Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Disengaged Employees

I'm sure all of us have experience working with fellow employees who just were not into their job or what they were doing. Some may have been mad with the government, the company, or a family member. There are any number of reasons to have a bad attitude. Have you ever wondered what it costs the company you work for when there are a group of negative personalities about?

An HR Professionals site claims actively disengaged employees cost employers approximately $416 billion in 2009 in lost productivity. These figures come from the Gallup Organization's employment engagement surveys.

The reason I'm writing about this today is because I traveled today to a sister site in South Carolina that was just sold to an investment firm. The deal is scheduled to be complete later this year. My task is to provide training to a group of employees over the next couple of days. I wonder what kind of vibe will be in class over the next couple of days. Any of you who have been involved in a merger or takeover as I have know how goofy and uncertain things can be for a period of weeks or months. Then when the new owner takes over it continues and often gets weirder. The link above provides some insight into what leaders can do to affect the mood and help with the transition. 

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for this Ray. I am the Hospitality Committee Chair at my school and as a result of plummetting morale at our high school this year (budget issues, increasing mandates, lack of effective administration) I've also been dubbed "morale police". I look forward to checking out this link! Good luck this week training your sister company!

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