In a recent email post, someone mentioned that the cost to businesses of disengaged employees is about $350 billion per year.
In another post, it was estimated that about 20% of the employees are actively disengaged; they aren’t just standing around but rather doing things like horseplay, game-playing-sabotage, and even bullying to drag the performance of the organization down. This is not only a huge loss to the business, but also a huge personal loss to these people who are so negative.
These people cause big problems by blocking the channels of communications that are so critical.
People are often reluctant to speak up in these negative environments. Ideas for improvement never surface. New employees are negatively influenced and led astray. Supervisors have a very rough time getting the people to do their work properly. Grievance rates are high and much time is wasted needlessly because these are not addressed at an early stage.
In many organizations, new employees are given a safety orientation and then go to work. The organization depends on the more senior people providing some guidance to these new people. Where there is active disengagement, this follow-up guidance is often not done so the new people try their best, but are often hurt. During the summer months this is especially serious because summer and other temporary employees are hired. These people need a lot of help, but where there is active disengagement, little help is offered and drift from business focus occurs.
When the flow of communications is blocked, the organization can easily drift into disaster. Critical information gets lost. The managers who need the feedback about how the operations are running do not get the information they need. Flying blind is not good!
In your own organizations, if you see disengaged people, begin to talk with them, share important information and ask for their help. This may be hard at first, but over time, most of these people will become more engaged. One reason that people become disengaged is because they feel ignored and under-valued.
By talking together, listening for ideas, exploring for improvements from everyone, a lot of disengaged people will begin to get involved. This is not just a one-time activity. Talking, listening, exploring together are ongoing parts of the work that pay big dividends. As leaders in your organization, you can open things up for the better.
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