Employee Disengagement: 7 Signs to Watch

Missed deadlines, a negative attitude, a lack of excitement for new projects — what do all of these have in common? They're all signs of disengaged employees.

A thriving workplace culture is built on employee engagement. It’s cultivated through empowered employees who have an eagerness to work, a willingness to take charge, and a determination to achieve the company’s core goals.

However, creating an engaging workplace culture isn’t always easy. And unfortunately, low engagement oftentimes means money lost for the company. In fact, Gallup found that employees who are not engaged or who are actively disengaged cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity.

Here, we’ll discuss some of the most common signs of employee disengagement. We’ll also talk about what you can do to measure and reignite your employees’ passion in the workplace.

What is Employee Disengagement?

Employee disengagement is a term used to describe the lack of enthusiasm and motivation an employee has for their job. According to research by Rastogi et al., employee disengagement significantly impacts organizational productivity and highlights the importance of leadership strategies to address it.

Actively disengaged employees don’t feel connected or satisfied with the work they’re doing, and are less likely to put in discretionary effort, which is crucial for organizational success.

This can lead to poor performance, high turnover rates, and low morale in the workplace. Negativity from actively disengaged employees can spread to their peers, lowering overall team motivation.

Why Does Employee Disengagement Happen?

While understanding the root cause of disengagement is essential to addressing it, employees may become disengaged for many reasons, including poor leadership, lack of recognition, inadequate compensation, weak organizational culture, business strategy challenges, and stress.

Identifying disengaged employees is the first step in resolving feelings of isolation and discontent, and improving communication is one of the most effective ways to uncover the root cause of employee disengagement.

Poor Communication

Employees who feel out of the loop or like they aren’t being included in important conversations are likely to start feeling disengaged. Communication is key in any business, and it’s important to make sure all employees feel like they can easily connect with their managers and colleagues to voice their opinions.

Lack of Connection to the Company Mission

Engaged employees feel like their work matters and that it contributes to a greater goal. If your employees don’t understand how their individual roles fit with the overall company values, you’ll risk their engagement.

However, employees who are aligned with the organization's mission, vision, and values are more likely to be engaged and to trust in leadership. So, make sure you regularly remind your employees of the company values and why their work is so important to the company’s mission.

RELATED: Peer-to-Peer Recognition Programs: 7 Ideas That Boost Engagement

No Recognition or Appreciation

Everyone needs to feel appreciated for the work they do—no matter how small. Employee recognition is a key driver of employee engagement, and when it’s missing, employees are far more likely to feel undervalued and become disengaged.

So much so, employees who receive recognition are nearly 3 times more likely to be engaged, yet more than half of employees say they don’t receive meaningful recognition at work. Without recognition, employees’ sense of purpose and connection to their work erodes over time, leading to lower motivation, higher burnout, and increased turnover.

No Career Development Opportunities

Many employees want to feel like they're growing in their roles and that there are opportunities for them to advance their skills. Employees who lack interest in pursuing their career goals or professional development opportunities may be showing signs of employee disengagement.

In fact, Pew research found that 63% of people who quit their jobs in 2022 did so due to a lack of career advancement opportunities. If your employees don’t have access to training or professional development opportunities, it may be difficult for them to continue to feel engaged in their work.

No Feedback

Similar to career development, feedback is essential for employee engagement. If employees don’t receive regular feedback on their performance, they'll have no way of knowing what skills they should be striving to develop and which ones are their strengths. This can naturally lead to feelings of apathy and disengagement.

Instead, make sure you're providing your employees with regular, constructive feedback so that they can continue to grow and develop in their roles.

Lack of Flexibility

Flexibility plays a critical role in employee engagement. With 62% of workers saying remote work positively impacts their engagement, employees increasingly expect the freedom to work in ways that suit their needs.

When flexibility is lacking, employees are more likely to feel constrained and disengaged. Offering flexible work options helps improve satisfaction, productivity, and overall engagement.

Company Culture and Disengagement

Company culture is the foundation upon which employee engagement is built. A positive company culture that prioritizes psychological safety, recognizes employee contributions, and supports work-life balance can significantly enhance employee engagement and overall well-being. When employees feel valued and supported, they are more likely to be motivated, productive, and committed to the organization’s mission.

On the other hand, a toxic company culture can quickly lead to disengagement, decreased productivity, and a host of negative consequences. Employees who feel unsupported or excluded may struggle with personal issues that impact their work, leading to higher rates of absenteeism and turnover. To address employee disengagement, organizations should focus on creating an environment where employees feel safe to share ideas, take risks, and grow professionally.

What are the Signs of Employee Disengagement?

It’s important to recognize the signs of a disengaged employee to take steps to address the issue. While it may not always be obvious, here are some common signs of an employee who has become disengaged:

They miss deadlines or don’t meet their goals, causing a drop in productivity levels
They lack enthusiasm for their work or show signs of burnout
They have difficulty collaborating with other team members
They lack motivation or interest in the quality of their work
They have poor attendance and low productivity
They often take long breaks during the day or are doing the bare minimum
They display a bad attitude at work

For example, a disengaged employee might frequently complain about tasks, resist participating in team meetings, and openly express dissatisfaction with management decisions. This bad attitude can negatively impact team morale and contribute to increased burnout among coworkers.

How Can You Re-engage Disengaged Employees?

Once you have identified the signs of employee disengagement, it's important to take steps to re-engage your employees. Here are a few tips on how to do this:

Create Meaningful Work

One of the most powerful drivers of high engagement levels is the sense that their work is meaningful. When employees feel that their daily tasks contribute to the organization’s mission and have a real impact, they are more likely to be engaged, motivated, and satisfied with their jobs. Meaningful work gives employees a sense of purpose and helps them see the bigger picture, making even routine tasks feel valuable.

Conversely, when employees perceive their work as meaningless or disconnected from the organization’s goals, disengagement can quickly set in. To foster engagement, organizations should prioritize providing meaningful work by setting clear goals, offering opportunities for growth, and regularly recognizing employee contributions.

Recognize and Reward Performance

Make sure to recognize and reward employees for the hard work your team is putting into their jobs. This could include giving out awards, recognizing achievements publicly, or simply thanking them for a job well done. These wins can be big or small, but they're wins nonetheless.

Celebrate when people meet deadlines, accomplish goals, and particularly when they're proactive and honest. With this type of reinforcement, you can build and maintain a culture that is highly motivated and engaged.

Build a Culture of Open Communication

Make sure you have an open and honest dialogue with your employees about their concerns, feedback, and new ideas. Although it may seem obvious, many leaders tend to bypass this critical step or ask the wrong questions. Unfortunately, this can often negatively impact company culture without leaders even realizing it.

Instead of reprimanding or judging your employees, set up informal one-on-one meetings and check in with them. Try to listen attentively and empathize with their situation. Once you learn whether anything external (or internal) is impacting their commitment levels at work, you'll be able to take actionable steps towards improvement. And remember, engaged employees are more likely to feel comfortable speaking openly and honestly about their lives with their team.

Provide Opportunities for Growth

People want to know they have a future in their careers with a clear growth trajectory, so give employees the opportunity to grow and develop in their roles. This could mean providing them with access to training programs, employee assistance programs, or offering cross-functional assignments that allow them to expand their skill sets.

Doing this shows your employees that you value their contribution and are invested in their growth and job satisfaction.

Support Your Leadership Team

As history proves, people don't quit jobs — they leave managers. It's important to ensure your management team is equipped with the necessary resources and support to help engage employees. Make sure your leadership team understands how employee engagement can impact attrition rates and is taking steps to create an environment where people feel supported, valued, and respected.

To effectively engage your employees, seek out their feedback and look for signs of disconnection. Even the best-managed teams can suffer from low engagement if managers are not included in the strategy. If you neglect to include them, it will undoubtedly impact how successful your employee engagement efforts really are.

Use Extrinsic Motivation

According to Harvard Business Review, people tend to perform better when they are intrinsically motivated — or when they truly and deeply care about the activity in question. For many, this is an unusual occurrence rather than the norm.

Highly engaged workers will often give their best efforts without needing a reason to perform at their highest capabilities. But disengaged employees are more likely to wait for instruction and need to be extrinsically motivated. To help keep employees feeling motivated and engaged, financial or material rewards can be used as a form of extrinsic motivation. This could be something like a bonus, points on a social recognition program, or other monetary recognition.

Remember, rewards alone won't re-engage your team. That’s why it’s important to ensure you are taking other steps necessary for engaging your employees: creating meaningful work experiences, fostering connections, encouraging growth opportunities, recognizing performance, and communicating with your leadership team.

With the right strategies in place, you can create a workplace culture that is highly engaging and motivating for employees. Doing so will result in loyal, productive employees who are willing to go the extra mile for your company.

Investing in Your Team

Ultimately, gaining employee engagement requires more than simply having a strategy and good intentions. To achieve success in this area, leaders must be willing to invest time and effort into understanding their employees’ needs and motivating them to perform at their best. Strong organizational culture and effective leadership result in more engaged employees.

Here are some ways to invest in your team:

Provide Training and Development Opportunities: Allow employees to further their skillset and feel more connected to the company by providing them with training opportunities. This could include online classes or in-person workshops that focus on developing relevant skills.
Encourage Socializing: Create a comfortable atmosphere where employees feel safe engaging with their co-workers by hosting events such as happy hours or team-building activities. But be sure to include events that also include remote and shift workers - excluding certain groups is sure to only deepen any feelings of disengagement.
Reward Performance: Recognize exceptional performance with awards, spot bonuses, and recognition programs that reward top performers. You can create an employee recognition program that rewards employees for meeting milestones, surpassing goals, and other markers you choose as a team.
Utilize Technology: Technology can help streamline processes and make it easier for workers to get their jobs done more efficiently. Invest in the latest technology that will benefit your team, such as cloud-based solutions or online collaboration tools.
Encourage Growth Opportunities: Offer employees the chance to grow professionally with lateral moves, promotions, and special projects that allow them to take on more challenging roles and responsibilities. Make these opportunities easy to find and take advantage of.

Employee engagement can be measured through behavioral assessments that provide insight into what motivates employees.

Long-Term Engagement is the Ultimate Goal

By understanding the causes of disengagement and actively working to improve employee engagement, you can develop a culture of engagement that will help your organization succeed both financially and culturally.

Ultimately, creating a culture of engagement will lead to greater success for your organization — both financially and culturally — and help you avoid the costly consequences of disengagement, such as decreased productivity and low morale. With the right strategies in place, you can empower your employees and help them become integral players in the success of your organization.

Ready to start measuring employee engagement to bolster team performance? Terryberry can help! Schedule a demo with our team to see how Terryberry can make culture a competitive advantage at your company.

Employee Disengagement: 7 Signs Your Employees are Disengaged (and What to Do About It)