How is Your Employees's Morale?

How much is a disengaged workforce costing your company?

Employee engagement is a person’s degree of attachment to their company, role, and co-workers.  When employees are engaged, managers don’t have to force them to perform or monitor them. Rather, they are self-motivated to do what’s in the best interest of the organization and can be trusted to do terrific work.

Employee engagement is not the same thing as employee satisfaction. Maybe your employees are not so engaged after all. It maybe that your management team has no leadership skills, that they bring your employees morale down with their negativity.

It may also be because you have nothing to offer them. If all you have to offer your employees is a paycheck against their hours of work, you have nothing that motivate them.How can blame them? They know that other employers have more to offer than your current meager offer, and they'll just have to wait till they find such employer. In the meantime do not ask them to excel at their job, because THEY WON'T.

Not actively engaged: These workers do their jobs, and leave as soon as possible.  They may be happy enough with their work, but have no desire help take the organization to new heights.

Actively disengaged:  These employees are holding a grudge against the organization and look to undermine it at every turn.  They are the most dangerous because their negative attitude is contagious and can result in very real performance and morale problems.

In the U.S., the estimated cost of disengagement in the workplace, which includes the actively disengaged and the not actively engaged, is over $350 billion in lost productivity, accidents, theft and turnover each year.  Gallup recently found that approximately 71% of American workers are not actively engaged or actively disengaged.

Can you compete with other companies in your industry when you have nothing to show for?

When you consider these numbers, it’s no surprise that the majority of employees would be happy to leave their current organizations if a better opportunity presented itself.  And this is going to be expensive.

According to Ross Blake in his article Employee Retention: What Employee Turnover Really Costs Your Company, talent replacement costs an organization between 30 and 50 percent of the annual salary of entry-level employees, 150% of middle-level employees and up to 400 percent for specialized, high level employees.

I do not believe that an employer who does not offer any benefits to its employees can compete against other companies in their industry that offer full benefits and ongoing trainings to their employees. Those later organizations will undoubtedly have better ways of motivating their employees who win turn will deliver much better performance.

Obviously if you are among those employers who cheat your employees by stealing their money or not paying them overtime, you shoot yourself int he foot. Your existence in business will just be temporary. You have nothing to show for.