5 Signs That Your Employees Are Disengaged

When your team is engaged, there is no doubt that you’ll notice the positive impact on your business. You’ll likely experience an uplift in productivity, morale and performance, among other positive benefits. If your company has disengaged employees, you’re unsurprisingly likely to experience the exact opposite.

Disengaged team members can be damaging to your business and can affect the motivation of your whole team. Thankfully, there are signs you can look out for to identify disengaged team members, and there are things you can do to increase their engagement.

What is an engaged employee, and how can you create more of them?

An engaged employee is someone who is passionate about their work and genuinely wants to be successful and achieve to the best of their ability. Every business wants engaged employees as they contribute to a positive culture and tend to have positive mindsets which look for solutions rather than issues. For businesses that are looking to grow quickly, finding engaged employees who are passionate about your business and their role in the company is an almost guaranteed way of making a great hire.

Disengaged employees, however, are the opposite. They tend to not be emotionally committed to the business or their roles within the organisation they work. They lack energy and passion and are likely to be dissatisfied with the role or the company.

This affects their productivity and output and can also negatively impact those around them.

Here are some signs that someone is disengaged and how you can help to resolve the problem:

1. A noticeable decrease in productivity and quality of work

   No one can run at full speed 100% of the time; however, if your once hard-working, engaged employee is noticeably not being as productive as usual, it could be that they’re not feeling their usual self.

   If that's not enough, another way to spot if an employee is disengaged is through their workload. A good sign of disengagement is if employees are frequently missing deadlines that they’d have easily met in the past.

   A reduction in activity can be due to a number of reasons, so sit down regularly with your team to identify issues that are occurring. If they express, there is something you can do to help them – excellent!

2. Isolation and withdrawal

   If one of your employees was once a social member of the team but has started pulling away, it’s likely they’re disengaged.

   Withdrawal or isolation can be a sign of lots of issues, including depression, internal issues such as colleague fallouts or bullying, as well as disengagement. Investigate what is causing the withdrawal, which will help you address the situation.

   If an individual really is disengaged, they’re likely to stop attending work socials or unnecessary work activities so they don’t have to spend increased time with people from the company.

3. Taking longer breaks and time off without good reason

   Productivity is optimized when people take breaks every 90 minutes; however, if an employee starts to unexpectedly extend their break times without good reason, it’s a real sign that they’re disengaged.

   When employees don’t care as much anymore, there is a good chance they don’t care much about taking longer when going for lunch, going for a coffee or even going to the washroom. Their behaviour of not caring can also rub off onto their colleagues and lead to thinking, ‘if others aren’t working hard, then why should I?’

4. No professional appetite

   Engaged employees are invested in the company they work for and want to push themselves to learn and reach their own career goals. A disengaged employee may have once been a top performer but is now not passionate about learning or moving forward.

   There are many reasons for this, including the role not being challenging enough for them or that they don’t have a goal to work towards. It’s important to dig a little deeper when you notice these things happening.

   It could be a sign that the individual is looking to leave for a happier, more stimulating workplace.
   
   

5. A lack of enthusiasm for learning

   Wanting to learn, progress and growth are all signs of engagement in employees and show motivation to want to improve and better themselves. When an employee has no interest in growing within your organisation, they’re unlikely to be motivated towards the success of the business either.

   If an employee doesn’t show enthusiasm towards growing in your company, they probably don’t see a future with you.

How can you re-energise your team?

If you recognise an increase in disengagement in your team, there are steps you can take to re-engage your team.

Communicate effectively

In order to find out what’s affecting your team’s engagement, you must ask them.

Not everyone is comfortable with openly discussing how they feel about the company they work for – especially when their thoughts could be negative. Running confidential questionnaires are a great way to gain insight and feedback from your team and understand what they are genuinely thinking.

Ask questions that relate to the company culture, management, and core responsibilities to gain insight into what is affecting their motivation and engagement.

With the right feedback, it makes it easier for management and company owners to make changes that provide real solutions.

Recognise and reward

Disengagement can often stem from people feeling that they’re working hard for little in return. It is important to show how much you appreciate them by paying them correctly (which needs constant reviewing) and recognising their efforts through recognition.

When people feel they are being recognised and rewarded correctly, they’re more likely to show higher engagement in their role. They’ll also be more motivated to go that extra mile – as they know it won’t go unnoticed.

A decrease in engagement can happen at any time to anyone. It’s important to check in regularly and observe changes in behaviour so you can quickly work towards restoring your team’s engagement.

12 Employee needs for an engaged and productive workforce.