees build. The remaining 51% of employees are not engaged — they’re just there.”
The research year after year demonstrates that well over 66% of our employees are “zombie” workers. These disengaged employees show up, put in their hours, do the minimum amount required to keep their jobs, and go home feeling unsatisfied and frustrated.
DO THE WORK OF ENGAGEMENT
Think of your own team now, and the level of engagement you get from various team members. Does the research above ring true for your team? Now think of your team’s current work output…and imagine what it could be if you re-engaged your team.
Business leaders like you want teams of engaged employees. Employees are looking for jobs that engage and bring meaning to their work. So if leaders want engagement and employees want to be engaged, why are we failing in this regard? The answer is that leaders need to inspire managers to do the work of engagement.
Do the work of engagement? What does that mean?
There are actions leaders should practice daily to improve their team’s engagement. Some of these may feel awkward at first, but over time, you’ll reap the benefits of your work.
BECOME ENGAGED YOURSELF
Discover what role your team plays in making the business successful. It’s one thing to be able to recite the mission and vision statements of the company. To live the mission is quite another. Are you enthusiastic about the work your team contributes to the company? Become authentic in the way you lead by encompassing and living the mission and vision.
KNOW YOUR TEAM MEMBERS
How well do you know your employees? What are they passionate about? What are their interests outside of work? What expertise do they bring to the job? Spend time with them and get to know what motivates them. Engaged employees don’t feel like they must choose between work or life. They feel like their work supports their life. Managers engage employees by supporting the whole person, including who they are inside and outside of work.
INCREASE AND IMPROVE YOUR COMMUNICATION
If your employees aren’t hearing from you regularly, they assume you’ve forgotten about them. Do you have regular one-on-one meetings to discuss goals and progress? Are you easily accessible if an employee has a question about a project? Do your employees see you as a resource more so than “a boss”? While you have your own workload to complete, consider how accessible you are to your employees. Build in some time every week to briefly check in with your team, or let them know you’re available at certain times.
INCREASE YOUR PERSONAL FEEDBACK
Assume that employees want to perform well. Research shows that everyone wants to improve. We hold employees back by not providing critical information to let them know how to improve and remind them that they are a valuable member of our team. Take the time to meet with employees and provide feedback that will help them excel and remain challenged and engaged.
PLAN FOR SUCCESS
Employees know when the organization is just drifting along. Engage the team in planning for strategic initiatives. Let them see how their work impacts the mission and vision of the company. By engaging them in the plans, you get buy-in and commitment toward measurable goals and action steps. As a manager with a plan, you can see clearly how to support each team member in these initiatives.
INVEST IN TEAM MEMBER DEVELOPMENT
Demonstrate your commitment to your employees with a written development plan designed by and for each team member. This may include training or courses for certifications. At the same time, individual development may involve challenging assignments and work experiences that are generated with the employee’s strengths and weaknesses in mind, in order to help them improve and excel.
MANAGERS CREATE THE ENVIRONMENT
Patrick Lencioni, in The Truth About Employee Engagement, focuses his work on the three signs of a miserable job: invisibility, irrelevance, and immeasurement. Every manager when fully engaged can create an environment where . . .
- Employees become visible by being known and knowing others. Employees disengage when they feel no one really cares about them. So, a genuine manager who takes a heartfelt interest in each team member engages employees.
- Employees become relevant by understanding who they serve. When an employee understand how they can best help others inside and outside the organization, they’ll seek more ways to. An effective manager helps employees appreciate who they are helping and how to most effectively do so.
- Employees become more engaged when they see progress. Measurement allows us all to assess our progress or success on the job. Sometimes, this feels unpredictable. Active managers find ways to connect closely aligned measurables to the daily activities of each role on the team. The goal is for each employee to connect to and understand their progress.
Managers are the key to engagement. While one tool to help improve employee engagement, programs and enthusiastic motivational speakers hardly last for the day. As a manager, you are the difference maker and you can improve engagement every day.
Have you tried these tactics in the past? How did they work for you? I’m always interested to learn ways managers improve the engagement of their team.
