Engaged and Disengaged Employees in the Workplace

The CIPD (2014) factsheet states that Employee Engagement is a concept that ‘is generally seen as an internal state of being – physical, mental and emotional – that brings together earlier concepts of work effort, organisational commitment, job satisfaction and ‘flow’ (or optimal experience)’. An engaged workforce willingly demonstrates discretionary effort within their roles; their goals and values reflect that of their employers/organisation; they express a passion for work, feel valued and that their work has meaning.

If you review the statistics given by the Ivey Business Journal you will see that there is a big disconnect between employees and engagement with the company they employ. (Dan Crim, 2006)

In internationally competitive business environments, employers need dedicated employees fully committed to the success of their organization (Kenan-Flagler, 2011). Although, there is a difference between employees who are engaged and those who are disengaged in terms of their commitment to the organization, motivation, enthusiasm and their focus on building a better future for their company. In these areas where engaged employees excel, disengaged employees fall short. These employees can have a negative effect on everything from customer service to sales, quality of products, productivity of the workers and other crucial areas of the business. The companies that invest their time in getting to know what matters to their employees are the

In studies, there is a correlation between a highly engaged workforce and the overall success of the company. Engaged work groups are 33% more profitable and 50% more productive (right.com 17). Common problems employers have is they carry the false assumption that employees are aware of the corporate goals of the company. This problem is easily overlooked in both management and employees as they are focused on the immediate tasks and are not aware how their actions contribute to the organization as a whole. This causes employees to not goals aligned with their organizations goals. Not having this understanding, employees become disengaged because they believe their work contributes to anything significant. When an organization’s goals are not understood, it becomes increasingly difficult to improve their performance (business salary). Keeping well performing employees is vital to the success of any company. It is also important to identify TWK’s employees do not work as a team. Instead, employees work for their individual goals. In TWK’s case, the goal for the majority of people at TWK is to retain their jobs, keeping themselves employed. An example of this separation

Organizations often say that their employees are their greatest asset. However, this statement is only accurate if their employees are engaging in their work. Disengaged employees lead to high attrition, low production, and poor company culture. Employee disengagement in the United States is at its all-time high. According to the most recent Gallup poll, seventy percent of American workers are disengaged in their workplace (2013). However, this does not mean that our organization’s employees have to reflect this statistic. Based on my recent study, we can improve employee engagement within this organization if we improve our communication efforts.

As Gallup measured in their research that there is still an overwhelming number of disengaged individuals in the workplace, which has cost the organizations in the United States at an enormous amount of about 300 billion dollars annually (Gallup Consulting, 2006). Certain programs are initiated in different workplace to embed employee engagement. Personally, apart from the traditional motivational factors of financial and non-financial incentives to increase employee morale and active participation within the goals of the organization; it would even be more remarkable to come up with innovative practices that would be unique to the organization and meet the demands of the business.

Employees who are “not engaged” exude the feeling that they are just there for a paycheck. This type of person is not contributing and just goes thru the motions in the performance of their job duties. The worst type of employee is an “actively” disengaged employee. That type of person is also known as a trouble maker. Whatever good that an engaged employee accomplishes, an actively disengaged employee tries to destroy. Disengaged employees are unhappy and they want everyone they come in contact with to know it. Organizations with disengaged employees are more vulnerable to lower productivity, higher absenteeism, higher turnover and lower product or service quality.

This course emphasized the concept of employee engagement in the workplace. Employee engagement is critical for many reasons, it is necessary to understand and help organizations lower employee turnover, increase revenue, and help managers communicate more efficiently. There are differences between employees who are actively engaged and disengaged in the workplace. Within active engagement, it is more likely that an employee is confident, valued, and inspired within the organization. They understand their personal worth in the group. The quote by Maya Angelou resonated with me, “People will forget what you said, what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel”. This quote speaks true to all aspects of life, not just in the workplace. When we treat people with their God-given significance, it can motivate them to work and live better. Employees who are

Employee engagement has been recognised by many organisations as a leading and primary source and tool of competitive advantage and business success. Based on research conducted, engaged employees are recognised as being more productive than disengaged employees; thus leading to improved employee performance, increased workplace productivity and profitability, and ultimately, organisational success. The term employee engagement is primarily associated with the employee’s commitment to the objectives, goals and ultimate success of an organisation, exercised together with the enhancement of the employee’s own sense of well-being and development. David Macleod explains employee engagement as “a concept that is greater than the sum of its parts” and describes the concept as, “this is about how we create conditions in which employees offer more of their capability and potential” (Macleod, 2015).

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment an employee shows for the organization and its goals (Kruse 2012). It can also be defined as the act of an employee being involved in, enthusiastic about and satisfied with his or her work (Seijts et al.., 2006). An engaged employee is one who actually cares and is passionate about his job and company goals. He or she does not work just to get a paycheck rather they work to ensure the organization’s goals are met.

Job involvement is the degree to which an employee is engaged in and enthusiastic about performing their work. Employee engagement is the heightened emotional and intellectual connection that an employee has for his/her job, organization, manager, or coworkers that, in turn, influences him/her to apply additional discretionary effort to his/her work. An ‘engaged’ employee will understand and agree with the objectives of your business. They will come to work feeling motivated and energised but unfortunately that’s about it. ‘Engagement’ is the result of a passive acceptance of company values and objectives. It helps increase productivity, to a point. The next step that every business should strive towards, is ‘involvement’. An involved employee will take an active role in the business. They will implement new initiatives, take ownership of himself and actively participate in driving change.‘Involvement’ is the active pursuit of these objectives. An involved employee will help drive the organization forward and add value to your business. Businesses like Google, Ford, and Wal-Mart and tackling slackers with new and creative ways to get more involved employees.

A big amounf of employees do not feel connected to their work. The reasons cited fort his ; the recession ( during which companies laid off big swaths of their employees with little regard of loyalty) , a whittling away

Lack of engagement is endemic, and is causing large and small organizations all over the world to incur excess costs, under perform on critical tasks, and create widespread customer dissatisfaction. The annual financial loss in the US due to disengagement of managers and employees is about $300B US (Gallup Poll, 2005). Improving organizational performance requires a highly engaged and happy workforce. Research on happiness in the workplace suggests that worker well-being plays a major role in organizational performance and that there is a strong relationship between worker

On the basis of the set of provocative propositions, as mention above, employee will take initiative and act differently aligned with organizational vision. Appreciative inquiry helps in team building, through experiments and test, and found improvement in a team 's process and performance (Bushe & Coetzer, 1995).

This study will tackle about the definitions of employee engagement and disengagement. Internal, external, and interactive impacts of lack of employee engagement are determined in order to full comprehend the consequences. Suggestions and recommendations are provided addressing about enhancing employee engagement with the applications of relevant theories. Representative engagement may appear like an irrelevant idea yet it has an undeniable impact on an organisation 's main concern. For better profitability, consumer loyalty, and benefit, developing connected with and driven representatives is an unquestionable requirement. Disengagement is a channel on assets and time that cannot be permitted to rot in today 's economy for organisations of all sizes.