At some point in time, a manager or leader of an organization will have employees who stop performing to their potential. They become disengaged in their jobs and the mission of the company. Disengagement is contagious and costly, and it’s the responsibility of a manager or HR professional to deal with this contagion before it spreads throughout the workplace. Overall, 16 percent of employees are actively disengaged, according to Gallup, but even one detached staff member is one too many.
Disengagement can cause major problems in the workplace. Not only do these people underperform, but they also create friction for high performers. It’s up to organizations and managers to identify and know how to properly address disengaged employees.
One essential action many organizations fail to take when an employee is withdrawing is to investigate potential causes. The problem is placed on the underperforming employee when it is often the leaders or company itself that needs to look in the mirror. There are times that employees disengage because they feel unappreciated, undervalued, underpaid, or unheard. And in most cases, it can be an easy fix. However, it is up to the organization to look inside itself to see if it is contributing to their dissatisfaction. In some cases, the root of the disengagement stems deeper than a short-term personal challenge or legitimate workplace problem. But most people want to be engaged. And some are capable of turning things around.
Any leader worth their salt knows that the buck stops with them, and they have to take control of the disengagement.
Here are 27 ways to address a disengaged employee:
1. Address the concern with care. Instead of just thinking of a profit margin and bottom line, care for the person.
2. Ask about the “who” before the what. An employee won’t care how much you know until they know how much the leader cares for them. They should be asked how they are doing personally first. Your employees are people before they are workers.
3. Assess their productivity. Talk about the elephant in the room, which is their lack of production, and get to the “why.”
4. Redirect them to a different role. In some cases, an employee has grown tired of a long-term role, or their strengths don’t fit the position they’re in to begin with. This may be the time to help them find new energy with a new role.
5. Do it privately. It is easy for a leader to email blast everyone. However, the better way is to have a private conversation.
6. Help them leave their current job correctly. If it is their time to go, help it happen in the right way with integrity. After a conversation or two, the leader and employee may come to the realization that it’s just time for a change. Rather than burning bridges, use the knowledge of why they became disengaged to prevent that from happening with your future employees.
7. Ask yourself if there is a vision problem. Sometimes people are disengaged because there isn’t a compelling vision to follow or stories of impact.
8. Look for a lack of healthy debate. If an employee stops contributing to the conversation in meetings, then they have disengaged. They’ve stopped caring. Healthy debate is a must for any team.
9. Analyze behavioral changes on a timeline. A leader should sit down to trace the length of this issue on a calendar timeline.
10. Have a direct conversation. Once you have reached out to this employee privately, prepare to communicate with them in a clear, caring, yet direct manner.
11. Listen more than talking. When someone gets nervous, it’s easy to talk too much. The leader is there to learn the “why” behind the behavior.
12. Lead with open-ended questions. Ask them questions that make them explain how they feel and why. Be an investigator, not an interrogator. Be thankful for their responses.
13. Always document or record the conversation with all parties agreeing to the recording. Emotional conversations can become distorted as time passes. A recording and careful documentation can help that.
14. Create a quantifiable action plan. The employee needs to see goals and dates to help them get back on track.
15. Recognize and celebrate passion in them as well as the team. Tell them what makes them special to the team and what passions you identify.
16. Set goals together. Let them own the goals. Ownership is important to one’s career, so a leader should allow the disengaged employee to help them set their own goals for ownership and passion.
17. Allow goals to create peer pressure instead of “boss” pressure. When a team sees each other’s goals and progress it helps them to spur each other on and be accountable.
18. Help them see the big picture. Often times employees get tunneled vision and only see their department. Seeing the big picture helps them understand they are a part of something bigger than them.
19. Tell them of their specific value to the organization. The employee could be disengaged because they feel they aren’t valuable in their job. The leader should be specific when helping them see that, pointing out past accomplishments or contributions that have impacted the company.
20. Find out if something specific at the job has been demotivating them. This is where the leader has to look inwardly to see if they’ve contributed to this or they haven’t addressed something that has contributed to the disengagement.
21. Don’t write them off yet. They were hired for a reason. In the tough times, leaders can forget that and only see the lack of passion and how it’s affecting the bottom line. They may have many good years left at the organization.
22. See this as an opportunity to grow as a leader. There may be some things a leader learns on how to keep this from happening with the next employee, and going into these interactions with that perspective can alter the way you handle them.
23. Don’t assume you know why they are disengaged. The leader or HR Manager should ask a lot of “why” questions. The old proverb says, “Seek to understand instead of just seeking to be understood.”
24. Keep calm if you feel attacked. They may come off as attacking the leader and organization. They may get emotional. The leader has to mentally prepare to not take it personally; the employee is hurting.
25. Find out what they value most about their job. A great leader will help the employee rediscover why they first wanted this job and what made it special to them and then bring it full circle.
26. Commit to the process of re-engagement. These feelings didn’t happen overnight and if the employee has been valuable, then the organization needs to commit to a process to re-engage them. It will probably not be an easy fix.
27. Use this to make your onboarding process better. During times like this, a leader will see where they missed it in the initial interview process with this employee. This is an opportunity to help make the hiring and onboarding process better.
This will be a grand task for any leader, HR manager or organization. But if they can figure out how to re-engage one employee it will help them clear a path to see the warning signs far in advance as well as set countermeasures for the current employees. The conversations will be hard. The feedback may be excruciating at times but to make progress, an organization will need to approach this head-on with care. Ultimately the organization will be able to create an environment of empathy and concern for underperforming employees. The other staff and department leaders will recognize that the organization is willing to have tough conversations but is also going to be sensitive and open-minded when they do have to have these conversations.
