The building blocks of any organisation are its employees. Since the growth or stagnation of any company is entirely based on the performance of its employees so naturally demotivated or disengaged employees are a problem for the entire company’s outlook.
The underperformance of the disengaged employees is a tremendous waste of the company’s time and resources. On top of that, demotivated employees, in the long run, can even engage in defrauding the company, which eventually is a costly affair.
It is the responsibility of the manager to deal with the disengaged employees. Since the productivity and growth of any company is directly related to the employee’s performance, the comfort and happiness of an employee become a necessity.
Understanding the needs of every individual employee and resolving any unnecessary pressure they might be undergoing a long way in the growth of a company.
We have curated a list of mistakes you might be making when it comes to dealing with your employees.These mistakes can turn your employees highly demotivated and loose the productivity. Understanding these points and acting accordingly will go a long way for the wellbeing of your employees and help your organisation in the long run.
Not giving positive reinforcement
Every job generates some amount of pressure and it requires the person to be under a certain amount of rigour. Disengaged and unmotivated employees often succumb to these pressures easily that results in less productivity. Timely encouragement and giving the credit where it is due goes a long way in the wellbeing of an employee.
Positive reinforcement for the work well done only encourages the employees to be better at their work. While the needs of different employees can vary, some employees expect appraisal, some just need appreciation and some need flexibility in their work.
Regularly encouraging the employees and rewarding them on good work is one of the keys to keep the productivity high in the workplace.
No focus on training and development of employees
Most employees who are dedicated, talented and productive to your organisation seek for more learning opportunities. Working in the organisation they expect to be mentored by the manager, learn new skills and grow.
You can keep your best employees motivated if you provide them training and growth opportunities Along with personal mentorship, a focus on outside training is imperative. A good manager should always invest in employees’ training and development with online classes and seminars.
Not only does this help in making the employee more productive, but it also helps in making a more skilled workforce that inadvertently helps the company in the longer run.
No informal relationship results in employee demotivation
An empathic tone and a genuine interest in the employees life goes along in cultivating a good relationship with them. Purely formal communication with the employees can often lead to them feeling a disconnect from the organisation thus an informal bond with them creates trust and leads to better communication with an employee.
One of the challenges for the manager is to find a balance between being strict and being friendly. An employee should always feel comfortable within the organisation for them to be the most productive.
Lack of flexibility
Again, employees are not robots. They need the flexibility to be productive. Enough flexibility helps employees to have work-life balance. Overburdening the employees demotivate them and reduce their productivity.
Especially at the time of the pandemic, many people live in remote areas and they cannot come to the office. But does it mean that they should be expelled from the organisation? If an employee is productive to you there’s nothing wrong in providing little flexibility.
Declining all the leaves, not letting them to work from home at times, rigid work hours trouble the employees and demotivate them to perform better.
Promoting an undeserving employee
Every employee in an organisation understands where they stand in comparison to other employees. If any undeserving employee is promoted over a deserving one especially in the cases where nepotism is involved, it demotivates the deserving employee.
Situations like these disrupt the entire environment in the workplace. It creates a certain distrust between the employees and the manager. Employees will get unmotivated and unproductive when they will observe that good performance is not the key to promotion and appraisal.
Overburdening employees
If you will burden the employees to the level that they are not able to maintain a balance between their work and private life it becomes an issue for the employee and it affects their productivity negatively. At times, the pressure is fine but if it is unnecessary and overburdening then it’s a huge demotivating factor for the employees.
A good manager should understand that the personal life of an employee is equally important; a manager should keep a check on the pressure your employees are handling and help them whenever required.
Treating employees equally rather than equitably
If an employee with the highest productivity is treated the same as an employee with lower productivity then there’s no motivational factor for the better performing employee to work harder. Good performing employees will not see any benefit of performing and bad performing employees will have no reason to do better.
Therefore, employees should be treated equitably rather than equally. In the workplace, it’s about being fair to all the employees and providing them with what they deserve fairly. This will create an environment of trust and honesty in the organisation.
Not taking any feedback from the employees
Honest communication between the manager and the employees about the behaviour of the company is very important. The employees often have good inputs and ideas for the betterment of the organisation. It also helps in making the manager understand any toxicity which might be arising in the workplace which is hindering the productivity of the organisation.
Thus, it is always beneficial to listen to your employees regarding their feedback on the organisation. One-sided communication from the manager often makes employees feel undervalued and demotivated resulting in disrupting their productivity in the workplace.
Communication gap
No organisation can run without communication. It is required within the department and among different departments. Gaps in the communication in any department can hinder the major operations of the organisation and it can cost a lot of money to the organisation in the occurrence of a mishap.
Employees blame each other for the efficiency and this often creates conflict. Conflict in an organisation for a long time affects the mental peace of employees and hinders productivity.
It does not just affect one or two employees it may affect a large group of employees. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the manager that there is proper communication in the organisation to avoid any outward conflicts.
Poor leadership
Every manager should always come from a position of strength and act as a mentor to every employee. If an employee doesn’t get a strong and right direction from the manager, the employees often or not start taking orders and directives lightly and start slacking in their work.
The employees always get motivated when they see a good guide and mentor in his/her manager. If the manager is lacking a certain leadership quality and fails to keep the employees’ morale up, then it will hinder the hierarchy in an organisation and it will lead to delay in work which will inadvertently lead to the poor performance of the whole organisation.
In Summary
To sum up, demotivated and disengaged employees often mean unproductive employees. There are plenty of reasons for an employee to feel disengaged and unmotivated and it always falls on the manager to find the root of the problem and resolve it.
As mentioned above, when an employee starts to lose interest and focus in the work not only it hinders the company’s performance it can also result in the employee defrauding the company.
For instance, if an employee is working very hard and is outperforming most of the other employees in the organisation but someone less deserving gets a promotion over them, this would be a serious blow to their morale.
Situations like these can sometimes force the employee to do a fraudulent activity like stealing the company’s money and resources especially if the employee is in a tough financial situation, it may lead them to steal some money from the organisation.
But if the manager would have understood his/her situation and helped the employee in some way a situation like this could be prevented. In the case of employee theft or fraud, you will need to take the help of a detective agency. Such cases can cost you a lot of time and money.
Therefore, it is always for the good of the organisation if you keep your employees happy and motivated.
About the Author
Mr Baldev Kumar Puri is a professional private detective and investigator experienced in this field for 30 years. He is also the distinguished member of Association of Private Detectives and Investigators India. He is working there as the Deputy General Secretary-National.
