It’s no secret by now that a disengaged workforce is something you wouldn’t want to have. After all, having disengaged employees can cause damages to your organization—such as lack of productivity, failure to meet business goals, and negative customer experiences. That’s why alongside your usual employee engagement efforts, you should also be watching out for the signs that you need to take action. So, here are seven undeniable signs that you need to motivate your employees!
7 Undeniable Signs That You Need to Motivate Your Employees
They lack punctuality
Being late to work is not always a cause for distress. Numerous factors can affect punctuality—such as the occasional oversleeping, difficulty of commuting to your office, or neverending traffic. But, if your employee—or worse, employees—are habitually having challenges punching into work on time, there may be a different reason. And that reason may be demotivation.
When your employees are not motivated, they don’t want to go to work. This means that they also don’t have that energy to prepare in time for their shift and are often sluggish while doing so. They will leave things at the last minute, which may cause them to be late.
They’re frequently absent or on leave
Stepping up a notch from lack of punctuality is absenteeism. Your employee’s lack of motivation to work will make them find ways to not do it. And one of those ways is to simply not attend to it.
Some absences are, of course, inevitable. People get sick, have their matters, and have the right to take the time off when they want and need to. The key is to keep track of how often these absences and leaves happen. If the frequency is too high, then it may be one of the undeniable signs that you need to motivate your employees.
They have trouble focusing
If your employees love what they’re doing, you wouldn’t have to worry if they’re giving their full attention to their tasks. They’re going to do it themselves. On the other hand, if they don’t, then they’ll have trouble focusing.
And your team members are not motivated, this is what happens. They have trouble focusing on what they should be doing, which may cause delays and problems for others.
They withdraw from engagement events and their colleagues
Is your employee withdrawing from engagement activities your company organized? Are they spending more and more time alone and doesn’t interact much with their colleagues? Do they just seem to not care?
If you answered yes to the questions above, then those are undeniable signs that your employees are demotivated, unengaged, or even worse, disengaged.
A decline in productivity and work quality
Employee engagement is the key to employee performance. In fact, according to Gallup, organizations that have motivated and engaged employees boasts a 17% increase in productivity.
So, if you’re seeing a decline in productivity and work quality of your employee, then that’s a big red flag in terms of motivation and engagement.
They don’t want to take more responsibility than what is needed
Demotivated employees don’t have the energy to care for more than what is the bare minimum. They only want to do their tasks and don’t want new responsibilities or initiatives. It’s also possible that demotivation is one of the reasons that they don’t want to attend learning and training programs.
They often engage in unproductive and negative discussions
If your employees are not engaged, then it’s very likely that they often spend time goofing off and causing distractions. One of the things they can do is to lead unproductive discussions such as gossip or negative conversations.
Unmotivated and demotivated employees may have antipathetic feelings toward your organization. They make snide remarks towards your leaders or their co-workers, and often want people to feel the same way as them.
How can you motivate your employees?
When your employees are demotivated, they cause other people around them and the organization problems. So, what can you do? Address the root of the problem.
Just like how you handle employees with bad attitudes, knowing why they don’t have motivation is the key to solving this problem. If the root is a personal issue, you can think of ways to assist them. If it’s an organizational one, then maybe it’s time to do an organizational assessment or even an employee engagement survey to identify the gaps you need to fill and the areas you need to improve.
