Why twenty percent of your workforce may be sequestering the rest

A recent study by Gallup shows that workers’ attitudes towards their workplace have not changed in a decade. The metric is based on the level of worker engagement with the employer;  a concept very related to productivity.  For ten years, the percentage of engaged, disengaged or actively disengaged has remained relatively constant. This leads me to two assumptions that I confess may be too simplistic for many to digest. The first is that many of the strategies used by human resources to motivate these employees do not work. The other is that no matter what you do to lift morale in your company,  there will always be a 20% of your workers that will not respond.  Coincidentally the study reflects the same level of disconnection every year, for ten years.

 Actively disconnected employees tend to be considerably  less productive, less loyal, less ethical, complain more, get sick and are absent more often.  They demotivate the rest and burden the management of your human resources. You might recall  Pareto’s  Law of 20/80.  In this case 20% of your employee may be dragging the other 80%

 Be selective in how you  invest the money for  learning and development. Despite all the programs that have been devised-  like individualized training, empowerment, rewards and benefits, coaching, leadership programs, mentoring, work-life balance, recognition, metrics, blah blah blah- each year companies on the whole continue to have the same level of disgusted employees.  Not that these programs don’t work, some do and some do not. To what extent, it will depend on your ability to measure results.

 Always quantify your investment in human resources and make a cost-benefit analysis. Regarding the incorrigible 20 percent  , statistics appear to reflect that HR gurus have yet to discover the remedy.

 An integral part of a strategy to improve the overall attitude of employees could be to identify individuals within the group of chronically disenchanted and remove them from the workplace- but first hire an experienced employment attorney. It is likely that people within this  group will be litigious and predisposed to conflict.

You might find within this group a number of disengaged supervisors; if that is the case, they should be the first to go.  Many studies have confirmed that employees’ relationship with their supervisor is the number one factor influencing engagement and disengagement.

 If you are confident (with surveys and other metrics) that your supervisors are doing their part to improve workers’ attitude, there is no reason to continue subsidizing low-caliber employees. There are many people  outside looking for an opportunity. Just be careful not to re-recruit the same type of person.