Monday is a doomsday; the minute I enter the car park of my office my heart sinks; I yearn for 5pm the whole day long; I stare at the computer screen almost numb with stress;I have put on 5 kgs since I got promoted because I have no time for exercise. These are familiar rants of a large majority of people working in all types of professions. If the salary is good the work hours are bad; if the hours are ok the work is boring; if the work is interesting it has no growth; if it has growth in the career it requires sacrificing work/life balance. These are the dilemmas of the practical work-life that we all aspire to enter once the grueling study schedule is over and no more exams to pass through. However once we enter the work-life we yearn for the years in school and college where comparatively little responsibility was upon us.
The era of the disengaged professionals is here and here to stay if it is not dealt with personally, emotionally, mentally and socially. According to latest studies by Engagement Institute USA 51% of the employees expressed disengagement from their jobs. This is an alarming number both for job seekers and job providers. An average professional spends almost 80% of his or her active time in workplace or doing work related tasks. Spending 80% of your time on something that has either very little appeal to you or is a source of dissatisfaction to you is equal to a living sorrow. Such people will feel frustrated and will probably never be able to excel at their work. When your heart is not into what you are doing, it will be at best a mechanical output and will result in average results. This performance will not make it easier for the person to improve his career progress, thus causing him to become negative and bitter.
A Hays study recently said that 81% of the employees would leave their jobs if they could get a better offer. This doesn't necessarily mean that they dislike what they are doing but that they dislike how they are progressing and would shift if better career path was available. One of the main reasons for leaving is the way they are treated by their higher-ups. Most studies show that people leave managers and not the organizations. Salary of course is a big reality but perhaps the other parts that require less financial investment and more human investment are equally at fault. Lack of appreciation and recognition are major employee depressors. Lack of involvement, delegation and empowerment are key employee discouragers. Lack of trust and transparency are crucial employee dishearteners.
The sad part is that employers and organizations treat machine breakdowns with devout diligence and employee breakdown with devout indifference. The focus is more on keeping the "attrition rate" within the industry average without finding out that those who are not leaving may be more lethal than those quitting. To address this problem they will slot people into high and low potential and then apply talent retention strategies on the "high Pos" as they are called, but it is more complex than that.This job hopping trend is further compounded as the "millennials", they are ready to replace more and more baby boomer workers. These millennials are notorious for their job disloyalties and are blamed for being ever ready to jump to another organization given a hint of a better offer. This change is what the organizations need to adapt as millennials are likely to become even more shifty and restless with the global opportunities available to them.
With more pressure to achieve more and more for less and less the game of competition is becoming cut throat and the survival of fitness levels have gone dramatically up. In this race for market shares organizations are struggling to keep their employees motivated to achieve these overstretched and stiff targets. No organization can afford a grumpy culture. The cost of demotivation are not accounted for in tangible losses in profit and loss statements but most studies prove that they are of a magnitude bigger than any sales and supply chain loss. The Engagement Institute study says that just in US the loss due to disengagement is between $450 to $500 billion annually. A disengaged employee will lead to bad quality products and poor service leading to disengaged customers causing market share losses that can sometimes cause bankruptcy to organizations.
What can organizations do to engage employees? Work on small doable things. If a certain manager is the cause and his team is disengaged and turnover is high, counsel him, train him and tie up his appraisal and promotion to a team engagement survey results and targets. This will ensure that he knows if he doesn't change he may be changed. Also the organization has to make the work environment conducive where the culture is open and encouraging for people to pool in ideas and talk about issues without fear and hesitancy. For women, and especially married females, just a play room reserved for their young children can do wonders to their loyalty to the organization. Celebrating good performances and employee birthdays is a low cost high return investment into making them feel good and special.
For young professionals, the ability to explore their true talents and passions and go for them in a disciplined and organized manner is essential. They should find a way to take careers that can utilize their skills but should not expect immediate results in either finding the right job or the trust of their managers. They need to perform and excel at work and develop a rapport with the team to be able to then command terms. There are no readymade jobs and no made to order opportunities. Remember if you cannot have what you want then you should want what you have and do it so well that you earn the respect of your co-workers where they are ready to consider your demands too. "The art to take comes after the science to give".
(The writer can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com)