According to Gallup’s 2017 report, The State of the Global Workplace,’ 85% of employees worldwide are not engaged or are actively disengaged in their job.” That’s a staggering statistic. We examine what it means to a company and how it could be prevented by hiring the right people.
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement combines the level of passion and commitment an individual worker has to the company they work for. With employee engagement a key consideration for business owners, it isn’t something that can be forced and should come naturally within your business to successfully engage employees.
Delving more deeply into the Gallup report, they separate employees into three groups.
Those who are:
- Engaged – highly-motivated, enthusiastic, feel a sense of ownership, drive performance and innovation
- Not engaged – psychologically unattached to job and company. They put in the time but lack energy and passion
- Actively disengaged – resentful and act out their unhappiness, undermining the accomplishments of more engaged colleagues
Analysis reveals that engagement levels vary by job type. It’s hardly surprising that employees in knowledge-based roles are more likely to be engaged than those in manual, routine or repetitive jobs in companies where process is put ahead of people. Sad to say, in industries like manufacturing and construction, results show that twice as many employees are actively disengaged as are engaged. Yes, actively disengaged. Imagine the effect that has on company morale and productivity.
By the way, ‘happy’ isn’t necessarily the same thing as ‘engaged.’ With a pool table in the breakout room, an unlimited supply of free coffee, days off for Christmas shopping and so on, staff may be happy – but it doesn’t mean they’re engaged in business objectives or extra productive, it’s a false equivalency.
What is the impact of disgruntled employees on a company?
The bottom line is compromising profitability. Of course, employee motivation drives growth, and company targets are achieved. Dissatisfied workers don’t represent the company brand in a positive way so prospective and current clients may be lost, most of all if there’s a negative culture in the customer care department.
A high level of absenteeism is common amongst unhappy employees. Why should they care if they let managers down by calling in sick at a minute’s notice? Shortage of staff has a knock-on effect on other employees, leading to stress and discouragement all round.
Wastage of this sort isn’t confined to absenteeism; a lack of respect for company values can lead to unhappy staff members taking overlong breaks, arriving late, leaving on the dot, refusing to work overtime if a project demands it and anything else that disrupts productivity and morale.
In industries where health and safety is a major factor, in a demotivated company, accidents are more likely to happen, possibly due to poor communication between managers and staff or few training initiatives.
Last but not least, staff retention can be a huge issue with an unhappy workforce. If employees’ talents are not realised, if there’s lack of acknowledgement, poor working conditions, fuzzy job descriptions or a myriad of other reasons that cause people to look for a job elsewhere, then the costs to a company can be huge and ongoing.
Recruitment costs when unhappy employees leave
It’s not just the logistical cost of advertising and hiring, but the lost output cost of current employees in charge of the recruitment process. Then, when a new recruit comes on board there’s the outlay involved in training them – and it can take between one and two years for someone to reach the productivity level of an existing employee. Statistics show that it costs at least 20% of an average salary to recruit a new employee and 7% to train them up. And what if it doesn’t work out and they leave in the first year?
Recruitment strategies – get it right in the first place!
Back to the Gallup report and the top piece of advice they offer to boost employee engagement is:
- Hire talent – the right people for the right jobs
Using Future Resume in the recruitment process makes this wish a reality. The tools we offer allow you to find talented individuals who will be engaged from Day One and bring commitment and enthusiasm to a role that inspires them. This is because the three-dimensional profile a Future Resume provides – their past and how it has informed their working practice, their present and what they can offer your company today, and also their future that outlines their ambitions and their potential.