According to the Gallup Management Journal’s Employee Engagement Index, 29 percent of employees are actively engaged in their jobs, 54 percent are not engaged, and 17 percent are actively disengaged.  As an employer, what effect will this have on your business?  Why don’t these people quit?  What can you do?  These are all questions you should be asking yourself.  

Recognizing a disengaged employee should not be difficult if you are conducting regular reviews, staff meetings, or one-on-one meetings.  If someone is disengaged, chances are their work will show it and their peers may notice it. Gallup estimates that actively disengaged workers in the U.S. miss 118.3 million more work days per year than their actively engaged counter parts.

An employee who isn’t happy or challenged can have a negative effect on your business. They may be less likely to care about their job, or the quality of work they do. They’ll be more likely to do the minimum when it comes to expectations, and a disengaged employee could cost a great deal more than lost productivity, considering you’re still paying for their health insurance, workers compensation, safety costs, and more. A negative attitude could be evident to your customers and deter them from working with your company since customers do business with people they like and trust. A negative attitude will likely have an effect on employees as well.  You’ve heard the saying, ‘one rotten apple spoils the whole bunch!’  When someone is negative, they want others to be negative with them.  According to the Gallup Web site, after 30 years of in-depth research, disengaged employees is one of 12 core elements that link powerfully to the success of a business and customer loyalty. 

So why don’t these employees just quit? Good question. Maybe it’s because they are employed, receiving benefits, and up to this point, no one has said anything. 

What does this employee need to get reengaged?  What are your options as an employer when you have a disengaged employee?  The obvious option is termination. In which case, taking a proactive approach and sourcing a potential replacement for a seamless transition would be a benefit to your company. Before you take action, you need to determine if this employee is not only low performing, but is low potential, or low performing, but has high potential. As an alternative to termination, a sometimes less preferred option is coaching the employee through the behavioral issue.

Often when an employee is not performing to expectations or misses too much work, an employer chooses to terminate. I personally worked with a company, Client A, which claimed they didn’t have time to coach and train. Not only was time a factor, but their resources were also limited. They had never coached through a problem before and this employer told me they would rather have a ‘revolving door’ then spend time training someone who cannot do the job after a couple days of training.  What if Client A had a partner, a resource to reach out to and partner with as concerns came up about an employee?  There are a variety of options for good partners, such as consultants or staffing services. Most staffing services provide a contract-to- program where an employee is on the service’s payroll for a predetermined amount of time. As the client, this allows you to evaluate performance, and when you have concerns on performance, attendance, or attitude, you work with the staffing firm as they communicate with the employee on your behalf.  If nothing changes with the employee after the coaching, the result, termination, is something the service will handle for you. The risk lays with the service.

Coaching through a problem with an employee can be time consuming; but coaching an employee to greatness has amazing rewards. Set a goal for yourself to step up to the challenge and motivate your employee to better him or herself.  If an employee doesn’t seem to be motivated, give them a special project, ask for their personal input on situations, or allow them to take part in a new employee’s training. If they are having trouble getting to work on time, or taking an excessive amount of days off, sit down with them and open the lines of communication. For example, “You’ve been here for six months, and in the last 2 months you’ve been late four times, and missed five days of work. How do you feel about your attendance? Does it concern you?”  Put the ball in their court. Find out what has changed. Ask how you can help. By creating a discussion, versus a dictation, you may find the reason behind the attendance troubles. If the employee is simply not performing, do your homework.  Put some statistics together on their goals, and where they line up in relation to those goals. Giving them a visual could bring things into perspective. Try pulling the same stats for one of their peers (ideally someone who is performing at or above your expectation) and without saying who it is, show them the comparison. Inform them this is concerning. Ask them, “What can I be doing to help you?”  Before you dismiss them from that meeting, both you and the employee need to have a clear understanding of what’s going to happen next. Set goals, and most importantly, a clear timeline for those goals to be achieved. Set up a follow-up meeting 1/3 of the way through the timeline to evaluate their progress and again ask if there is anything you can do. By meeting with them throughout the improvement process, you are being a ‘coach’. Offer up suggestions; partner them up with your top performer for a weekly morning meeting before the day kicks off. Your employee may feel more comfortable sharing their concerns or hesitations with a peer than with you. Don’t let that bother you, embrace it. While coaching one employee, you are motivating and developing another to take on new leadership skills.

As you go through the coaching process, being proactive and sourcing a potential replacement would still be a good idea in case termination is still necessary. If you source on your own, be sure to keep the search confidential. Use an anonymous email address, keep company specifics out of the ad, and don’t advertise the company phone or fax number. If someone with the company catches wind you are searching and tells everyone, your employee who is being coached could give up because they feel like you gave up on them. To keep the search confidential, consider contacting a staffing service.  It would most beneficial to use a service that specializes in the niche for the position you are hiring.  Communicate your current situation to them, inform them of your timeline, and the service will identify candidates based on your target skill set and salary range. They will refer select individuals’ profiles for your review and when it is time for the interview, its best to schedule those offsite. My firm, Celebrity Staff, allows our clients to use the conference rooms to interview candidates for confidential or open searches.  Another suggestion is to meet at coffee shops, bookstore bistros, or other common meeting places that have a moderate to low volume level. Try making sure they are not locations frequented by your employees.

According to the Gallup Web site about employee engagement, research showed that engaged employees were more profitable, focused more on their customers, and were more productive. In the end, choosing to coach and motivate a disengaged employee who has high potential will contribute toward a healthy work environment.  A healthy work environment will lead to long term financial benefits for the company.

Erin Reitsma, Celebrity Staff, Account Manager

About Erin

Erin Reitsma has worked for Celebrity Staff since January 2006 in a business development role. She builds relationships with companies of all sizes in the metro area that are looking for talent in the administrative, operations, sales, marketing and management areas. She recruits talent through cold call sourcing, networking, and referrals. In 2008, Erin was promoted to sales manager where she took on the role of hiring and training internal sales staff to achieve growth within the branch. Erin earned 2008’s President’s Club Award, the highest sales-related honor that a Celebrity employee may achieve. Originally from Sioux Falls, SD, Erin stays busy with kids activities, traveling and enjoying anything that allows her to be creative or active.