10 Signs Your Employees Don't Care Anymore

The Value of Employee Motivation

The Ten Danger Signs To Watch For

1. You notice a change in employee punctuality and reliability. Taking extended lunches and frequent breaks, leaving work abruptly and not paying close attention to the work they are doing could be indicative of unhappy and disenaged staff.
2. Your department or workgroup experiences an increase in absenteeism, sick days, medical leaves and short term disability. All of these could be a sign that your employees are struggling with negative work-related circumstances beyond their control. Chronic unhappiness can lead to feelings of sadness and depression, which can trigger sleep disorders and an inability to cope with the stress they feel in their daily lives. As you can imagine, these symptoms can take a real tool on job satisfaction and commitment.
3. If the number of complaints among your employees are increasing and your staff is expressing increased dissatisfaction about their fellow workers, their own performance, perceived favoritism toward others or how fairly company policies are implemented, this will eventually undermine teamwork, productivity and morale.
4. An increase in customer complaints can also signal a problem with customer-facing employees. Employees who resent their work will express their discontent through their relationships with customers. When employees no longer care, they will not be willing to fulfill or exceed customer service expectations. There may be more product returns, diminished quality control, increased defects and processing errors that will have a direct impact on sales and customer attitudes towards your business.
5. Your top performers start resigning unexpectedly. Even if their own performance has not been impacted, they may not want to be a part of a declining company where there is an overall negative work ethic, increasing negative attitudes, and diminishing productivity.
6. An absence of synergy among your employees is also a good indication that team spirit is missing. Employees who do not connect with one another, who do not say good morning and choose to not to participate in departmental activities or functions may be struggling. Employees who express no enthusiasm for their duties are also giving you clues that something is wrong.
7. No one is having any fun anymore. If, at times and maybe more often than you are willing to admit, your workplace feels tense and uptight, it may be because people are feeling disconnected from their work and the people they work with.
8. Silence is pervasive. You will likely sense a feeling of mistrust when co-workers do not ask questions of each other, offer their opinions or freely exchange ideas. Something is especially wrong when employees are unwilling to express ideas or commit themselves to taking risks and accepting new challenges.
9. Watch for visual clues that something is amiss, such as excessive gossiping, griping and grumbling. Frowning faces are not the signs of a happy group of employees.
10. You've just reviewed your most recent employee engagement survey report from Insightlink and the results are not positive. You see that overall job satisfaction and employee engagement are down in your department and your proportion of "Dissatisfied Compromisers" has risen dramatically.

Action Steps to Regain Employee Motivation

1. Do not lose sight of the personal touch. These days, so much interaction with employees is handled electronically that you can easily miss the 10 signs of dissatisfaction. Make sure that you reach our to each of your direct reports on a regular basis.
2. Continually stress and confirm the value your employees bring, not only to the organization as a whole but to you personally as well.
3. Be careful not to let the stress and frustrations you feel at work boil over so you become toxic to those you need to rely on. Maybe some of the distrust and unease in your department is due to your negative behavior and attitudes?
4. Reinforce and champion the purpose and goals of both your organization and your department. People really like to feel part of something bigger than they are!
5. Get buy-in from your employees before implementing new policies and procedures. Employees can really resent what they see as arbitrary changes, especially if they are not given the chance to offer recommendations and suggestions before these changes are announced.
6. It may seem obvious but don't micro-manage your employees. Give them the authority and freedom they need to perform their tasks to the best of their ability.
7. Help your employees to take control of the problems they face at work, so they can find meaningful and effective solutions themselves. In our standard employee survey, we ask employees to rate how well their employer lets them learn from their mistakes rather than being punished for them - letting employees find their own way is essential to building feelings of automomy and engagement at work.

Spurring Change Through Employee Surveys