How do you retain top talent when employees are disengaged?

Imagine your company as a magical forest, and your top talent as mythical creatures needing care. Light the forest with clear communication to build trust. Create enchanted paths with exciting projects and growth opportunities. Nourish with recognition and rewards to fuel motivation. Provide sanctuary spaces with wellness programs for physical and mental health. Foster a sense of community through team-building activities. These magical elements transform disengagement into enchantment, ensuring your top talent thrives in the enchanted forest.

To retain top talent amid disengagement, address root causes by fostering a culture of transparency and open communication. Conduct exit interviews to understand reasons for disengagement and implement changes accordingly. Offer opportunities for skill development, career advancement, and meaningful work assignments to reignite motivation. Provide regular feedback and recognition to boost morale and reaffirm value. Additionally, consider flexible work arrangements or benefits tailored to individual needs. By demonstrating commitment to employee growth and well-being, you can re-engage disenchanted talent and cultivate a loyal, high-performing workforce.

Retain top talent when employees are disengaged by: Addressing Issues: Identify and resolve the causes of disengagement through feedback. Offering Growth Opportunities: Provide career development and training. Recognizing Contributions: Regularly acknowledge and reward achievements. Enhancing Communication: Foster open, transparent dialogue about roles and expectations. Improving Work Environment: Create a supportive and inclusive workplace culture. These steps help re-engage employees and show that their contributions are valued.

I like the way Gallup and Qualtrics delineate between "actively disengaged" and "disengaged" workers. Disengaged workers feel unmotivated and are less likely to exert effort or be creative and more likely to injure themselves (through inattention if nothing else). They may exhibit the low-effort negative behaviors that come with being "checked out." Actively disengaged employees are motivated to act out their disengagement in the workplace -- that may lead to behaviors as extreme as sabotage, intentionally rude customer service, or theft. Actively disengaged workers do more damage, but disengaged workers are more common. Regular disengagement is also easier to remedy. Active disengagement is often a spiral that's hard to pull out of.

Managers play an important role in not just keeping the morale high for their subordinates but to also motivate them at bringing their best selves to work everyday. How an employee sees an organization is a direct reflection of how they are being treated by their managers. Toxic managers create toxic team members and it's easy to see the biasness arising in the team since managers are only interested in the careers of a "certain few" on the team. Anonymous surveys, 1-1 skip level meetings with managers manager, and coffee chats with the leadership team where such conversations and more importantly feedback could be welcomed would help in curtailing disengaged employees.

Many times, I've noticed that managers forget to take care of their teams because they're too focused on themselves and their own career growth. I strongly believe that people often leave their jobs because of how their managers treat them. Most people just want to contribute their best and make work better for everyone, but strict rules and processes often get in the way of this creativity. It makes you wonder: Are we prioritizing bureaucracy over progress?

When people believe they're just a number, a role, or a task completer, no matter how much people depend on them, their work feels transactional. It's not personal. Engaged people know that it would matter to someone else, beyond a productivity measure, if they didn't show up tomorrow. When people feel seen, heard and valued, they know their work matters. When someone hears "thank you," receives a thank you card, gets nominated, is invited to share feedback, can participate in improvement projects, and has growth opportunities, they know that no matter how many people of a similar role exist, it is clear that every person matters.

People often think negative people are the most disengaged. It's the people you don't hear from who are more likely to be apathetic and, therefore, you need to worry about. Critics and cheerleaders are at opposite ends of the spectrum, but both are high engagement. Recognize the greatness and value of each side of this continue, encouraging them to stay engaged and create solutions. They will bring the middle engaged-neutral folks with them. The last thing we should do is shut down people's negativity. Recognize their strengths masked by a critical presentation. Get curious and give them a healthy outlet for their problem fixation to solution finding.

Typically employees are disengaged because of one or a combination of, the following: - The work: they're not challenged enough, they're overwhelmed, they aren't clear on development opportunities or they don't know about the bigger picture (how they help the company make money). - The company: this can include the culture, the mission & values, the location and flexibility of working. - The reward: not just salary, it's everything else around it including benefits, provisions and how success is celebrated. - The mindset: this is around manager and leadership thinking to be more of service to their people, rather than viewing them as an "overhead" to be managed. Focusing on these areas can help avoid disengagement and improve retention.

To identify employee disengagement, monitor their behavior, performance and attitude for any changes, such as decreased enthusiasm, lower quality work, missed deadlines, expressions of dissatisfaction or loss of interest. Regular check-ins, performance reviews and open communication channels can help detect these signs. Additionally, surveys and feedback mechanisms can provide insights into employee morale and engagement levels.

Engagement is a continuum and by looking at survey and other data you can identify groups that range from Actively Engaged to Detached to Actively Disengaged. You can then locate "bright spots" (where you have a high proportion of engaged employees) and "hot spots" (where you have a high proportion of disengaged people). You can then look at team and workplace data to understand best practices and root causes.

Some ways I identify employee disengagement is: - Look for a change in behavior - Less responsiveness - More agreeable and less opinionated - Not volunteering / or excited on wins/outcomes - Not engaged in culture - Diminishing sense of urgency

Here are some key signs to watch out for to identify disengaged employees: Missed deadlines: Disengaged employees may become less invested in meeting deadlines or maintaining quality standards. Lower productivity: Disengaged employees may put in minimal effort, leading to a decline in overall output. Frequent absences: Disengaged employees may lose interest in coming to work or may exhibit a rise in absenteeism. Lower morale: They may contribute to a decrease in overall team morale due to their negativity. Limited communication: Disengaged employees may not like to communicate openly with colleagues or managers. Lack of interest in company news or events: They may show no interest in company updates or events.

How about talking to them? I have found that employees want to feel they make a difference and they matter. Disengagement is a controllable characteristic that is influenced by leadership. No one likes coming to work, and it is immediate chaos. Sure, there are plenty of indications that employees are disengaged, but finding the root cause is critical to recalibrating their compass and re-engaging them with the team. There will always be bad days, but helping them navigate those with a healthy attitude keeps them engaged.

The question for me is: do you really want to retain them? And if yes, why are they disengaged? Firstly, if an employee is disengaged, it could be because the company isn’t right for them, the strategy is going a direction they don’t like, or they simply don’t enjoy their job. For those employees, the best thing may be if they move onto something they’ll love. However, if the job, the mission and the strategy IS aligned to what they want, and they’re still disengaged? Then you need to find out why. There’s no one size fits all approach, it’s all about communication - so first you need to understand the issue - and then be authentic and open in what you can do about it. Don’t make promises you can’t deliver on.

A complaint is merely a poorly worded request. Recognize what's behind a criticism, and you are more likely to gain their engagement. It's not the negative people that are the problem; they are still engaged. The enemy of engagement is apathy; those who aren't complaining or cheering. Listen deeply when people complain, refrain from being defensive and instead recognize their greatness. Ask questions and remain curious. They are often seen as the "bad apples" and when you don't treat them this way, they will take notice. They're just waiting to be valued and useful! No one wants to do a bad job; sometimes we just have to help unproductively engaged (i.e., negative) find a more helpful voice.

If top talent = your 'best' people: The question implies that top talent is always engaged; that other people are the problem and, therefore, people are the problem. If you have an engagement 'problem' look first to the environment that you're creating. Ultimately, if you have a poor work environment, the people that are most confident in their own ability to succeed are the ones that are most likely to leave. If top talent = your most senior leaders (or their most likely replacements): It's their job to shape the environment so that it's engaging. So if you're concerned about them leaving, maybe you should be more concerned about them stepping up.

Creating a compelling Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) programme is no longer a nice-to-have for UK companies; it's essential, especially when it comes to retaining (and attracting) top talent. In an era where people are increasingly seeking purpose in their work, companies need to demonstrate their commitment to making a difference.

Here are top five strategies on how to retain top talents: 1. Personal connection with the employees 2. Provide frequent recognition and reward 3. Foster an environment of growth and development 4. Reduce favoritism and subjectivity 5. Make the workplace fun and exciting.

Employee Disengagement is Quiet Quitting. To stop quiet quitting, you need to actively ask for Employee Feedback and implement that Employee Feedback. It's all about trust. Your employees need to know that you care. The way you show you care about your employees is to start listening to them and changing things.

Flip the thought process on this. Is talent that is disengaged with what you do really top talent? You could have someone who is performing incredibly well on their KPI's, but if they're a negative impact on your culture or environment, are they going to truly add to your company? Yes, I appreciate a company has a responsibility to engage with employees and create that environment, but it will only be a great environment if the employees are bought in!

I agree with Jene’ Liddell (comment above) that, “It’s all about trust.” While her assertion that "Employee Disengagement is Quiet Quitting" has its merits, I hold a different perspective. Employee disengagement involves minimal effort to avoid termination, while Quiet Quitting represents boundary-setting. Disengaged employees perform the minimum to retain their jobs, whereas those engaged in Quiet Quitting strictly adhere to their job descriptions, refraining from extra tasks. This distinction emphasizes the importance of recognizing varying forms of employee behavior and addressing them accordingly for effective management and organizational success.

When someone starts disengaging, it might already be too late. And indeed, that is OK! People need to move on in their life.

Disengagement potentially has a significant cost. For example, it can lead to a poor customer experience, lower productivity, and also increased risk of safety incidents. So it needs to be managed, by either fixing the underlying causes or by optimising turnover.