There’s a lot of talk about improving employee engagement. But does your organization watch for signs of disengagement?
Actively disengaged employees make up 17% of the workforce. They’re often great at their jobs but detached from employers and, over time, significantly impact productivity and morale.
If you’re not actively monitoring disengagement, you need to start today. To help, we’ll explore the signs and causes of disengagement — plus a 7-step plan for increasing employee engagement when your levels are low.
What is employee disengagement?
Employee disengagement is a state where employees lack motivation, commitment and enthusiasm at work. It’s the opposite of employee engagement, where people are fully invested in their jobs, coworkers and company. In contrast, disengaged employees feel unfulfilled, bored and resentful. They’re not committed to company success and feel stuck in their careers.
The costly impacts of employee disengagement
Research consistently shows disengaged employees not only perform poorly but also have a negative impact on workplace productivity. And according to Gallup, the costs are significant. Employees who are not engaged or actively disengaged cost the world a whopping $8.8 trillion in lost productivity.
That’s not all. Gallup’s research also shows engaged workers are key to business success, with employers in high engagement categories seeing 23% higher profitability, 18% better sales productivity and a 14% increase in overall employee productivity. They also see 28% less theft, 32% fewer defects in products and 64% fewer safety accidents. The biggest difference between companies with engaged employees and disengaged employees is in absenteeism, with a difference of 78% for top and bottom companies.
The ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees matters — a lot. Even a low rate of employee disengagement causes ripple effects. When one person is disengaged, it impacts the people around them. This creates a negative work environment defined by less collaboration, more conflicts and lower team performance.
Signs of employee disengagement
Disengagement happens in stages, from an initial dip in productivity to full-blown discontentment. Watching for early signs allows you to address issues before they lead to widespread problems. These include:
- Decreased productivity: One of the most obvious signs of disengagement is a sudden dip in productivity, especially among high performers.
- Poor quality work: Beyond lower productivity, a disengaged employee’s work quality may start to decline, forcing other employees to redo or correct work.
- Absenteeism: Disengaged employees tend to take more unplanned time off than engaged employees, and they may be hard to get a hold of during scheduled working hours even when they’re not taking off.
- Voluntary turnover: A high turnover rate is another telltale sign of disengagement, since disengaged employees are more likely to look for jobs elsewhere.
- Lower morale: A lack of enthusiasm and even a clearly negative attitude from disengaged employees may impact team members, resulting in noticeable shifts to team dynamics.
- Lack of initiative: Disengaged employees will often wait to be told – or demanded – to do their tasks, rather than working more autonomously or finding their own solutions to issues.
- Social isolation: Bowing out of culture-building employee team activities is often a sign an employee is disengaged.
Causes of employee disengagement
Sometimes disengagement is out of your control, especially when people suffer from burnout or discontentment due to issues in their personal lives. More often, disengagement stems from organizational issues. Common causes include:
1. Poor role alignment
When people don’t understand their roles and how their work contributes to your organization’s success, they’re less likely to be engaged. Employees need to understand how their daily tasks fit in – not just with this week’s projects, but with the entire company’s goals. If they feel their daily work is just busywork, employees are much more likely to become disengaged.
2. Too much work
Consistently overworked employees eventually burn out and start to resent leadership. As businesses try to do more with less (or with fewer workers), it’s easy for employees to get more work than they can handle. Similarly, if workloads aren’t balanced, some employees may have more tasks on their to-do lists than they can accomplish effectively.
3. Not enough work
Employees who don’t have enough to do and don’t feel challenged lose motivation and become less engaged. Managers should keep an eye out for employees who finish work more quickly than expected and realign assignments accordingly. Often, these employees are prime candidates for more responsibility or even a promotion.
4. Limited flexibility
Sticking to rigid schedules, rather than letting employees determine where and when they work best, hinders productivity and engagement. One study showed 94% of knowledge workers prefer flexibility in their schedules while 80% want flexibility in where they work. Flexibility isn’t just a perk today – it’s table stakes in getting and keeping good talent in your organization.
5. Lack of recognition
Employees who are never shown appreciation may feel their work doesn’t matter. Simply recognizing employees for their contributions keeps them engaged, even if they don’t garner big rewards. Organizations should mark major milestones and achievements, from employee tenure to project completion to hitting KPIs consistently.
6. Limited career growth opportunities
Being stuck in the same role with the same responsibilities year after year limits potential and causes resentment. Employees need training and development programs aligned with a career map to guide them along in the company. These opportunities for professional development motivate employees while keeping departments and teams moving forward.
7. Poor leadership
Without proper guidance and support, employees become frustrated and unmotivated. Managers must stay engaged in their employees’ work and watch for signs of disengagement to provide support before problems bubble up. Leaders must also model the behaviors they wish to see in their workforce, including following policies and setting good boundaries.
7 steps to re-engage disengaged employees
Disengagement doesn’t have to be a permanent problem. Follow these steps to identify the earliest signs of disengagement — and prevent them from spiraling into bigger issues.
1. Identify currently disengaged and at-risk employees
First, create a system for identifying when someone is disengaged or on the road to disengagement. Look for signs of burnout, like high workloads, limited advancement opportunities or poor work alignment. While self-reporting and simple monitoring works in some instances, employee engagement software offers more reliable, real-time data on disengagement signs. These solutions are built to reveal early signs of burnout, quiet quitting and other indicators so you know when to investigate potential disengagement. Get into the habit of regularly monitoring key workforce metrics like productivity and workload balance. That way, you’ll always know when something is off.
2. Discuss reasons for disengagement directly with employees
Next, create an environment where employees can speak openly and candidly about what’s causing disengagement, without fear of retribution. The best way to do this is to set up regular 1:1 meetings between managers and employees to discuss specific disengagement signs and find tailored solutions. This helps ensure you surface issues before they spread to entire teams. You’ll not only get to the root causes of disengagement faster, but also create a culture where employees feel valued — an additional win when it comes to boosting overall engagement levels.
3. Foster a positive culture
In addition to addressing individual symptoms of disengagement, foster a healthy work environment to prevent them from occurring in the first place. Promoting work-life balance, acknowledging extra effort and prioritizing well-being are all relatively simple, effective ways to achieve this. The more you show appreciation for employees, the more satisfied and engaged they become.
4. Address workload imbalances
Prevention is key when it comes to disengagement, as is balancing workloads to prevent overwork or underwork. Monitor workloads with productivity monitoring software to ensure no one clocks in too much (or too little). Managers need to recognize individual capacity to balance work across the team. Employee capacity can change based on training, previous workload, and even personal issues, and leaders must take all of this into account to truly balance work.
5. Improve recognition and incentives
If you don’t have an official employee recognition program, now is the time to make one. Find appropriate and regular ways to recognize employees, including official shout-outs from leaders or fellow team members, monthly or quarterly round-ups of achievements and milestones and managerial thank-yous. Amp up your program with tangible incentives like raises, bonuses, promotions or more time off and ensure employees understand how to achieve these incentives. If you already have a recognition program, survey employees to find out if you’re giving them the incentives that matter to them. Some employees may be motivated by a company tee-shirt while others prefer more time off or flexibility.
6. Offer flexible work
Many organizations are expanding flexible work options — for good reason. Giving employees a say in where and when they work measurably impacts engagement. One survey from FlexJobs showed 80% of surveyed employees would stay longer with an employer that offers flexible work arrangements. Allowing people to choose the work locations and hours that work best for them leads to more job satisfaction and helps reduce your risk of disengagement.
7. Provide opportunities for growth and development
Investing in employee training and development programs is a great way to promote high levels of engagement. Opportunities to develop skills and advance careers not only offer a sense of empowerment, but also show you value peoples’ long-term success. It’s why 94% of workers say they’d stay longer at a company that invests in helping them learn. As an added bonus, employees who get additional training will be better equipped to thrive in their roles and help the organization achieve its goals.
8. Implement wellness programs
Employee wellness programs are another effective way to prevent disengagement. Nearly 59% of employees feel stress due to workloads or difficulties juggling work and personal life. Providing access to mental health resources, subsidizing fitness centers and offering other well-being incentives makes those issues more manageable — and shows people you care about them.
Use ActivTrak to identify and address causes of employee disengagement
Employee disengagement poses significant challenges to businesses. Left unchecked, the danger to productivity, morale and your bottom line is very real — and very high. Leaders must identify the root causes of the issue to re-engage employees who are already disengaged and prevent others from disengaging in the future.
Not sure where to start? ActivTrak’s employee engagement software identifies the early signs of disengagement for you, making it easy to take action. With insights into how work gets done, you can easily assess productivity and well-being to make more informed decisions.
Request a demo to see why over 9,500 customers use ActivTrak to help teams thrive.
