Why Employees Disengage—And How Great Communication Brings Them Back

The problem: Employee disengagement due to ineffective leadership communication
Shortcomings in the effectiveness of leadership communication can adversely impact employee engagement and determine the difference between optimal and suboptimal individual and organizational performance. Disengaged employees cost organizations approximately $7 trillion in lost productivity, evident in several areas, including but not limited to lower customer metrics, decreased sales revenue, and reduced profitability, often resulting in increased absenteeism, lower individual performance, and diminished quality of output.  

Studies show that only 33% of the more than 100 million full-time American employees are actively engaged at work. This indicates that just a third of U.S. full-time employees love their jobs and work diligently to improve their organizations. Among the remaining two-thirds, 51% are merely present (i.e., apathetic disengagement), while 16% are unhappy at work, consistently undermining what the engaged employees strive to build, and they ultimately leave the company (i.e., active disengagement). An astonishing 87% of employees believe that ineffective leadership communication strategies are prevalent within their organizations.
 
Furthermore, 70% of U.S. employees feel that their workplace concerns are seen as irrelevant or undervalued. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that most of the 67% of disengaged U.S. employees are included in the large group experiencing ineffective organizational leadership communication.
 
Shockingly high percentages of workforce members acknowledge their disengagement and hesitance to voice concerns. They often engage in strategic behaviors aimed at concealing their true thoughts, resulting in missed opportunities for organizational improvement by leadership teams.

Transformational effects of effective leadership communication
In a healthy organization, employees at all levels are fully engaged and, therefore, motivated and intentional about putting forth their best efforts and ideas to contribute effectively to improving the organizations where they work. Engaged employees enhance organizational success through critical thinking, helping their organizations mitigate risks, solve problems, and resolve conflict. With this in mind, organizational leaders must invest in communication strategies that address the causes and effects of employee disengagement and maintain a consistent commitment to implementing these strategies and ensuring their sustained presence.

Focusing on building and maintaining connections with your people through effective communication will bring tremendous benefits to the organization, everyone within it, and the consumers of its products and services.
 
Implementing a plan to enhance leadership communications will be worthwhile in itself, given the high likelihood of turnover rates linked to employee disengagement. No matter the cause, employee turnover can cost an organization between 50% and 200% of an individual's annual salary, factoring in the administrative tasks related to termination, recruitment, onboarding, and training.

In other words, through effective communication and the consequent improvements in employee engagement and retention, an organization with 100 employees earning average annual salaries of $50K can recover $660K to $2.6M annually in turnover and replacement costs, based on the 2017 American turnover rate of over 26%.
 
That said, there are no clear disadvantages to enhancing leadership communications to foster strong connections with members of the organization. Not only will the company enjoy significant financial savings from increased engagement and productivity (thereby reducing turnover), but the individuals within the organization will also thrive due to new growth and development opportunities. The organization will retain more of its top talent — the constant innovators and most skilled problem solvers.
 
More than half of the employees who voluntarily leave their organizations believe that their manager could have taken actions to prevent their departure. In the three months leading up to their exit, not one organizational leader reached out to discuss their job satisfaction or future within the company. When leaders are tuned in and responsive to the interests and concerns of their constituents, countless opportunities emerge, allowing for proactive action that enhances the organization's ability to retain its top talent — the continuous innovators and most skilled problem solvers.

So how do we get there?
Talk to your people. A key factor in enhancing employee engagement through better leadership communication is straightforward — engage with your people. As a leader, it’s essential to invest time in meaningful conversations with your team about their work, their lives beyond the workplace, their unique strengths, and how all these elements connect. Prioritize these discussions to help your organization gain a clearer understanding of the motivations behind members' behaviors and approaches; this will provide insights into small adjustments needed to achieve optimal results.

Manage performance and recognition with care. Be careful to use performance measurements in a positive way to avoid demotivating your team. Utilize performance measurements as a tool to foster growth, establish accountability, and offer specific recognition for significant achievements. An ineffective performance measurement strategy can be counterproductive, as it may lead employees to question your trustworthiness and your ability to evaluate their performance instead of inspiring them to excel.  

Coaching your people toward excellence requires frequent, focused, and future-oriented performance discussions. Focus on individual strengths rather than weaknesses and on successes (large and small) rather than failures or shortcomings. When discussing failures, focus your communications on what can be done to improve. Be sure to consider the whole person, not just the numbers or the output, and be open to the idea of finding different roles into which low performers in their current roles might fit better.  

Learn what is important to your people and provide adequate, timely recognition for accomplishments based on individual values. Recognition or rewards that do not align with an individual's values will not carry much weight.  

Engage individuals in establishing goals that will foster their learning and growth based on their unique capabilities, rather than imposing predetermined goals as directives; your team members are likely to become three times more engaged and motivated to pursue these objectives.
 
Provide a safe place for honesty and candor. Foster honesty and openness while creating an environment of safety and security for your team. This approach will cultivate a setting where your team has the resources they need to thrive in their roles, ensuring access to materials, partnerships, opportunities, and support. Additionally, this will help reduce employee communication anxiety, which can impede engagement levels, professional growth, and workplace effectiveness, ultimately affecting organizational success.

Foster a sense of purpose. Offer your people opportunities to engage in meaningful work that aligns with their individual values. Foster an understanding of "the big picture." When employees find a sense of purpose in their work and see how their contributions make a difference, they tend to feel more satisfied and fulfilled in their roles.

In summary, structure your communication strategy to prioritize caring for your people over tasks, and take extra care to ensure that your actions and decisions align with your words and intentions. Doing so will enhance your employees' job satisfaction and their commitment to the organization.    
 

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