Updated 8/3/2021
Do you have an employee who is not performing as well as they were when you hired them? This person just does not seem to care as much or they are not eager anymore?
If you have an employee who is disengaged, you of course want to know why. Let us look at some ways to react to an employee who is disengaged and underperforming.
Communication and Feedback
First, it is important for managers to speak with disengaged team members and let them know you value their feedback on what is going well and what is not.
Communication can serve as an important bridge, for several reasons. If you make time to sincerely and candidly interact one-on-one with an employee, it shows the employee that you care. They will not know you value their contribution to the team if you never tell them so.
Let them know when the work they have done has improved production or distribution. If the employee knows the company’s bottom line has improved because of their work, they will feel a greater sense of importance.
Secondly, talking directly with the employee will help to analyze the root cause of the drop in performance and motivation. Is it an out-of-the-office personal problem or frustration with a specific new guideline in the office?
Whatever it might be, communication can only help. Finally, through communication, you can honestly express your expectations, and if needed, suggest ways to move forward and improve. Let the person know their work matters by telling them how to can make it even better.
Incentives and Recognition
Beyond communication, as a manager, it is always important to provide your team as a whole, as well as individual members, clear incentives to perform well. And of course, they will need recognition and rewards when they succeed.
Just like kids in the classroom, adults appreciate and are motivated by recognition and support. This can mean a promotion or a raise for continued performance improvement, but it is not limited to monetary and hierarchical incentives. It is especially important to also recognize short-term achievements.
READ: Aligning Performance Management with Business Strategy
How can you reward small performance improvements? Sometimes the easiest way to start is simply by communicating in words that you recognized the "job well done" and encouraging the person to continue to grow further. Or show them the results they have generated, and how they have contributed to larger team and company success.
Many managers have found that there is no better way to make employees feel important than to show them that the success of the team—and even the entire enterprise—depends on them just as much as it does their superiors. Small words can, more often than not, go a long way.
Or you can give small financial rewards, like a gift certificate to a movie or a favorite restaurant. You can also make things a bit more fun at work through a gamification process, rewarding "points" for achievements. Remember, a healthy level of competition is good, but try not to go too far and create friction between team members.
Continuous Learning & Support
Often what employees needs for a boost in their morale and performance is a bit of technological or human support, which will help them learn.
This may mean reskilling, or just providing ongoing learning opportunities for employees. The thirst for learning is greater than ever in employee populations. Leaders will do well to recognize the long-term value of learning, long after the initial training sessions end. Some good questions to ask leaders include:
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- Do we send them to conferences, seminars and workshops to keep their skills up to date?
- Do we encourage online and informal learning to supplement what they might be learning in a classroom or in official e-learning courses?
- Do we provide individual coaching or mentoring to give them the needed assistance?
- What do support mechanisms and processes look like?
- Are we continuing to communicate with them at every stage of the process?
When you are making an effort to improve employees’ abilities, they will too. Taking an interest in employee learning is a visible way of showing employees that you are spending time and money on them to make them better. It sends them the message that they can be even more valuable to you, and that you are willing to do your part to make them so.
These are three important ways to help give disengaged employees the lift they need, by multi-directionally strengthening communication, encouraging and rewarding success, and showing that you care about their long-term learning and performance.