Stop Your Employees From Taking Your Profits! - my new article
Hi!
Hi!
I want to thank all of my website and blog visitors for the wonderful emails I have received thanking me for my articles and telling me how my articles are helping the recipients with their management and motivation issues. I hope all of you are having a great day!
Below is my newest article. If you would like to see more of my articles please go to
www.howtomotivateemployeesnow.com
Below is my newest article. If you would like to see more of my articles please go to
www.howtomotivateemployeesnow.com
Stop Your Employees From Taking Your Profits
by Lois Moncrief
In the last issue, I talked about the Gallup Management Journal Survey from October 12, 2006 ( http://gmj.gallup.com/content/24880/Gallup-Study-Engaged-Employees-Inspire-Company.aspx ).
The survey mentions 3 types of employees: engaged, not-engaged, and actively disengaged.
It further stated that 15% of U.S. Workers (20.6 million) are "actively disengaged" costing the U.S. Economy $328 billion. That is a cost of $15,922.00 for each "actively disengaged" employee.
The survey mentions 3 types of employees: engaged, not-engaged, and actively disengaged.
It further stated that 15% of U.S. Workers (20.6 million) are "actively disengaged" costing the U.S. Economy $328 billion. That is a cost of $15,922.00 for each "actively disengaged" employee.
U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Press Release on April 16, 2009
( http://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.nr0.htm ) reports the median wage per worker is $738 per week or $38,376.00 per year. Therefore each median "actively disengaged" employee making $38, 376 per year is costing the U.S. Economy and his company $15,922.00 or 41% of his wages. Please note that the BLS URL listed has been updated to include the second quarter and is now dated July 16, 2009 and the numbers have changed slightly.
The Gallup Management Journal Survey gives the following definition
"Actively Disengaged" - employees aren't just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish."
So now we know of a big problem - "actively disengaged" employees costing your company a lot of money but what is the solution?
I have known managers who would say, "I am too busy - somehow this will take care of itself. I don't have time to deal with it."
I have never seen problems like this go away or somehow disappear or resolve themselves without intervention. What is more likely is these types of problems get worse and spread. What once was a "mole hill" becomes a "mountain" sized problem with time.
Generally speaking "actively disengaged" employees fall into one or both of two types or problems. The first, is a "performance based problem" and the second is a "discipline" based problem. As I said there are some "actively disengaged" employees who are both.
It is tempting to say just fire them as fast as possible. Maybe.
I suggest you assess the situation first.
(Depending upon what country you live in and what company you work for your employments laws and options may be different. I am giving you what has worked for me and my circumstances.)
This is the time when managers are expected to be part psychologists and part human nature observer. To start you need to answer the following questions for yourself.
Is this a new employee or an employee who has been with your company a long time?
Is this a new problem or a problem that has existed that you have not dealt with?
What is this person's history - have they been a good employee and this is a new problem?
Is this a reoccurring problem? Have you documented what has been happening?
A good first step is to have a one on one talk with the employee that centers on expected results in "performance" and/or "behavior" and how the employee is lacking.
Can the employee give you explanations and/ or reason(s) for the problem and what he sees as resolution.
This is giving them a chance to save face and deal with the problem before you have to.
This conversation requires a lot of tact on your part as you do not want to be seen as advising your employee in areas you are not qualified to do (psychological) or forcing the employee to reveal private information that he does not have to tell you.
The bottom line is you may or may not get any information that will help you understand what is going on. If you have a good relationship with the employee that is built on trust then you are more likely to get some answers that shed light on the problem.
Remember, you want to focus on the expected results for performance and/or behavior not the person.
Example for performance problem: maybe your performance standard requires your employees to make 100 widgets an hour and this "actively disengaged" employee is making only 75 widgets per hour.
Making only 75 widgets per hour is what you focus on and not anything else about the employee.
Example for discipline problem: Employees are expected to be to work at 8am each day and sign in immediately in a log book recording the time they arrived.
Your "actively disengaged" employee does not sign in and you have noticed this person arriving at 8:15 - 8:30am each day.
By the way, if you haven't already done so - Document! Document! Document!
Document the performance and/or discipline problems and any conversations you have with the employee relative to either of these problems. Make sure you date these and consider using email to send a copy to the employee of such conversations and what was agreed upon as a way of independently documenting time and what was said.
You, as the manager, are going to have to decide are there circumstances surrounding this situation that tell you it may be a short issue and that you can work with the employee to resolve it?
Example: The employee's car is in the shop and he does not have reliable transportation to get to work but should have his car back in a week or two.
If he is a good employee normally then you probably want to give him some "slack" for a short time.
If this is a longer problem and an employee who has been a problem for a while and is disruptive and clearly costing you money then you really do have an "actively disengaged" worker and must do something quickly to resolve it.
The U.S. government, in its wisdom, has a step wise process for dealing with both performance and disciplinary problems. These steps are of increasing consequences for failure to improve until finally the employee is removed from his position or brings his performance or disciplinary problems up to expected results.
I personally agree wholeheartedly with the stepwise process giving the employee several opportunities for change and therefore the employee must own the responsibility for the outcome.
During this stepwise process, act in good faith to help the employee to bring his performance and/or discipline issues up to an acceptable level by giving him frequent feedback on his progress.
The bottom line for you as a manager is you can not afford to ignore the problem.
That sends a very bad message to all of your employees. They will lose respect for you and become resentful of you if you do not resolve the issue in a reasonable amount of time.
You, as a manager, need to deal as quickly with the problem to resolve it as you can. This "actively disengaged" employee is costing you a lot of money and is probably interferring with your other employee's getting their jobs done because his performance and/or behavior are not acceptable.
After you have worked with the employee in good faith to show him what needs to be changed and gone through a step wise process of increasing consequences for failure then the next step should be clear. Either the employee has corrected the situation and can remain in your employment or the employee has not corrected the situation and must be released from employment.
( http://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.nr0.htm ) reports the median wage per worker is $738 per week or $38,376.00 per year. Therefore each median "actively disengaged" employee making $38, 376 per year is costing the U.S. Economy and his company $15,922.00 or 41% of his wages. Please note that the BLS URL listed has been updated to include the second quarter and is now dated July 16, 2009 and the numbers have changed slightly.
The Gallup Management Journal Survey gives the following definition
"Actively Disengaged" - employees aren't just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish."
Based on the Above Information It is Clear that Companies Like Yours Have a Problem That is Costing You a Lot of Profits - the Problem is Your "Actively Disengaged" Employees.
So now we know of a big problem - "actively disengaged" employees costing your company a lot of money but what is the solution?
I have known managers who would say, "I am too busy - somehow this will take care of itself. I don't have time to deal with it."
I have never seen problems like this go away or somehow disappear or resolve themselves without intervention. What is more likely is these types of problems get worse and spread. What once was a "mole hill" becomes a "mountain" sized problem with time.
Generally speaking "actively disengaged" employees fall into one or both of two types or problems. The first, is a "performance based problem" and the second is a "discipline" based problem. As I said there are some "actively disengaged" employees who are both.
Fire Fast?
It is tempting to say just fire them as fast as possible. Maybe.
I suggest you assess the situation first.
(Depending upon what country you live in and what company you work for your employments laws and options may be different. I am giving you what has worked for me and my circumstances.)
This is the time when managers are expected to be part psychologists and part human nature observer. To start you need to answer the following questions for yourself.
Is this a new employee or an employee who has been with your company a long time?
Is this a new problem or a problem that has existed that you have not dealt with?
What is this person's history - have they been a good employee and this is a new problem?
Is this a reoccurring problem? Have you documented what has been happening?
First Step
A good first step is to have a one on one talk with the employee that centers on expected results in "performance" and/or "behavior" and how the employee is lacking.
Can the employee give you explanations and/ or reason(s) for the problem and what he sees as resolution.
This is giving them a chance to save face and deal with the problem before you have to.
This conversation requires a lot of tact on your part as you do not want to be seen as advising your employee in areas you are not qualified to do (psychological) or forcing the employee to reveal private information that he does not have to tell you.
The bottom line is you may or may not get any information that will help you understand what is going on. If you have a good relationship with the employee that is built on trust then you are more likely to get some answers that shed light on the problem.
Remember, you want to focus on the expected results for performance and/or behavior not the person.
Example for performance problem: maybe your performance standard requires your employees to make 100 widgets an hour and this "actively disengaged" employee is making only 75 widgets per hour.
Making only 75 widgets per hour is what you focus on and not anything else about the employee.
Example for discipline problem: Employees are expected to be to work at 8am each day and sign in immediately in a log book recording the time they arrived.
Your "actively disengaged" employee does not sign in and you have noticed this person arriving at 8:15 - 8:30am each day.
Motivate"Actively Disengaged" Employee?
Document!
No. In some cases you can encourage the employee to do better and sometimes that will work - for a while. Unfortunately, with these cases, more is usually required to get the desired response.
Document!
By the way, if you haven't already done so - Document! Document! Document!
Document the performance and/or discipline problems and any conversations you have with the employee relative to either of these problems. Make sure you date these and consider using email to send a copy to the employee of such conversations and what was agreed upon as a way of independently documenting time and what was said.
You, as the manager, are going to have to decide are there circumstances surrounding this situation that tell you it may be a short issue and that you can work with the employee to resolve it?
Example: The employee's car is in the shop and he does not have reliable transportation to get to work but should have his car back in a week or two.
If he is a good employee normally then you probably want to give him some "slack" for a short time.
If this is a longer problem and an employee who has been a problem for a while and is disruptive and clearly costing you money then you really do have an "actively disengaged" worker and must do something quickly to resolve it.
Step Wise Process
The U.S. government, in its wisdom, has a step wise process for dealing with both performance and disciplinary problems. These steps are of increasing consequences for failure to improve until finally the employee is removed from his position or brings his performance or disciplinary problems up to expected results.
I personally agree wholeheartedly with the stepwise process giving the employee several opportunities for change and therefore the employee must own the responsibility for the outcome.
During this stepwise process, act in good faith to help the employee to bring his performance and/or discipline issues up to an acceptable level by giving him frequent feedback on his progress.
Bottom Line
The bottom line for you as a manager is you can not afford to ignore the problem.
That sends a very bad message to all of your employees. They will lose respect for you and become resentful of you if you do not resolve the issue in a reasonable amount of time.
You, as a manager, need to deal as quickly with the problem to resolve it as you can. This "actively disengaged" employee is costing you a lot of money and is probably interferring with your other employee's getting their jobs done because his performance and/or behavior are not acceptable.
After you have worked with the employee in good faith to show him what needs to be changed and gone through a step wise process of increasing consequences for failure then the next step should be clear. Either the employee has corrected the situation and can remain in your employment or the employee has not corrected the situation and must be released from employment.
Please Send Me Your Comments
(you may comment on one or more questions - whatever you like)
I would like to publish the best responses in the next few weeks in my ezine.
When you send me your comments:
- Share with us a success story you have had if you would like to.
- Tell us what industry you are in.
- If you are willing for me to post your response in the ezine, please indicate that on the email.
- I will publish your first name and the city, state, country (whatever you give me if you give me permission to publish your response and success story).
Here are the questions for you to respond to, if you would like to participate
- Do you think that 15% of your employees are "disengaged" and undermining what "engaged" employees accomplish?
- Do you think your "disengaged workers" are costing your company money in lost productivity?
- Have you been able to motivate your "disengaged employees" so they perform better? If so, how did you do it?
- Have you fired one or more of your "disengaged employees"? If so, why?
lois@howtomotivateemployeesnow.com
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