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I am working on an engagement where I am involved in a mentor consultation. We have talked about having an engaged workforce and what that actually meant. Is that all that there is to be concerned about is that the workforce is engaged? We seemed to think there was more to this that just the engagement part. So I decided to do some additional research for the benefit of my client.
I wasn’t totally surprised at the statistics that I uncovered but I am surprised that organizations are not taking notice of this. If I were to say to you as the CEO of your company that 75% of your employees are in some form of disengagement how would you respond to that. I suppose we could say – so what, but then what does that mean for the remaining 25% of your employees. Just as importantly what does that disengagement cost the bottom line of your company? Buckle up as this one caught me off guard – in the USA disengaged employees cost employers approximately $416B last year. I checked a number of sources as that number seemed high to me – and they are all within the same range. In Singapore the costs annually are in the range of $4.9B to $6.7B.
We know now that we have a large percentage of the workforce that is disengaged. What else should we be concerned about? Well, one statistic that didn’t surprise me was that 36% of Canadian employees are actually looking at changing employers. Chances are they may well be people that are in the 25% of engaged employees that are not happy with how you are managing this situation and how you don’t seem to understand the whole engaged employee concept.
So what are some of the reasons that engagement is extinguished so quickly in an employee? Here are some for us to think about and this list is not exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination:
The organization that I am working with gets it! They realized that being engaged is one piece of the puzzle. We also need to empower our employees and hold them accountable. Based on that we are working on establishing a mentoring culture where employees are engaged, empowered and accountable. Yes, that is right – accountable!! Employees are actually participating in establishing policies that address the accountability perspective. The contribution in our group sessions is one of high energy and where opinions are respected and discussed openly. We know this won’t happen overnight and it will always be a work in progress. We know that the majority of the issues we have listed above are disappearing and are no longer of any concern. We still need to be diligent in maintaining the mentoring culture as the organizational culture sores can return if we do not work at it. You need to remember that “engaged employees stay for what they give”, and “disengaged employees stay for what they get.”
Imagine if you can having a workforce of trusted employees that are engaged, empowered and accountable. Imagine having them beat you to work in the morning as they can hardly wait to help drive the company to new levels of productivity. Imagine having people lined up at the door wanting to come to work in your organization.
All of this can be achieved through the “power of mentoring!”
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