How to Ease Return-to-Office Anxiety Among Your Employees
September 5, 2024
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What is employee disengagement? Is it just when employees aren’t going above and beyond, or is there something more insidious behind it? Several companies have tried looking at disengagement from different angles, with many similar results coming out from their research. The pandemic, remote work, and the constant state of chaos that has defined the “new normal” have all taken their toll—and employers and workers might be suffering.
An article based on some research popped up on the McKinsey website. In this, the research’s authors, Aaron de Smet, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi, Angelika Reich, and Bill Schaninger, aim to identify disengaged employees.
This short article presents a five-question quiz that can help identify disengagement by categorizing workers into archetypes. These archetypes are thriving stars, reliable and committed, double dippers, mildly disengaged, disruptors, and quitters.
The research determined these categories in September 2023, and the authors concluded that a company loses $228 million and $355 million a year because of disengagement. But leadership must understand that no two workers are the same, thus the archetypes.
“We looked at 12 factors that affect employees’ satisfaction and commitment levels and found that nearly two-thirds of the total cost to companies from disengagement is captured by the top six factors.”
The main factors that create disengagement at work are as follows:
1. Inadequate compensation
2. Lack of meaningful work
3. Lack of flexibility
5. Unreliable people at work
An interesting finding is that the top 4% of the workforce (the thriving stars) work much better in fully remote or hybrid environments. Researchers believe that this is because thriving stars are able to meet work-life balance and boost their own satisfaction with their work. Meanwhile, the reliable and committed tend to do better in hybrid environments, while the disengaged tend to believe that remote work affects their perceived performance, but the in-person environment negatively impacts their health.
Fortune wrote a short article on LinkedIn about the new trend of employee disengagement and how it affects workers and organizations. They cite the Gallup report, which shares that, according to their research, only 33% of US workers are currently engaged in their jobs and that this number drops when you start looking at younger generations.
So, what happens if employees are disengaged? Research suggests that disengagement causes many workplace troubles, such as absenteeism and high turnover.
“And business leaders have to commit to changing the culture within a disengaged organization. But managers should also be checking in more often with their direct reports.”
Fortune points out that managers must find ways to engage and manage employees, even though they point out that this might be a tall ask since managers might be struggling under the weight of their own responsibilities. In general, there must be a desire to change the root of disengagement in their organization.
Liz Alton wrote a short guide for SHRM on what to do when disengaged at work. This article sheds light on actions that managers, business owners, and even employees can take to avoid the dreaded disconnection.
The first step to solving the problem is to know what is the root cause of disengaged employees. This root can be caused by many factors, from personal to company-wide problems. Personal problems are usually better left alone, but things have become less balanced since the pandemic. Amy Casciotti, vice president of human resources at TechSmith, says that many issues began with the pandemic and haven’t slowed down.
“Casciotti notes that there’s currently a mental health crisis, and many managers are seeing an increase in employees taking leave for mental health reasons.”
On the other hand, satisfaction is dropping among employees, who are barely attached to their company’s mission and purpose, which speaks of a larger gap. Now, how do you turn around disengagement at work? Alton has seven steps:
1. Find the disengaged employees
2. Question them thoroughly (but kindly)
3. Find solutions together
4. Highlight the benefits
5. Change what you can
6. Respect comes first
7. Build a healthy company culture
There is a big chance that you or several employees in your charge are disengaged. Disengagement is a big problem for companies and employees’ quality of life, but it can be turned around by talking openly and laying out a personal plan. Thanks to McKinsey’s research, we know that employees tend to accurately self-report their satisfaction and engagement levels, so there is a lot of value in anonymously using the quiz they offer.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO FIND?
