Disengaged employees in turn means a lack of productivity, which can be very costly to organisations, as this quote illustrates - “Engaged employees in UK take an average of 2.7 sick days per year compared to disengaged employees who take 6.2 days. Sickness absence costs the UK economy £13.4bn pa.”(CBI 2012)

Part of a manager’s role should be to recognise the potential signs that an employee might be disengaged or indeed heading that way. So here are just a few signals to look out for in your team –
1) Increase in sick days
2) A change to normal working patterns 
3) Not reaching targets or deadlines
4) A general negative outlook 

Once it’s been recognised that there’s an issue, a systematic, calm and swift approach is required. The likelihood is as soon as one member of the team is openly disgruntled it doesn’t take long to impact on general morale, so don’t be tempted to bury your head - act now! This is the stage when many managers seek our assistance, recognising that the right approach is needed.

There could be a vast array of factors as to why an employee isn’t performing to the best of their abilities, for instance, lack of recognition or empowerment, unfair pay/benefits, a change in personal circumstances – to name just a few.

Our approach would be to spend time understanding your organisations’ culture, strategy and more specifically the HR objectives. A number of methods including workshops, surveys and one to one sessions help identify the pain points, from which a plan can be devised. Our expertise really lies in creating an on-going internal communications campaign. The main aim is that all employees are listened to, openly communicated to and they buy-in to what the company is trying to achieve. Furthermore, it is crucial that organisations commit to a Values Statement which is aligned with the values and culture of the company, and that this is imbedded in the thought process of every business function.

Ultimately we believe that any marketing campaign should initially be focused on your staff prior to extending it to external parties. So commit to proactive on-going employee engagement, rather than taking a knee-jerk reactive ad-hoc approach.