You’re taking a sweeping look around your workplace, and you don’t love what you see. A five minute glance reveals tell-tale signs of employee disengagement at every turn: Distracted expressions, disregard for deadlines, disinterest during meetings, and a rise in simple mistakes that may or may not result in huge consequences for the company. At the stroke of 4:59, employees start heading for the door, and when they’re late the next morning, they aren’t overly concerned about it.
Your problem is easy to identify and diagnose: You have an engagement issue. But fortunately, this problem is also fairly easy to resolve. Start with the simple steps below.
1. Track low morale and disengagement to the source (or sources). Have you had a recent leadership change at the top? Have you recently lost a popular and highly respected member of your team? Are your teams well staffed enough to handle their current workloads and deadlines? If getting them to tune in is as simple as hiring one more team member, take steps to do this. If you need to unify your team and lift their spirits in the face of confusion and change, read on.
2. Rally the troops. Send a general message to let your staff know you care about the challenges they’re facing. Then initiate a reboot. Let them know what clear steps you intend to take to straighten out the confusion/transition to the new program/recover from a loss/deal with a budget problem, etc.
3. Improve your listening skills. Open your ears and open your office door. Encourage employees to voice their concerns, express their needs and share their opinions about the direction of the company. This will help them feel involved in decision-making processes, and it will help you better understand what resources they need in order to do their jobs effectively.
4. Communicate clearly. Take a close look at how you give instructions and provide feedback. Above all, these forms of communication need to be clear, consistent, fair, and meaningful. If your messages could use tightening in any of these areas, get to work on this now.
5. Show respect. The best way to cultivate respect among your team is to show them the respect they deserve. Go out of your way to make your workplace culture positive. This may mean sponsoring a happy hour every Friday, offering summer hours, or even taking simple steps like letting in more fresh air and natural light.
Most important, showing respect means thanking your employees for their hard work, rewarding them even for small contributions, and rooting out sources of resentment, confusion, and frustration. Contact the staffing experts at Techneeds for more tips on how to accomplish this. Your employees will appreciate your efforts and you’ll quickly start seeing a difference in your bottom line.