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Of the country’s roughly 100 million full-time employees, an alarming 70 million (70%) are either not engaged at work or are actively disengaged. That number has remained stagnant since Gallup began tracking the U.S. working population's engagement levels in 2000. Talk about a lost decade. (See How to Tackle U.S. Employee's Stagnating Engagement.)
An employee recognition industry worth over $40 billion has arisen to help recognize employees, as a first step towards engagement. Their results are an ever more expensive problem.
In 2011, employee disengagement cost our economy over $370 Billion per year. In its 2013 survey, Gallup estimates employee disengagement cost our economy $450 to $550 billion.
Clearly something or someone is disengaged.
Here are sixteen ways I recognized and engaged with employees as a CEO of a small company, driving revenue growth and positive cash flows in a rapidly commoditizing industry.
They cost nothing. Most can be started immediately. No board meetings or powerpoint presentations are required.
Most are obvious. That’s the point. Creating engaged employees is an obvious process. We’ve just forgotten how to recognize people, not just items on an expense report.
Anything worth doing is worth measuring. Creating employee engagement is both. Choose a metric. Define it at the start. Measure the changes as you proceed.
I chose Gross Revenues and Cash Flows. Cash Flows are the lifeblood of small business. Creating engaged employees pumped a lot of life through our small company.
How many have found a new colleague sitting at the next cubicle? And they’re totally unqualified. And even if qualified, they’re unwelcomed. Awkward for everyone.
Skip that drama. Include them in the interview process. It creates a longer interview process. But the cost of mis-hires is 3-4 times the mis-hired’s annual salary not counting the lost confidence by your team.
Well-begun is half-done. That grand reception includes being prepared for their training, mentoring, including preparing their work area.
Every company party celebrates achievements. Every achievement is theirs to celebrate. It’s their company. It’s their party. Let them organize it.
Who’s worked for bosses who never knew your name? How long did you stay? How long did that company last?
See above.
Enough said.
A key question in Gallup’s Q12 Index that predicts an employee’s engagement, is this:
Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?
Care enough to listen to their dreams and understand why they’re important to them.
Explaining how their accomplishments impacts everyone engages you, the employee and their colleagues.
So few managers recognize employees on social media.
Leverage your influence as their manager and leverage that again by praising them to your boss, in their presence.
See the previous two. This connects their performance with the desired result. Connection = engagement.
Who knows more about your company’s operations than your employees? Who holds a wealth of unexplored solutions and innovations that could solve chronic ongoing problems?
Be their student. You’ll learn, you’ll solve, they’ll engage.
Honor their time and their contributions and you honor them as a person.
Organize an agenda and communicate it to all. Start and end the meeting punctually. Take notes and follow-up.
Recognizing your mistakes helps them recognize your humanity. You lead by example and create learning opportunities which build further trust and engagement.
What would change if that person left?
Cogs are anonymous; so are their results. People are irreplaceable; so are their results.
These aren’t free. You’ll pay with your most precious resources: time, attention and heart. But, spending $40 billion on the same thing and expecting different results is insane. Right?
About the author
Zane Safrit’s passion is creating engaged employees. As a CEO for
a small telecommunications provider, he transformed the company into fun,
innovative workplace that resulted in revenue growth of 80%. He’s guest posted at AMEX Small Business Forum and the hugely
popular Small
Business Trends. He currently works with small businesses to accomplish the same
for their culture. You can read his ongoing thoughts on small business and employee
engagement at his website.
Learn how to use Chatter to build an employee community internally with our free ebook at the button below.
