{"id":5051,"date":"2019-06-06T06:15:29","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T11:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=5051"},"modified":"2019-05-21T16:31:56","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T21:31:56","slug":"how-do-you-know-when-your-employees-are-actively-disengaged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/how-do-you-know-when-your-employees-are-actively-disengaged\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do You Know When Your Employees Are &#8220;Actively Disengaged?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Editor\u2019s Note: The author, Dwight\u00a0Mihalicz, is a subject expert matter on effective management and hosting a free\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/webinar\/empowerment-4-0\">webinar for Flevy\u2019s audience on Empowerment 4.0<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0The focus of Empowerment 4.0 is to help managers of managers understand the elements that need to be in place for effective teams.\u00a0 Most management training focuses on the \u201csoft skills,\u201d whereas the teachings of Empowerment 4.0 are more fundamental and can help managers deal with root-cause issues of why they are not getting the team performance they desire and should be able to expect.\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/webinar\/empowerment-4-0\">You can sign up for the free webinar here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * *<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5052\" src=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pexels-photo-1798852-300x190.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\" srcset=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pexels-photo-1798852-300x190.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/pexels-photo-1798852.jpeg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>A recent study released by Gallup called \u201cThe State of the American Workplace\u201d revealed some pretty discouraging facts. According to the survey, employee engagement levels are stagnant among U.S. workers. In years past, we relied on \u201csatisfaction surveys\u201d to gather this information. Today,\u00a0<strong><i>engagement\u00a0<\/i><\/strong>is a widely accepted approach used by human resources to filter employees into one of three categories: engaged, not engaged and disengaged.<\/p>\n<h2>Engagement Categories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><i>Engaged<\/i>.<\/strong>\u00a0This is the preferred group. Employees are considered to be engaged when they<a title=\"Discovering the \u201cX\u201d Factor: The 3 Fundamental Capabilities of Managers\" href=\"https:\/\/effectivemanagers.com\/dwight-mihalicz\/discovering-the-x-factor-the-3-fundamental-capabilities-of-managers\/\">work with a passion<\/a>\u00a0and have a profound connection to the company. These are the employees who are typically driving innovation, going the extra mile, and doing what it takes for the company to be successful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><i>Not Engaged<\/i>.<\/strong>\u00a0These folks still come in to work every day and do their job, but it\u2019s as if they are sleepwalking through the workday, doing what needs to be done, and nothing more. These employees lack passion and energy needed for success.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><i>Actively Disengaged<\/i>.<\/strong>\u00a0These workers are not only unhappy with their present situation, but they act out or express this unhappiness through their behaviour. They are counterproductive in the workplace and they undermine others who are trying to do well.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What Does It Mean?<\/h2>\n<p>The survey finds that a whopping 68 percent of American workers are not reaching their full potential. With over 50 percent\u00a0<i>Not Engaged\u00a0<\/i>and 18 percent\u00a0<i>Actively Disengaged<\/i>, that leaves only 32 percent of U.S. employees fully engaged at work.\u00a0<b>What a tremendous waste of human potential!<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Whether we call them \u201csatisfaction surveys\u201d or \u201cengagement surveys\u201d, the point is the same and we keep learning the same thing \u2013 employees are not satisfied,<i>\u00a0<\/i>and they are clearly not engaged.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, with only one third of employees actively engaged at work, organizations have some real problems. Employee engagement surveys are consistently negative, and despite well-intentioned initiatives, organizations typically fail to resolve the situation. So what is the solution? It is important to get under the surface of the problem by understanding managerial engagement. This will enable organizations to get to root cause instead of dealing at the symptomatic level. If we understand the factors getting in the way of managers being effective, we can more clearly understand how to treat the overall problem.<\/p>\n<h2>Exploring Managerial Engagement Levels<\/h2>\n<p>How do we measure managerial engagement?\u00a0One way is to look at the amount of time they spend doing\u00a0<a title=\"Value-Added Work \u2013 Finding the Zone\" href=\"https:\/\/effectivemanagers.com\/dwight-mihalicz\/value-added-work-finding-the-zone\/\">value-added work<\/a>\u00a0versus work that is not value-added. What are the main factors that drive managers and support them in doing their job? What are the challenges they face that prevent them from spending time helping employees\u2019 focus on their priorities \u2013 lending support, coaching and training so that they will be engaged? Finally, what roadblocks prevent managers from making themselves available, establishing\u00a0<a title=\"What Are Today\u2019s Most Effective Managers Doing? Feedback Loops\" href=\"https:\/\/effectivemanagers.com\/dwight-mihalicz\/what-are-todays-most-effective-managers-doing-feedback-loops\/\">feedback loops,<\/a>\u00a0and helping employees engage in meaningful discussions to become more engaged in their job?<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of how diligently CEOs try to improve employee engagement, it\u2019s never going to be enough unless managers have the tools and resources to prioritize their time effectively. Only then will they be able to bring about meaningful change to the work environment for their employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u2019s Note: The author, Dwight\u00a0Mihalicz, is a subject expert matter on effective management and hosting a free\u00a0webinar for Flevy\u2019s audience on Empowerment 4.0.\u00a0 \u00a0The focus of Empowerment 4.0 is to help managers of managers understand the elements that need to be in place for effective teams.\u00a0 Most management training focuses on the \u201csoft skills,\u201d whereas&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/how-do-you-know-when-your-employees-are-actively-disengaged\/\" rel=\"bookmark\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How Do You Know When Your Employees Are &#8220;Actively Disengaged?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":5052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[408,85],"tags":[1638,1000,1639],"class_list":["post-5051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-leadership","category-organization","tag-employee-disengagement","tag-employee-engagement","tag-managerial-engagement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5053,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051\/revisions\/5053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}