Is Employee Apathy Killing Team Performance? Here are 5 Ways To Boost Engagement Levels

You brought in the brightest and best, all talented recruits that promised to take your team to the next level. But somehow enthusiasm has waned and employee apathy has taken hold, killing productivity.  Can you turn it around?  Yes! Invest in your people, and boost Employee Engagement.

Employee apathy is a common problem. According to research carried out in 2013, as much as 48% of all employees worldwide are unhappy in their jobs, causing high job turnover. Meanwhile, the Gallup 2013 State of the American Workplace Report, revealed that just 30% of employees in the US felt “engaged”, with almost 1 in every 5 employees (18%) feeling “actively disengaged”.

Perhaps more worrying, however, is the effect employee apathy can have on colleagues, with Gallup describing disenchanted employees as damaging influences that cost an estimated US$550 billion in lost productivity every year.

The potential damage is huge, so you need to lead your team out of the doldrums and into a more positive and dynamic place as quickly and effectively as possible.

Overcoming Employee Apathy

The good news is that Employee Apathy is not a lost cause. The simplest solution is to invest in your employees.

• Listen To Your Employees – It’s the obvious first step to ask what is wrong, but the trick is to actually care and let your staff know you do. Arrange some one-to-one meetings and listen.
• Provide Clear Cross-Training and Advancement Structures – Dead-end jobs are a breeding ground for apathy. So, make clear there are rewards and advancements to be achieved.
• Introduce Social Rewards – Offer a range of rewards that the whole team can enjoy in a relaxed, social atmosphere, like impromptu catered luncheons and free coffee and desserts. The reason could be anything from meeting a target to appreciating the work being done.
• Arrange Team Building Events – These events require cooperation and communication between team members in focused tasks – but are also fun. They offer a refreshing break from the office without abandoning the idea of achieving.
• Use Personal Profiling and Team Communication Workshops – companies use personal profiling to understand the communication style that best suit individual team members. These workshops look at both the personal effectiveness and organizational effectiveness of the team and its members.

Personal And Organisational Effectiveness

Research shows that employee frustration lifts when employees understand the value of their contribution to the organisation is and how well the team benefits as a result – known as their Personal and Organisational Effectiveness.

• Personal Effectiveness – individual team members examine their interaction with co-members. They learn how to appreciate others’ differences, and to adapt their behaviour to interact more effectively.
• Organisational Effectiveness – examine your team as a whole, and whether it is operating cohesively and at its full potential. Is your team is creating an inspired culture? Is it aligning corporate personality and strategic goals? Is it properly connecting with customers?

Learning both aspects can strengthen the team dynamic, with team members better able to communicate and interact, and individuals better able to recognize the importance of their own roles.

Orangeworks has developed a wide range of team building and development experiences each designed to revive your team member’s sense of value, creativity, enthusiasm and effectiveness, giving your team the confidence to take on whatever high winds are coming.