So, why do good employees become disengaged?

I am sure you know an employee that after 2, 3 or more years of great work for your company suddenly that great employee becomes that disengaged struggling employee. Productivity drops and that spark appears to be gone.  Never going that extra distance needed for the company with the employee doing just the bare minimums.

Soon, managers start to complain about that employee and other employees even chime-in with there complaints.  It becomes a much bigger problem to manage.

There are two types of profiles for disengaged employees.  One profile is the actively disengaged or called the “loud quitters” who are very obvious in their actions and are vocal in their struggles. The other profile of disengaged employees is called the “quiet quitters” and are more difficult to spot.

According to Gallup, the numbers of “loud quitters” is coming down and has “reached an all-time low of 13% in 2018 and 2019”.  However, Gallup also reports in 2023 the “quiet quitters” represented “50% of employees”.

Yes BIG Problem

Okay, so we have established this is a big problem and perhaps even bigger than you know in your own company.

You may be asking, can this be turned around and what steps should be taken?

Thankfully, yes, you can turn around the disengaged employees both the “loud and quiet quitters”.

The main “top of the list” problems as reported by Harvard are, “lack of autonomy, purpose, and meaning”.

Big Solution

Digging into the same post, a good starting point to turn around employees can be found in this statement, “Employees who feel that their work doesn’t matter may indicate that the organization’s mission doesn’t align with the employee’s personal vision of what creates purpose and meaning in life.”

So, one reason good employees become disengaged is misalignment of work to corporate mission which creates the loss of purpose and meaning. 

We have found that misalignment is often tightly coupled with corporate culture.  How you communicate, recognize, and reward employees are key items to drive a strong corporate culture which is aligned with employees to give them purpose and meaning.

As you don’t usually know what departments the “quiet quitters” are in or the extent of the disengagement, you must create and execute a whole company cultural strategy alignment plan. You may already have programs in the works which may need a little tweaking, and this is where outsiders work best.

Bring on the Outsiders

You see, outsiders can see different things than people within the corporation. Usually, executives and managers are too close to the issues to really see what is happening. Often it may only take a little tweak to existing programs to make them really hum.

Once misalignment is dealt with in your corporate culture, you can work on the other tactical items to overcome disengagement.

Here is a list of other activities, after your corporate alignment efforts, which can be worked on to further your corporate goals and fully engage employees:
1.    Regularly talk with employees
2.    Offer clear job goals
3.    Provide training and career growth opportunities
4.    Continue to improve corporate culture as the business grows

Conclusion

When you find your corporate numbers are fading and your productivity has dropped, most likely you have a disengaged workforce.  That disengagement can also be much worse than you think.  Driving alignment with employees’ purpose and meaning to your corporate culture can drive your positive numbers and dramatically improve overall productivity.  The other major benefit is that everyone will enjoy coming to work.

Sources: 
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/608675/new-workplace-employee-engagement-stagnates.aspx
https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-engage-a-disengaged-employee/#content