How engaged are your people at work?
With so much going on, more things on their plate, and some working remotely, it’s easy to become disengaged at work. In fact, you have to try harder just to be somewhat engaged.
According to Gallup, only 20% of the workforce is actively engaged at work. With 80% of the workforce disengaged, your company is losing productivity, morale, and money.
Since the #1 reason for disengagement is #burnout, we wanted to poll this ourselves.
Our results showed that 29% of respondents are feeling disengaged at work daily, while 36% are disengaged a few times a week.
What does this mean for your organization?
Your people are burned out, and it’s going to take more than just knowing that. You have to do something fast to help them and change it. If you don’t, you’ll lose your top talent to another company that makes them want to continually be engaged.
This is an opportunity for your company to find out what’s working and what isn’t working.
When 80% of the workforce is disengaged, there is a lot more of what’s not working than what is working.
The first step to combat disengagement is to connect with your people on a deeper level. If anyone on your team works remotely or if you’re maintaining in-person distance, it’s easy to feel isolated. When you connect with others, it allows you to know you’re not alone. Wanting connection is to be human.
Encourage your leaders to take time to really get to know your people.
Have conversations that involve more than the surface level, “How are you?” Find out what’s on their mind, the challenges they’re facing, struggles that keep arising, and support they need.
Connection is the best method to let your people know they matter and that you, as a leader and company, care about them. When you take time to connect, they feel valued and appreciated, which is one of the things people want most from a leader.
The next step is to make sure you’re putting into action the help they need the most. Long term strategies must be implemented to really make an impact for them. One and done tactics don’t work. People need help now, and they need help for the future, because change only happens over time.
What tools do you have in place to support them moving forward?
One of those tools and also another way to connect with your employees, whether they are in the office or virtual, is to implement more fun into their days. Work and fun are not mutually exclusive. The more fun people have at work, the more they want to go to work. Whether it’s to build your team like a ropes course or Trivia or individually based like Yahtzee or Laser Tag, fun is a good release mechanism.
When you get busy, stressed, or overwhelmed, the first thing you take out of your day is fun, and it’s also the #1 thing you need to combat those exact things. Just like you schedule a meeting, write fun into a time block on your calendar for your team. You’ll laugh, communicate, and enjoy the experience…oh, and you’ll also be increasing engagement.
People are suffering in the day to day. Tasks are piling up and they feel like they can’t catch up. They are stressed and yet they have to show up again the next day to do it all over again. They need acknowledgement, support, and a release. In a time when they might not be seeing their colleagues in person anymore, they want to connect on a consistent basis.
Reach out and connect with your team today and encourage them to connect with each other. It takes only a few minutes to connect with someone, and it makes a lasting impression.
In case you’re curious, here is the breakdown from our poll.
How often do you find yourself feeling disengaged at work?
Daily = 29%
A few times a week = 36%
A couple times a month = 14%
Never = 21%
