With more decisive leadership, the employees of
The Office could have never veered into the world of unproductive, disengaged office life. So how can you prevent your own Dunder Mifflin experience in your office?
50% of US workers are disengaged in one way or another! The key is to prevent employee disengagement before it begins. And while you may wonder how you can know where you need to concentrate your efforts, the most important thing is to realize that all employees can be subject to becoming disengaged.
However, an effective way to combat disengagement is to make it hard to take hold in the first place.
Forge a Connection
Engaging with your workplace is challenging when you feel disconnected from it. Creating a bond with your employees is the first step in helping them feel anchored as if they have a relationship with their work.
You don’t need to be best friends with all of your employees, but it can be immensely productive to feel a human connection with them. It’s helpful for them, and also for you. Emotional investment in your co-workers benefits your work performance.
When employees feel bonded, especially to their leadership, they’ll feel a psychological drive to perform well; they won’t want to disappoint management with poor quality work. It’s harder to pull back from a job when you care about the people your performance will affect.
Over
40% of the people responding to one survey said they were contemplating changing jobs. That isn’t such a straightforward task when you have a good relationship with the people you work for.
People want to feel that they’re a part of something. Connecting with other humans is a reminder that they aren’t just another faceless cog in the company.
Foster The Right Environment
Employees need to feel safe in order to be able to focus and produce their best work. This means physically, of course, but also emotionally and mentally. For example, if they are frequently worried that they will be dressed down for a mistake, they are less likely to be able to fully invest in doing their job well.
Your employees need to be confident that you’ll take care of them and secure that they won’t suffer mental harm at work.
So, think about what a positive, supportive office culture looks like. Then, how do you get there? That may mean ensuring management receives extra training or instituting a no-tolerance policy for certain behaviors.
When you meet your employees' physical and emotional needs, they can relax and put all their focus on their jobs.
Provide High-Quality Work
Our jobs need to be engaging for us to become invested in them. If they aren’t at least interesting, we need to feel that they’re of value in some way.
Avoid assigning simple grunt tasks to the same employees all the time. It’s not only dull for them but also demoralizing. But on the other hand, people feel valued and respected when they’re handling important work.
Find ways to ensure that employees don’t feel like they’re mostly wasting their time with their assignments. When they see that their work contributes to the organization's overall well-being, they’re much more likely to feel fully engaged in their role.
Appropriate Compensation and Benefits
It’s an obvious observation, but always worth examining: pay your employees what they’re worth. Appropriate compensation shows that you respect them and their work output.
They need to be well paid for their time. If they do some extra work, it’s vital to compensate them for that. It doesn’t necessarily need to be financial, but something they’ll find value in. You have a work agreement with your staff. If you expect them to go above and beyond that original understanding without making it worth their time, you're breaching that contract with them. That can break their trust, causing them to withdraw.
They shouldn’t feel taken advantage of. Employees are more likely to put their best work forward if they feel they are taken care of.
Healthy Boundaries
We all have personal lives outside of work, and our employers need to value that. Advocate for your employees’ personal time, and be vocal about it.
50% of workers are experiencing burnout, according to a Microsoft survey; don’t let your employees get there in the first place. That’s one vital way to head off disengagement.
Let them see that you are prioritizing their work/life balance. For example, set clear boundaries regarding what happens after the close of business. Nobody should be required to be on-call once they leave work, or if there are critical issues that sometimes need to be addressed after work, set up a designated on-call plan, complete with compensation. Determine ahead of time what qualifies for past hours communication.
Employee Recognition
We all crave feedback on just about everything we do in life. It’s human nature to seek approval. And it’s no different in our job performance.
Mark large and small milestones for your employees. Demonstrate your respect and gratitude for their efforts; their work was an effort! And even if their work didn’t necessarily hit the mark, you don’t want them to feel discouraged and not try as hard in the future.
And when employees feel unappreciated, they quit trying. Why should they bother? They begin to believe that nobody will notice what they do, anyhow, or worse, decide that poor quality work is what the company deserves.
But when you recognize and reward hard work, employees feel that spark of appreciation and know their efforts weren’t wasted. And perhaps they’ll strive even harder in the future.
Support Employee Growth
Most employees don’t see themselves in their current position forever. They would like a chance to move up the ladder, and seeking career advancement is an excellent way to encourage employee engagement.
If you offer your workers development opportunities and advanced training, they’re more likely to feel satisfied in their current work situation because they know they’re building toward something. In addition, employees will want to learn all they can when they foresee the opportunity to advance, and that requires them to invest in their work.
Providing chances to engage in career development is also an excellent way to build employee loyalty. They’ll appreciate that you invested in them and feel connected to the company that provided them with opportunities for their future.
Wrapping Up
As pervasive as the notion of “quiet quitting” is right now, it isn’t a foregone conclusion that your employees are bound to succumb. With the proper barriers in place, you can do a lot to prevent your employees from becoming disengaged in the first place. In the end, most options for protecting your company from mass disengagement boil down to showing your employees respect.
