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Team leaders and HR executives rightly place a lot of focus on employee engagement—but in this post, we’re going to explore that topic from a different perspective.

Today, I want to write briefly about employee disengagement. By understanding what causes employees to disengage with their work, you can better understand how to keep them on board and fully engaged.

Here are just a few of the most common drivers of employee disengagement.

The Primary Causes of Employee Disengagement

Based on some survey data that I’ve gathered, the most common drivers of employee disengagement are as follows:

  1. Employees feel as though the organization does not respect them.
  2. There’s a lack of respect for the senior leadership—whether due to issues of competence, personal integrity, ethics, etc.
  3. The leader/manager/direct supervisor does not value the employee’s unique contributions.
  4. The leader/manager/direct supervisor doesn’t offer a clear sense of goals or objectives.
  5. The leader/manager/direct supervisor does not encourage collaboration and teamwork.
  6. The employee’s ideas are not taken seriously.
  7. The employee does not receive meaningful or constructive feedback from the direct supervisor.
  8. The company does not have clearly stated values—or, the actions of the company don’t align with those values.

Reflections on Employee Disengagement

Now, let me share a few thoughts on this data. First, you’ll see that most of these bullet points relate to how leaders and managers act—meaning that if you hold a leadership role in your company, you influence employee engagement, or the lack of it! That’s a significant responsibility, but it also suggests that if there’s an issue with disengagement, it can be addressed by adopting new leadership approaches.

Something else that strikes me here is the importance of the big picture. It matters to employees that there be organizational values and objectives, and that their individual role play a part in advancing those values and objectives.

Finally, so much of this boils down to communication. Do you make your team members feel valued? Do you engage with their ideas? Do you provide adequate feedback? All of these are matters of good communication, plain and simple.

There are abundant opportunities here to understand where employee disengagement comes from—and also how you can mitigate it. I’d love to talk more about this, and invite you to contact me today.