3 Clues You Might [NOT] Have Happy, Engaged, Productive Employees

How can we identify whether or not employees are happy, engaged, and contributing productively to the organization? It start by noticing symptoms of an effective (or otherwise ineffective) culture.

In business we are constantly identifying and solving problems. It's important to clarify the difference between symptoms and true problems. A true problem is the cause of a symptom. When treated, it leads to better results. If we wrongly judge a symptom to be a problems we will build solutions that don't actually make the problem go away.

Ex: If you think the problem is your revenue dipped in Q3, that's actually a symptom. We have to dig deeper and ask why that happened? Was it because recurring clients expired and didn't renew? Was it because of supply chain challenges that were out of your hands? Was there a breakdown the sales team sending out new contracts? Mis-diagnosing this symptom could lead to a slurry of ineffective work (spending more marketing dollars! Bigger better campaigns. Pushing harder!)

When it comes to the ever evolving cultivation of great places to work, here are three symptoms you might take notice of to investigate whether you have happy, engaged and productive employees.

Happy Employees Take Fewer Sick Days

Are you noticing patterns with your team taking time off? One study showed that unhappy employees take an average of 15 sick days per year. Now they could truly be sick, or just "sick work". Check in with your team, see how they are doing.

Engaged Employee's Speak Up

Your front line employees play a critical role in gauging what the market wants and how it is responding to your offers. Do they speak up when they sees problems and offer solutions?

When a team member is regularly contributing to solutions for customer complaints or requests, and speaking up about solutions during meetings, it contributes to growing the organization. If you are seeing people not speak up, they may have adopted an apathetic attitude or not know their feedback is valuable. Seek feedback and set up systems that allow this to happen regularly.

Productive Employees Meet Deadlines

When team members are clear on their responsibilities for a project, and empowered to make decisions and deliver solutions, they follow through by prioritizing the right work and delivering their tasks on time. It feels good to stay on time and on budget!

But this isn't always the case. Sometimes there is a lack of clarity, a lack of skill, a knowledge gap or even procrastination happening precluding things from being completed effectively. When deadlines are missed, and a "fire" breaks loose it's frustrating for everyone. Fire-fighting at work sucks bandwidth and resources across departments and truly has significant cost compared to staying on top of goals, KPIs, deadlines, and deliverables.

If you notice team members falling behind with their work, unable to prioritize, or seeming frustrated, take a look at how you might better equip and support them. It feels good to be on a winning team!

The Opportunity Of Crisis and Chaos

One of the biggest opportunities of choke-points, problems, and negative energy is the chance for you and your team to look closer and find the root cause of these symptoms.

If a plumber mopped up water found on the kitchen floor, but didn't fix the leak, he'd be back the next day to mop up a new mess. Start by examining these three areas in your business and see what you find. Find the leak, fix it. Don't mop up problems.

As we work to build environments where employees feel valued, empowered, and productive we can all benefit from the outcomes of a positive culture.?

For more insights on how to build a high performance life and business, you can find One People One Planet on Amazon.

Michael Glauser is an entrepreneur, business consultant, and university professor. He has built successful companies in the retail, wholesale, and educational industries and has worked with hundreds of businesses—from startups to multinational enterprises—in leadership development, communication, team building, and organizational strategy.

Today, Mike serves as Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. He’s also the Director of the SEED self-sufficiency program, helping people around the world to improve their standard of living and benefit their communities through entrepreneurship.