According to multiple surveys studying geographically diverse workers in almost every industry,
* More than 62% of employees are not engaged at work
* More than 17% are “actively dis-engaged” at work.
* More than 85% of employees worldwide and 70% in America “hate” or “greatly dislike” their jobs
* More than 68% of employees are “always, often, or sometimes” thinking about quitting their job
* More than 37% of employees during a given year are actively looking for a new job
The Gallup organization described an actively disengaged worker as someone who is “unhappy and unproductive at work and liable to spread negativity to coworkers.” They are people who don’t like their jobs and aren’t afraid to let others know how they feel.
And productivity is directly tied to engagement or disengagement.
The costs of disengagement include the following:
* turnover costs (see calculator)
* theft costs
* health issues
* loss of productivity
* loss of sales/revenues
* negative impact on clients & customers
* wasted resources
* and other inefficiencies & costs
CALCULATING THE COST OF EMPLOYEE DISENGAGEMENT
An actively disengaged employee costs their organization about $3,320 for every $10,000 of salary, around 33 percent. That means that an actively disengaged employee who makes $58,000/year costs their company an average of $19,256 every year!
So if 17.1% of your workforce is actively disengaged and you have 500 employees, that means that 85 people are costing your company more than $1,636,760 annually.
If you have 4000 employees that means 684 actively disengaged workers are costing you more than $13 million each year.
And that is only taking into account the “actively disengaged” workers. What about those who are simply not fully engaged and not doing there best or giving all they can.
* Someone can come to work and do the least possible to get by
* Someone can do a satisfactory job
* Someone can go above and beyond
* Someone can be a super hero and knock it out of the park almost every day
Anyone who is not being a super hero most of the time is costing you clients, sales, productivity and ultimately a massive amount of money from your bottom line.
WHAT IS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT?
There’s an old Chris Rock comedy bit where he jokes about having a job you hate vs. having a career that you love.
He jokes that :
“When you have a career (or a job you love), there ain’t enough time in the day. When you got a career, you look at your watch.. time just flies. It’s like whoa… it’s 5:35. I gotta come in early tomorrow and work on my project. ‘Cause there ain’t enough time when you got a career.”
“When you got a job you don’t like. There’s too much time. That’s right. You look at your watch and its like.. oh no.. it’s 9:08. When you are so miserable at work you sometimes just spend extra time just sittin’ on the toilet. You don’t event have your pants down. Your just sitting there thinking I hate this f*#&*#g job.”
True employee engagement is when you come to work focused, purposeful, present, excited, and driven.
It’s about liking your work and your leaders and your team and your clients and being excited about what you get to do every day and about the mission you and your team are trying to accomplish together.
It’s being happy and grateful for the opportunity to do it each day.
Engagement = Higher Productivity.
Engagement = Happier Clients & Customers
Engagement = Better Products & Services
Engagement = Less Errors & More Accuracy
Engagement = Overall Cost Savings
Engagement = Higher Profits
A disengaged worker does whatever they have to a slowly as they can and gets the heck out – they find their pleasure elsewhere, if at all, and maybe even actively dislike their work, their team and their leaders. There demeanor and energy demoralizes those around them and their negativity can be contagious, spreading like a cancer across the organization.
An engaged worker has excitement, drive and passion to do more, to be more, and to create more. They care about their team and the goals they share together. They have a sense of commitment and energy that can also spreads across an organization creating a culture of positivity and an environment people want to be a part of.
HOW DO YOU BOOST EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT?
How do you get people to love their job, love their team, and be passionate about coming to work each day, really digging deep?
There are janitors who love their job and do it with purpose and passion and brain surgeons who find no meaning in what they do each day.
One of these amazing people said “This is my building and the people who live here rely on me to keep it beautiful and clean. They put their trust in me and I won’t let them down. I know every resident here and they know me. It makes me happy to say hello to them each day and feel proud when they thank me for what I do. I go the extra mile to make sure I look after the smallest details because I know that makes all the difference.”
A brain surgeon lamented that his days were mundane and meaningless. He was bored with what he was doing and felt like it didn’t really matter.
What’s the difference between these two people and what leads one to be engaged and the other to be indifferent?
It all has to do with the way their mind has been trained to think and feel.
You see, being engaged really has nothing to do with the job itself and everything to do with your ability to manage your thoughts, emotions and beliefs.
The key to engagement is helping people find their why? Why are they doing what they do each day?
Why does what we do matter? Who does it impact?
The bigger the why, the bigger the reason, the more the engagement.
Many people’s “why’s” are extrinsic—for money, for fame, for praise, for something they receive from others materially or in terms of attention.
But most studies show that money alone is not a great motivator, unless the amount is an extreme – drastic life changing number. What would you do or attempt for a billion dollars in cash if the offer was real?
Intrinsic rewards, on the other hand, can be the most powerful motivators. They are the rewards of character.
They are the emotional gifts we experience when we do things to which we have chosen to assign value.
So if we believe we are kind or hardworking or heroic or a champion or a protector or a team mate and that we have our teammates backs, or if we believe we can do the impossible or die trying, if we think facing the challenge is noble, if we believe that trying with everything we have-win or lose, if we think leaping has value, if we believe that if your doing something you do it right, if we believe that we have a higher standard, if we believe it’s better to dare than to cower in fear, if we believe we have purpose, if our word is our bond, if we want to serve a greater good or our team or a higher purpose, if we assign meaning to what we do- then the doing itself becomes the reward.
It all comes down to how we meet our emotional needs, and what story we have been taught to tell ourselves about why we do what we do.
THE STORY WE TELL OURSELVES DETERMINES OUR ENGAGEMENT LEVEL
An owner of a pre-internet publishing company that created magazines for families and sold ads in them was hiring sales people. Someone applying for the job asked “Describe what is it that you do here?”
The owner could have answered in many ways. Here are two of them. Which one would make you want to be a part of that company?
1. We’re a business. We sell ads to businesses so we can make a profit. Your job is to call as many potential customers as possible every day and convince them to pay us for an ad in our magazine. Then you will have to do a lot of work to get an ad made for them so that they like it and keep buying every month. Then you will have to follow up with them and make sure they get changes made each month and keep signing up.
2. We are a business in the business of serving people. We create a magazine read by millions of busy moms of young kids who need a resource to find the things that will enrich their kids and their families’ lives. Whatever a family needs they can find in our magazine from advice on raising their families, to entertainment, to education, to toys, to health – we help them find what they need and we make it easy. Your job is to reach out and connect with business owners and managers who have products or services that these families want and need. Fun things, educational things, goods and services that will benefit the families greatly if they can find the ones that are right for them. Your job will be to help those business owners see that they can make more money and serve more people if they advertise with us. Not only is our magazine loved by the parents, who find it so useful, but it is a cost effective way for businesses to reach a micro-niched target audience of people who are looking for their goods and services. Once you have shown the business owner how we can serve them, you will work with our art department and your client and help them craft the most powerful message they can in a compelling ad that will help the families understand which offerings are best for them. Together we will help each of these business owners serve their customers, grow their businesses, provide a living for their employees and ultimately, because we serve them so well, you will make an exceptional living from the commissions you earn each month as you continue to help them. Your relationship with them and continuing deepening understanding of their business will help you serve them event better. Meantime, the rest of the team here in graphics and editorial will strive every day to make our product better and better for the families and the businesses that we all serve.
Where would you be more engaged working?
And by the way there is an important additional factor. There is an old saying that “the stone at the peak of the mountain is no more or less important that a stone at it’s base.” We each play a part in a greater whole, but often lose site of that.
Knowing how what you do makes an impact is a key to being engaged. No matter what the job.
I sweep floors. I sell ads. I fix machines at a car factory. I practice law. I practice medicine. I am a school teacher. I’m a musician. A clerk at a big box retails store. I am a motivational speaker
These are all short and simple descriptions of jobs. They don’t inspire engagement.
But each one, if we allow ourselves to dig deeper is much, much more.
The floor sweeper is creating an environment where the residents of his building are happy and inspired.
The ad sales person is helping businesses connect with the people who need their products and services so that someone can get something they really need that impacts their kids lives in a positive way.
The factory worker is making a product that someone will use and get ongoing benefit from and without the small part he/she does, there wouldn’t be the end product or the benefit from it.
The lawyer is trying to help someone solve a problem or conflict or protect their rights.
The doctor might be saving a life and will be at minimum trying to alleviate pain and disease.
The school-teacher is each day shaping the minds and hearts of children and helping them become what they will one day bring to the world.
A musician is making something that once created can bring joy to countless people.
A clerk at a retail store is impacting people’s lives every day with their energy while helping people find products their families need and ideally saving people time, our most valuable resource.
A motivational speaker is connecting with people and sharing with them unique skills, tools, and insights that will transform their lives and the lives of their coworkers, friends and families for the better.
The key to employee engagement is to help each person to find their own personal ‘why’, and reminding our people and ourselves that what we do matters each and every day – to our team, to our partners, to our clients and to our customers.