Employee Disengagement At The Workplace!

Estimated Reading Time: 5 mins 30 secs

An employee is as important to the employer as the organization itself. With stepping into 2020, companies have restructured their policies, values and work ethics to meet the current needs and expectations of their employees. Yet, despite all these efforts, employee disengagement seems to be inevitable and a lot of organizations fail to understand the reasons for employee disengagement at the workplace, what can be done to engage their employees and how engaging them can work wonders for the organization.

The following are the 5 major reasons for employee disengagement at the workplace:

1. No employee engagement strategy: According to stats, only 25% of the companies have a proper employee engagement strategy at place. Remaining 75% of the companies are the ones that either do not have any employee engagement strategy at all, or if they do have, they do not follow it religiously. The following are the Statistics on employee engagement; Engage For Success
   
   The former 25% section, are the companies where employees have a satisfying job, are highly engaged and prefer to grow with the company for a much longer time. On the other hand, people working for companies where employee engagement strategy isn’t followed, have a low engagement at work, feel demotivated and do not enjoy their work. The employee engagement activities that organizations can do are the Fun Fridays(where employees can do small fun activities like playing Uno or Dumb charades) and Trendy Thursdays(where employees are allowed to wear a casual outfit on a weekday)
2. Lack of inclusiveness: Inclusiveness is one of those major trends that have been incorporated by organizations globally. Organizations respect and value the individuals no matter where they come from or what background or preferences they have.
   
   Giving equal opportunities despite all the differences is what inclusiveness at the workplace is all about. Organizations where the culture of inclusiveness is followed, have a more productive, engaged & innovative workforce.
3. Undefined job expectations: Most of the employees feel difficult to perform their duties with perfection due to unclear job expectations, mission & values of the organization. They do not know what is expected out of them.
   
   According to a Gallup report, only 60% of the employees know about what is expected out of them at the workplace. Employers should make it a practice to set clear expectations from their employees at the time when they join the organization.
4. No recognition: Employees working for an organization expect that they are appreciated for their work exactly as they are told when they make mistakes. Employees today not only look for a job with a high salary but the overall work culture, ethics, values, etc. when joining an organization.
   
   Recognition is a critical imperative to keep your employees happy and engaged. The stats show that only 30% of the employees get recognized. Employers should start incorporating the rewards and recognition software that keeps a track of all the employees and informs who is to be recognized and why? Using a platform like Advantage Club can be wonderful as it offers a wide range of corporate perks and discounts on more than 10,000 brands across categories like Shopping, Travel, Dining, Services, Finance, etc.
   
   Advantage Club also enables the managers to reward their employees for their good work using the R&R option, helps in engaging employees with the help of Hobby Club, that lets people with the same interests at work find one another and pursue their hobbies alongside work, and much more. Peer to peer recognition is another feature. 
5. Not taking feedback, just giving: This is a major turn off for maximum employees. Feedback has always been a two-way thing. Most organizations fail at taking feedback and thus lose a chance of improvising where they could.
   
   According to a report on employee disengagement, 13% of the employees are always on the lookout to switch their jobs as their employers are not ready to collect their feedback at all. Feedback should be given top priority as it lets the organization and the employee know about their shortcomings and their areas of improvement. Losing valuable employees is a loss for the parties. Employee surveys and polls can be conducted to take feedback. This will also be a part of the employee engagement activity as they are being involved and the employees also feel good thinking about how their organization is taking their opinions into account. To retain your employees, you should always follow the culture of two-way feedback at least once a month.

The major workforce today, consists of the Millenials, who, over the years have developed a flexible way to work. Their expectations from a particular job are much ahead of the salary like employee perks & benefits. They look for organizations that help them grow and excel in their career, where work culture is positive, where feedback is considered important & where employee engagement and productivity is one of the major responsibilities of the organization. Flexi timings and work from home is another aspect they look for. Including perks in the salary component, taking regular feedback, doing fun activities on a particular weekday, giving their employees time and hearing them out are some aspects that can help in reducing the level of employee disengagement at work. This millennial workforce loves their work, even more, when they are loved back by the organization. This is the reason why the modern workforce doesn’t mind job-hopping until they find an organization where they feel safe, happy and satisfied. Dealing with the Millennial dominated workforce is undoubtedly a huge problem for all the organizations as they are difficult to engage. Understanding the reasons and then solving the problems can help the companies retain their employees for a much longer time than the average.