How to tackle the trillion dollar disengagement problem

Tackling the trillion dollar disengagement problem

Mona Akiki (Chief People Officer here at Perkbox) and Jules Strong (VP of Marketing and Insights at Lattice) both gave our audience plenty of tips on engaging employees. 

It’s something that’s become more important than ever — a study by Gallup showed that 77% of the world’s workforce is disengaged, and this costs the economy a whopping $8.8 trillion!

Below are some of the key takeaways from the webinar — and for deeper insight, you can watch the full recording whenever you want HERE.

The economy impacts engagement

One of the main reasons employees aren’t as engaged is because of issues outside of work that are affecting them. It makes sense that personal issues can feed into the workplace and affect people’s motivation and productivity.

In the webinar we dug into some recent survey results to underline this. Did you know that:

• 25% of employees can’t concentrate on their work due to worries about their financial situation
• 32% feel less motivated to work hard as their employer hasn't made efforts to provide additional financial support
• 34% feel resentful that their employer hasn’t done more to support with rising costs

This shows that there’s a clear correlation between the cost of living crisis and things like motivation and productivity. As an employer, the support package you offer can have a big impact on engagement — and therefore the performance of your business.

Cost of living support can be creative

So what does that support package look like? At a time when pay increases for everyone might not be an option for every business, being creative is key. As Jules pointed out:

“The more businesses can get really inventive, use their listening strategies to find out what employees want, they can get really flexible and get much more into a total rewards mindset.”

Some of the things our panellists mentioned included:

• Flexible working policies and time off —  to help with the cost of commuting and childcare
• Discount schemes — to help people save money on both essentials and luxuries
• Financial planning and support services — to make their money go further
• Mental wellbeing support — to help cope with the strains of the situation

Emotional engagement was also mentioned — our survey showed that only 19% of employees felt comfortable talking to their line manager about financial difficulties. Given that managers can have the biggest impact on a day-to-day basis, this is something that needs changing. Things like surveys and manager training can go a long way to creating a better workplace culture.

Get buy-in for key behaviours

Mona pointed out that employee engagement can be split into two buckets, saying:

“If you’re entering a company, you’re probably looking at being engaged because it’s a transactional thing. You feel an obligation because they’re paying you. But there’s also an emotional part to it. Organisations can do lots of things with the employee experience.”

There are things you can do as part of your employee experience which can get people believing in what you do, and going the extra mile.

Start with the simple things, like making sure communication is clear and consistent. Make sure people are clear on company objectives, and still fully bought into your mission. It’s better to over communicate then for there to be a big void — this can be one of the biggest blockers to engagement.

Rewarding people for the right behaviours is also important. It’s not just about the salesperson who’s hitting their target, or the person in finance who’s negotiated a better deal with a supplier.

Tie your rewards into your values — for example, at Perkbox we have a quarterly award for people who’ve been a shining example of our company values. Those individuals are then given Reward points, but more importantly, they become something for others to aspire towards. After all, behaviour that gets rewarded is more likely to be replicated.

The key takeaway

Although it’s a cliche, we are in a new working world. Employee mindsets have really shifted and the businesses who adapt and are still able to engage them will be the ones who see the best results. 

For more stats, insights and advice, watch the full webinar on-demand by clicking HERE.