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7 Ideas for Re-Engaging the Disengaged

Suchi Goswami | Updated On November 24, 2023

Are you perplexed because of the increasing disengagement rate of your employees? Are you exhausted from researching what can help you to improve this situation? There exist a multitude of reasons why employees might have become disengaged, whether it’s an issue with their job, the workplace culture, the management, or the business itself.

However, if you are noticing an increase in disengagement, remember that all is not lost. Let me tell you that it’s not an issue to lament, as it will only waste your precious time.

Didn’t understand the gist? Well, get out of your place as you have to work tremendously, and trust me, all of your efforts are going to be successful in the end. Erase your disappointment because I will be explaining 7 extremely useful tips with the help of which you can boost employee engagement. Dive into the article to understand every idea in detail. 

In this day and age, benefits and rewards are more important and impactful than ever before. One survey by Flexjobs found that 31% of respondents cited a lack of or poor benefits as a reason why they want to quit their job. 

So, if your employees are disengaged, why not consider offering them an employee rewards and benefits package? Firstly, though, you will need to ascertain what your employees will value the most. For example, for a demographic of new graduates, discounted gym memberships or gift vouchers might be more appropriate than, say, subsidized child care or early retirement. 

You should keep transparency while communicating with your employees. Besides, always try to incorporate two-way communication so that there doesn’t remain any kind of redundancy and doubt on the part of employees. You can practice this while announcing any new business policies, conference meetings, seminars, new business ideas, and much more. Ask every single employee to clear their doubts, provide suggestions, and raise any issue without any fear. In simple terms, the more you keep your employees clued in on what is going on with your business, the more they will be able to relate to the business and understand where it is going. That said, it is important to ensure that you not only communicate the good but the bad too. 

In doing so, employees will feel that they can speak openly and honestly with you, too, fostering a healthy workplace environment. 

Recognition doesn’t have to be something massive – a simple ‘thank you for all your hard work’ can go a long way. In addition to big wins, you might also say ‘well done’ when people have made mistakes, as the lessons learned will be invaluable. 

As reported by Forbes, 46% of workers in the US alone left a job due to being underappreciated – and 65% said they would work harder if they were recognized more. With this in mind, effective recognition can prove to re-engage the workforce. 

Another way to make employees feel valued and more engaged is to ask for their opinions – and then listen to them! Foster a collaborative working culture, and set goals together as a team. This will give everyone something to work towards that means something to them. 

After the prevalence and success of flexible working practices during the coronavirus lockdowns, it would be naive to discount flexible working even post-pandemic. Going back to the Flexjobs survey, 43% of respondents want to quit their job due to a lack of remote working options, and 41% for the company not allowing flexible schedules. 

Thus, it is crucial to offer flexible working options – such as flexitime or remote working – especially when employees are lacking in engagement. 

Boredom is one of the biggest contributors towards disengagement – but, on the other hand, so is being too busy with something you struggle with. Some peculiar jobs demand the utmost menial attention while performing them. It’s quite ordinary for any employer to get isolated gradually, which affects his/her engagement rate with the organization.

It has to be understood that learning is a lifelong process. If a human voluntarily or involuntarily stops his/her learning at any phase, the interest doesn’t stay forever; it may vanish quickly. Such is the same problem in business organizations also that mostly happens with the majority of the employees. To tackle this situation, you can bring some innovative programs of learning and development for your employees. These programs can be conducted at all levels of employment so that no business operation remains left behind.

Employees also get an opportunity to learn and develop new skills to their existing skills. With this in mind, you might consider learning and training programs both for people to refresh their skills and relearn aspects of the job they struggle with and allow them to progress. 

Many of your disengaged employees can be the precious gems of your organization, as it’s highly probable that many of them may be hiding their talents. Once you uncover them,  you will realize that utilizing such wonderful talent can transform your business indeed. However, the problem is that your disengaged employees don’t show their potential.

The possible reasons are that their monotonous jobs may be preventing them from showcasing their true flair in their work. Being an employer, it’s your responsibility to remove such ideology and change this mindset. Develop informative interactions through offline and online meetings, chats, group activities, and many other ways. You will get to know the infinite wealth of opportunities that exist amongst your manpower.

For instance, you can observe that Mr. A in the accounts department can also create attractive graphic designs, and Mr. B in the IT department is running a successful blog, and working on such a blog, he/she gained a decent base of followers.

You can use such versatile employees, diversify their roles so that they don’t feel disengaged, and at the same time, your business also gets benefitted. The employees feel more satisfied in the sense that they can follow both their profession and passion at their workplace itself. Their engagement with the organization increases automatically, and you don’t have to increase it forcefully.

Conclusion

And there you have it – just 7 simple ideas to help you to re-engage the disengaged employees within your organization. I hope that you got a vision regarding how to tackle this one of the most pathetic situations in the corporate world. Employees must remain engaged while working in any company. If the opposite prevails, then it’s a matter of great concern which has to be looked upon as a high priority, and an immediate course of action should be taken based on respective situations. 

As it’s always said that employees are the greatest asset of any company, you should never compromise their physical and mental health when they are serving your company. It’s your manpower who plays a prominent part in your huge success in business. Therefore, take it not as a sole duty but as a responsibility to help your employees in every possible way so that there doesn’t remain any question of poor or no engagement.