Studies tell us that fully 50% of employees today are not engaged at work. These employees do just enough to avoid discipline. And an additional 1 in 5 are so unengaged that they have become cynical and negative about their work. There is a significant cost to businesses with only around 1/3 of the employees engaged and motivated at work.

Beyond the more obvious costs of lost production, lower quality, and dissatisfied customers there is also a human cost. There is a social impact from low engagement work environments that reach far beyond the balance sheet. There is a cost that can never be recovered.

When employees are disengaged and checked out at work, they begin to pay less attention to problems that arise [and that could be prevented]. These employees are more likely to just deal with obstacles they come across in their regular routine at work. Their thought may be that problem solving is not their job. They are simply there to do their own work, or maybe they are just doing enough to get by. They do just enough to make it through the day.

This means that opportunities to spot potential problems before these problems fully develop is not their focus. Maybe they’ve expressed concerns before with little response. This can also mean that they may not feel that they can innovate or be creative with their work. They may feel that status quo should not be disturbed.

With these perceptions it is too easy to become complacent. It becomes easy to deal with things as they are. Don’t rock the boat. The human cost for these attitudes and beliefs is seen in safety conditions and accidnet incident reports.

When employees feel disengaged at work, they feel disengaged with safety at work, too. Nobody goes to work with the idea that, “today I will lose an eye”. Yet, it is the lack of engagement and proper focus that results in exactly these types of losses. And it is these costs; the unimaginable cost for loss of life and limb that we pay for so dearly when organizations are unable to muster and environment of engagement.

Leaders need to provide opportunities for employee development and skill mastery. They should develop employees enough to be able to empower them to make correct decisions with their work responsibilities, and give them a sense of significance and purpose for what they do. Leaders need to connect with their team members and light the fire of passion and motivation. They need to engage their employees so that their employees will become more engaged.

Over the years I’ve had many managers and supervisors express great remorse because of their past errors. These errors in leadership allowed complacency and disengagement, and resulted in serious injury and in some instance even death. Let’s not be that leader!

Mark McCatty, Leadership & Team Advisor

http://www.mccatty.com/

Leadership Results through People