How to tell if your employees are disengaged, and why this is damaging your business

Have you noticed a drop in your employee engagement? Or just a feeling that things aren’t quite right with the team, but you can’t put your finger on it? The news is rife with ‘quiet quitting’, ‘loud quitting’, ‘bare minimum Mondays’ and now ‘considered quitting’ - but do you have a problem in your team? And, more importantly, what can you do about it? Read on for my top tips on how to address your quiet and loud quitters, and why this is impacting your happy work culture..

We’ve all heard about quiet quitting over the past year. And then there is good old ‘loud quitting’ and everything in between. 

Essentially it boils down to a lack of employee engagement.

In every company there will always be some employees who don't settle in or that need to be developed. They will be less engaged than their co-workers which can cause resentment with other employees to feel the same in an otherwise happy culture.  

However, even the most engaged employees can sometimes take a nosedive, and it’s this shift in behaviour that is on the rise. 

Signs That Your Employees may have switched off:

1. They are disengaged in team meetings and also less likely to engage in voluntary social activities. 

2. They have stopped doing the tea run (if you’re in an office environment)

3. New projects are no longer exciting. What would have created some activity before is now met with an internal eye-roll. 

4. They are cynical about any organisational change or improvements and will always have a negative spin on any new project or incentive.

5. The quality of their work may decrease, becoming sloppy or ill thought out.

6. They are late with work, creating a bottleneck for other members of the team.

7. A change in their expectations of the company - either too high or too low. They may be expecting the company to fix all manner of problems in their work and personal life. 

8. Taking more days off sick or absenteeism when in the office. Where an employee's disengaged they are less likely to want to bother coming in. And when they do you can sometimes get the feeling that they aren't really with you. 

Why is Employee Engagement so critial?

1. The reduction in productivity & the increased absenteeism increases the stress and resentment for other people.

2. Other team members may fear that this behaviour will put their own jobs at risk, so they start looking around too. 

3. Which causes an increase in staff turnover, which will cost you money in recruitment. 

4. Which impacts staff morale and

5. You lose good employees as a result of lack of engagement of other team members, 

6. You risk having to replace the good with the indifferent, causing more resentment and unease. 

Why do employees disengage?

Lack of recognition, support or development. Whether team development hasn’t been at the top of your list since before COVID, or whether you’ve set up a flatter, ‘fairer’ organisational structure, one of the most common reasons for disengagement is that employees can’t see why they should bother if they can’t progress. 

Whilst some hierarchical models are outdated, people need to see the structure within an organisation to see whether they have a future there. If they can’t see what they need to do or develop to get to the next level, this causes frustration. This lack of career progression and lack of career development is causing stagnation in small small companies and small agencies. And this in turn, creates frustration and resentment. If they can’t see that you are ‘for’ them, they will pull against you. 

Lack of challenge and lack of barriers to progress - in an attempt to create happier working environments, and to resettle employees post COVID, some organisations have offered too much support and nurture, not wanting to have the difficult conversations, or challenge employees to grow and develop. 

 A poor salary or the perception of a poor salary. Since COVID people's expectations of salaries have been often overinflated. And, particularly amongst younger generations, there's more discussion amongst peers of their salaries or perceived salaries, which has created a heightened expectation for salaries. It’s all over TikTok, so it’s all over your workplace.

Change fatigue means employees are tired. Instead of things easing off, 2023 has brought about more change.  Most people feel that change is being done to them. This is never a comfortable situation and constantly having to change is exhausting. Being in a state of fluctuation creates uncertainty and the lack of psychological safety that is required in order to create a stable and high performing team. 

And without psychological safety and relational trust your employees ultimately won’t realise their own potential. 

So consider what are the factors that contribute to creating a happy culture, where employees are happy, motivated, appreciated and challenged - and therefore more productive 

And in the meantime if you would like to know more about how my team can help you solve your employee engagement issues then send us a message.