Given the lingering pandemic and the social and economic disruption it caused, it’s understandable that employees are feeling disconnected and unmotivated. Shifting to remote work and restructuring businesses has brought new communication and engagement challenges. These challenges can be overcome, but it’s up to managers to create an environment that re-engages their employees.
There are a number of reasons why an employee becomes disengaged such as
- Not feeling that their voice is heard
- Not being challenged
- Lack of career growth
- Poor communication
- Micromanagement and poor leadership
- Being overworked
According to Gallup, 68% of workers are disengaged. McLean & Company revealed that a disengaged employee costs an organization approximately $3,400 for every $10,000 in their annual salary. This is due to lost productivity, disrupting others with negativity, absenteeism and chronic tardiness. As such, re-engaging disengaged employees is not a one-time event. It’s a long-term plan that requires consistent action.
Here are five ways managers can re-engage their remote employees.
Get To The Root Of Why They’re Demotivated
Oftentimes, managers are quick to put demotivated employees on performance improvement plans with the assumption that they’re intentionally sabotaging the business. However, employee demotivation can stem from stress, poor relationships with their manager, conflicts with colleagues, or toxic company culture, to name a few. Rather than assume the worst, managers should communicate with their employees to get to the root of why they’re demotivated. This requires an effort from the manager’s end to build trust so the employee is comfortable opening up.
Alternatively, the root cause could be a lack of expectations, feeling unsupported, not feeling unappreciated or not knowing what’s next for them in their career. Managers should make it a priority to ask their employee about their career goals. Doing so will help the manager to develop a career development plan or seek out opportunities so the employee can gain the necessary experience to achieve those goals. The reality is, not every employee wants to move up in their career. Some want to explore other areas in the business and learn new skills such as leadership or cross-functional skills. This is why a conversation is crucial.
Bring Wellness To The Forefront
Managers aren’t expected to be experts in mental health, but they should practice appropriate vulnerability and empathy. While everyone’s situation is different, they’re all difficult in their own way. For example, an employee who’s single and living alone may experience isolation while a single parent may struggle to find a balance between managing their kid's remote schooling and caring for an elderly parent on top of their full-time job.
Turning a blind eye to mental health not only perpetuates the stigma but leads to disengaged employees. According to the National Institute for Health Care Management, 51% of workers reported an increase in mental health issues at work since the pandemic started. In addition, 25.5% of workers reported their anxiety symptoms tripling and 24.3% of workers said their depression symptoms have almost quadrupled.
It’s an employer's moral and legal responsibility to make sure employees are safe and healthy and it’s the duty of the manager to support their employees. Managers can do this by encouraging them to take breaks, taking an interest in their personal life, conducting frequent mental health check-ins to see how they’re doing and being mindful of signs that they’re burning out or their performance is faltering.
Whether employers realize it or not, the workplace is the most important environment to discuss mental health and wellness, yet many workplaces fail to acknowledge this important topic. When an employee’s performance is suffering they punish them without knowing the root cause rather than leading with empathy to better understand.
Create A Transparent And Safe Environment
For the most part, employees are deeply invested in the work they do and the company in which they work. They want to know what’s going on and kept in the loop with decisions being made, solutions being worked on and challenges the company is facing. Additionally, employees want to know that their voice and feedback are valued even if it’s challenging existing processes, systems and standards.
Carlos Castelán, managing director of The Navio Group, shared, “at the heart of many company successes is the willingness to seek out the input of front-line employees to identify areas for improvement with subsequent action against those opportunities.” He explains, since employees regularly interact with customers and clients, they’re uniquely aware of pain-points. Thus, they can provide great feedback on topics such as technology solutions to products or identify areas of improvement to boost profits.
Managers can do their part by committing to transparency and letting their team know what’s going on department-wide and sharing how the company is doing. Likewise, they can create a safe environment by encouraging them to speak out to introduce new ideas and challenge the old. Lastly, rather than create a fear-based environment that holds employees back from innovative insights, managers should actively turn employee’s mistakes into learning and coaching opportunities.
Recognize Their Efforts And Achievements
All employees, regardless of title, want to be recognized. They want their work to be seen and their achievements to be celebrated. Managers often shy away from doing so because they don’t feel the need to recognize an employee who’s doing their job. Stefan Ateljevic, founder of AhoyGaming, shared, “one of the easiest ways to make people feel appreciated and engaged at work is by acknowledging them for their good work.”
The Society of Human Resource Management reported, on average, replacing an employee costs a company between six to nine months of their salary. An O.C. Tanner white paper revealed, “79% of employees who quit their jobs cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason for leaving.” O.C. Tanner also discovered that a lack of appreciation leads to decreased productivity and some level of burnout. For this reason, managers should make it a point to recognize achievements and effort.
Go Deeper Than The Surface
Traditionally, relationships between managers and employees were strictly professional, knowing only one another’s job title and name. However, this pandemic has blurred the lines between an employee’s professional and personal life making it difficult to maintain a work-life balance. Managers who take the time to get to know their employee’s deeper wants, needs and motivations can better help them to achieve their goals while creating more fulfillment in their lives.
It’s up to managers to create an opportunity to build a stronger relationship and lead that conversation with their employees. Building trust isn’t an overnight process. It requires patience and consistency from the manager. They can start by asking more targeted questions about the employee’s weekend, family, what their interests are, finding common ground from things in their home, brands they wear or things they bring up in conversation. This extra effort so shows employees that they’re valued, cared about and worth knowing. In time, they’ll become re-engaged, build trust and feel more comfortable opening up about stressors that are driving underperformance or negatively impacting them.
Lastly, when an employee expresses they’re feeling burnt out and overwhelmed, the worst thing a manager can do is disregard them. Instead, they need to listen to them and actively figure out both an immediate and long-term solution to prevent them from completely disengaging.
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February 28, 2021 at 11:32AM
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5 Ways You Can Re-Engage Your Employees In A Remote Environment - Forbes
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