By Steve M. Cohen bio
Are some of your employees actually working against you?
When it comes to the bigger picture of your job, your office or your business, the important question is simple: are you engaged? Is your staff engaged? Whether you are an owner, manager or beginning worker, the answers matters.
A national management firm, the Gallagher Organization, has published some startling statistics: In the typical work group, approximately 25 percent of the staff is engaged, 15 percent are disengaged and 60 percent are neither engaged nor disengaged.
How these findings affect your office
The impact of all this becomes evident when you note that only the engaged group is comprised of those who can always be counted on to “get” the organization’s mission and vision. They can be trusted to have the organization’s back. The 15 percent who are disengaged are actually working against the organization. They may be passive-aggressive or covert in their efforts, but they are not people you should count on. The rest, some 60 percent, are those who just “go with the flow.” They’re apathetic, and will often side with whoever is closest or loudest.
In the hyper-competitive environment we work in, being engaged matters. Although finding qualified people is never easy, the reality is employers can usually fill a vacancy when they need to. At the same time, the business world today means that employers cannot afford to keep disengaged employees on the payroll. And as disengaged employees are removed, the apathetic ones should take notice (or be noticed), because they are in effect dead wood. A company at the top of its game simply will not have a lot of dead wood.
How these findings affect you
What does this mean to you? If you’re a worker—even a high-placed worker—now is the time to establish yourself as engaged. If you think that you’re attuned to the company, invest in your role and really engage in what you are doing. Demonstrate this and protect your job.
If you’re a manager or owner, your goal is to have no one in your office who is disengaged, no more than 15 percent in the middle or apathetic group, and the remaining 85 percent who are truly engaged. If you can achieve that, or even something close to it, you will have a high performance organization and, with that, you’ll see more output—more billable hours—while spending very little.
What to do with the disengaged employee
Sometimes, the disengaged can be converted through counseling to become a part of the engaged group, which is a preferable choice because the costs associated with hiring are significant and must be considered. Additionally, it isn’t good to have a reputation of throwing away people as a first resort when encountering a problem. You should also keep in mind that engagement can be a subjective measurement. Try not to let style or other superficial differences cloud your perspective. Output is what counts.
When you find employees who are disengaged, the best and most achievable outcome is to convert them to the middle group (neither engaged nor disengaged) and instill a disinclination to backslide.
When all else fails
If the disengaged employee cannot be converted, my objective is to extricate them from the organization. This may sound cold, but in a business climate where you have to do more with less, all employees must be firing on all cylinders at all times.