If you want to win in the marketplace, transform your workplace through employee engagement.
The next time you’re sitting in a meeting with five colleagues, consider that only one or two of you are truly committed to the team and giving their best, three are looking for their next job. One seems constantly unhappy and spends too much time spreading rumors and finding reasons not to work.
That’s what it looks like according to Gallup’s findings published in the 2024 State of the Global Workplace report. The report found that worldwide, 23% of employees feel engaged, 15% are actively disengaged and 52% are either looking for or actively seeking new jobs. The engagement numbers in the US are only marginally better.
What is disengagement costing you?
What is disengagement costing your organization? Even if you’re not counting the financial impact yet, you can feel the impact of a toxic work environment and a dysfunctional culture. There may be growing confusion of purpose and frustration with the lack of progress on initiatives, leading to dissatisfaction in the work and company. That, in turn, can lead to increased turnover, making it harder to retain good people.
For business leaders who are focused on KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and the hard numbers driving their company’s results, the discussions about people and their feelings may seem less important or even irrelevant. However, it’s the hard numbers that show us the connection between fulfilling people’s workplace needs and creating higher levels of performance.
- Increased profits. According to a study conducted by the UK government, companies with a highly engaged workforce experienced an average growth of 19.2% in operating income. Another study found engaged companies grow profits as much as three times faster than their competitors.
- Improved retention. The Corporate Leadership Council studied the engagement of 50,000 employees around the world and found that highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave the organization. This has a direct impact on reducing hiring and replacement costs, business continuity, and levels of productivity.
- Reduced losses. A study by McLean & Company found a disengaged employee costs an organization approximately $3,400 for every $10,000 in annual salary. According to Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report, low employee engagement costs the global economy $8.9 trillion annually, which is roughly 9% of the world’s GDP.
If companies want to bolster productivity and profitability, increase customer loyalty, and slash attrition and disengagement losses, they must engage their employees. Ultimately, it is the role of leadership to create the environment needed to harness the true power of engagement. Engaging leaders can turn a toxic and disengaged workplace into a thriving environment with higher levels of commitment and performance.
Addressing the unsupported needs of a support services team
A few years ago, I was asked by a client to help them deal with growing problems in their administrative services team. This was a disparate group of shared support and service departments that were all brought under one umbrella as a single “team.”
Although the team was powering through and meeting their productivity goals, it was coming at a cost. There was significant staff turnover and growing attendance issues, with team members missing work and calling in sick regularly. There were breakdowns in communication and a growing distrust of others as individuals and groups fought over limited resources.
Clearly there were signs of bigger problems brewing just under the surface of this “functioning team,” and the vice president responsible for the combined departments was ignoring all of them.
Reporting to the vice president, fortunately, were four directors who realized the severity of the problems. After spending some time meeting with these department heads and other key members within the group, it became evident that the visible friction points and vocalized frustrations were only the tip of the iceberg. These fears were confirmed once we surveyed the entire team across all departments.
The results showed a lack of trust and team spirit that resulted in difficulties with handling conflict effectively. The lack of psychological safety limited people from expressing their thoughts openly and offering assistance beyond their immediate area of responsibility.
This limited sense of shared responsibility and prevailing “it’s-not-my-job” thinking restricted this group of individuals from growing and developing as a cohesive team. The lowest scores, though, pointed to the disappointment of team members not feeling valued and appreciated for the work they each did by the broader organization and senior leadership.
Engaging the team to find solutions
To address the many issues, we designed a series of interactive workshops, supplemented by action learning at a local ropes course and activity center, to improve emotional intelligence and increase trust between team members.
In these sessions, we explored different styles and preferences of work and communication, allowing participants to move from simple acknowledgment and awareness of their differences to a greater understanding of self and others and then to value the differences and contributions of others.
We dedicated time to exploring the team’s purpose and the kind of workplace they wanted to have. This led us to articulate a new vision statement and a set of shared core values that everyone could embrace and own. This helped further strengthen the connection between team members and allowed for greater ownership and personal accountability of the vision and the environment they wanted to create.
Finally, we designed a simple note card that would easily allow team members to acknowledge others for something they felt made a difference to them personally or positively impacted the team or the institution.
Each week, we would read and acknowledge team members and those who nominated them, showing we valued them through the recognition of their peers and their manager for their contribution.
Within six months, we saw very noticeable improvements in all the key areas we targeted: employee satisfaction and engagement went up, turnover and unscheduled absences went down and the overall favorable impression of the department from within and from the other departments at the college grew exponentially. What we couldn’t change was the VP who was responsible for the department — and, unfortunately, many of the problems.
Leverage the 4 drivers of engagement
The balancing act that an engaging leader needs to perform is igniting the fire in their team without burning it out. But since instant combustion isn’t always possible, leaders may have to connect the dots and leverage the Four Drivers of Engagement to ensure team members feel valued, connected, productive and supported.
- By showing appreciation and rewarding desired behavior and results, people feel valued and acknowledged.
- By showing the connection between the work of each member and the bigger picture, people feel connected to each other and the shared mission.
- By showing how each task, decision, and result impacts the overall performance, people can feel productive and see how they contribute to the overall success of the organization.
- By showing how each assignment presents an opportunity to learn and grow in their role, people feel supported to embark on a career path and give even more of themselves to the team.
Like many other leadership skills, connecting the dots for each member of your team is simple but not easy, as you need to understand both the task and the person as you create the link.
However, consider the value of more team members committing to your goals and feeling more engaged at work every day. An engaged workforce displays leadership, accountability and initiative at all levels of the organization.
With people on the same page, there is clarity and commitment to shared goals. Increased satisfaction and retention of your best people reduces the cost of turnover and poor performance. Having a clear plan — a blueprint — for employee engagement gives you the confidence that you will get the best from your team and gain a competitive edge in your marketplace.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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