disengaged employees? Many aspects play an important role in keeping employees engaged with their work, and we could mention basic elements such as salary, work schedule, the amount of tasks, or the difficulty level of each of them. However, many other deeper reasons might be involved, including personal or private situations they experience every day.
In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about how to deal with disengaged employees and the reasons why some of them are disengaged from time to time. Take into consideration that this factor is essential to run a company at its best and to make your employees feel satisfied and efficient. Let’s observe:
1. Reasons why employee disengagement happens.
2. How to identify disengaged employees in your workplace?
3. Tips to deal with disengaged employees.
4. Learn how to re-engage disengaged employees.
5. How can Connect Resources help you to deal with disengaged employees?
1. Reasons why employee disengagement happens.
Before you can re-engage your disengaged employees, you need to find out the reasons for disengagement. Many elements can cause this issue and make it persist for a long period. If you want your employees to be motivated to work, you need to pay attention if there is a lack of interest or any other common factors, which may be:
- Lack of trust, confidence, or self-esteem.
- Less work flexibility.
- Lack of recognition and feedback.
- Lack of positive communication with bosses or co-workers.
- Deficient teamwork with co-workers and colleagues.
- No employee development during their stay in the company.
However, the lack of these elements is related to the workplace only. Keep in mind that there might be deeper reasons for your employees to disengage from work, which includes personal motives such as crisis inside their family or their life in general terms. These cases are the most fragile ones.
Among some other elements that can cause employee disengagement, we can mention some moods or feelings that are related to stress at work, which are irritation, frustration, nervousness, dislike, unhappiness, anger, disappointment, and many others. Feeling these negative emotions can cause a negative effect of disengagement and can make the situation worse.
As for other reasons, we could mention that they may be thinking about changing their jobs and leave the company. In this case, you should learn some of the best employee retention strategies to keep top talent employees in your company. It is important to keep your employees motivated to run the company effectively.
2. How to identify disengaged employees in your workplace?
Now that you know the main factors of employee disengagement, you will have to recognize any signs of disengagement that your employees may manifest while they try to work. The first thing you will need to do is paying attention to their behavior or development during their stay in the workplace.
If you observe closely, you may be able to notice a poor employee development or inappropriate behaviors. Disengaged employees usually stop doing daily activities in the workplace, like participating in team discussions or providing new ideas. As time passes, they will start keeping an unhealthy distance from the team or anyone around.
Another usual behavior that disengaged employees present is skipping workdays or using PTOs (paid time off) excessively, which is a problematic situation for the company. It is acceptable to approve some PTOs, but considerate your company and employees’ situations before you approve or deny them, especially if the company is going through a tough time.
Some other situations may emerge when there is employee disengagement, like showing stress management in the workplace along with troublesome consequences. However, you can help your employees understand the reasons and solve these affairs with time and tolerance. Starting by establishing a favorable communication and environment will be the first step to achieve it.
3. Tips to deal with disengaged employees.
Once you are aware of what is happening with your employees and the reason why they are disengaged from work, you will be able to start applying strategies that will be useful for you and will include coaching disengaged employees tips. Among the several recommendations to motivate your employees, let’s observe the following ones:
- Establish a friendly conversation with them and ask them about their situation. If possible, try to document the conversation and point to specific factors that your employees present. Behavioral intervention is essential to plan a motivation strategy and apply it successfully. Giving positive feedback is also part of the plan.
- Remember to listen to your employees. Let them express what they feel or think, and this way, you will understand why they do not feel like doing their best at work. The most common reason why employees disengage is that they feel like no one listens to them, making them feel alone and unrecognized.
- Besides listening, you can also motivate them by encouraging them with positive words. Sharing thoughts or personal previous experiences will help them see the bright side of a bad situation, increasing their confidence and motivating them to start doing their best. As a good consequence, their performance will improve significantly.
3.1. Motivational questions you can ask your employees.
You will be able to encourage and empower your employees with a small talk with significant questions. Among admirable leaders, it is common to come up with motivational phrases or speeches. But it is not always about talking and making your employees listen up, you can make them think more with coaching questions like these:
- If you were watching your younger self, what would you tell him/her? Or what would he/she say about your current condition?
- Will these obstacles stop you from achieving your goals or your happiness?
- Are you following the right path you need to accomplish your goals?
- Do you have the strength or skills you need to overcome your current situation?
- Have you thought about any effective solution that you can use to go through this situation of yours?
- For you, what would great look like right now? Are you doing the right thing?
3.2. What to do in case of losing employees because of disengagement.
In case your employees cannot be helped because they are thinking about making changes in their professional life (including changing their jobs), you can still give them some advice and transmit positive vibes. Perhaps you can try telling them some reasons why they should not be afraid of changing their jobs.
It might not help your company because you would be losing employees, but it could help them to feel better. If they decide to leave the company to find a better path for them, you can always count on professional agencies like Connect Resources to replace them if you so desire. We offer excellent recruitment services that will be useful to you.
4. Learn how to re-engage disengaged employees.
If you want to have a more efficient company with positive and motivated workers, you will need to boost your employees’ self-esteem and help them make improvements in the workplace, and you can start motivating disengaged employees by following some recommendations. Make sure you follow these few steps to motivate your employees:
4.1. Set clear and meaningful goals.
Setting clear goals together will be useful to boost concentration and a more efficient performance of disengaged employees. Any person or company without purpose will not reach anything; therefore, achievable goals will work as motivation for your employees. Besides, if these goals are meaningful to them, then they will be more motivated to work for them.
4.2. Provide work flexibility.
Try to give them a flexible work schedule to make them feel more comfortable and productive. If the nature of their job allows it, you can grant them the opportunity of working from home or making any other positive changes, as long as they do not interfere with the company’s goals.
4.3. Allow them to develop skills.
Help them uncover their hidden talents to feel more confident about themselves. In some cases, disengaged employees do not trust themselves and tend to hide incredible talents that might be beneficial for everyone. Give them the chance to demonstrate and develop their talent and skills while they do their best in the workplace.
4.4. Find positive customer testimonials and reviews.
If the type of job that your employees have is related to customer service, you can seek positive customer testimonials, rates, or reviews to motivate your employees to keep doing well and make improvements as time passes. Once they see how good they are doing their job, it will build self-confidence and more efficiency.
4.5. Allow problem-solving skills development.
Many companies follow certain rules and protocols when problems emerge. However, some of your employees might come up with effective solutions that are better than protocols. If you encourage problem-solving skills in your employees, it will benefit both the company and them. Listening to your employees’ creative ideas will keep them motivated.
4.6. Encourage them to participate.
Besides encouraging them to develop creative and useful skills, you can also encourage them to participate in meetings, surveys, events, or any other situations. Take into consideration your employees during cases like these to make them feel more comfortable with the rest of the team. Moreover, it will help them develop the communication factor.
4.7. Recognize good behaviors and provide feedback.
Coaching disengaged employees includes positive behavior recognition and feedback. If they have appropriate behaviors and do their job as they should or better, you would do well letting them know you notice the good stuff in them. Compliments for their good job and behavior are good feedback to encourage them to keep doing great.
4.8. Build trust among the work team.
Whether it is a permanent or a temporary employment, it is important to build trust among the team’s members, which includes employers and employees. When there is trust and confidence in the team, there will be no disengagement or any other negative element that could potentially affect the company and the employees’ efficiency.
4.9. Provide some kind benefits.
If it is necessary or if the company’s nature allows it, provide some small benefits to your employees from time to time, like a day off or someone to talk (which could be a professional coacher or a phycologist). Kind actions are always reciprocal and beneficial for everyone no matter the situation.
4.10. Monitor your employees’ performance every day.
As a final recommendation, you should continually monitor your employees’ performance to ensure they are getting re-engaged bit by bit. In this task, it is necessary the presence of an effective human resources department with up-to-date information of every employee. By monitoring your employees’ performance constantly, you will be able to identify progress.
5. How can Connect Resources help you to deal with disengaged employees?
It is essential to avoid having disengaged employees in your company if you want your company to work at its best and achieve success. For this reason, the Connect Resources team can help you with professional advice and useful services to help your employees work at their best while they are in the company.
We can also help you improve your company’s HR department with different services related to it, such as payroll outsourcing services and more. You should also learn more about how payroll outsourcing can help you have great employee management and make improvements in your relationship with your employees, so you can avoid employee disengagement.
If you count on our professional and efficient services, you can be sure your company and your employees will achieve greater results in a short time, making the situation more profitable for everyone. Besides, your human resources department will become more effective and will increase its efficiency.
Would you like to contact Connect Resources to learn more about employee disengagement and the ways you can deal with it? You can call at +971 433 166 88 or send an email to contact@connectresources.ae, and you will talk to one of their representatives that will gladly answer all of your questions.
