Engagement Killers

[David Neilly]

I am developing a presentation/workshop for an industry association. I read one of the posts regarding "specific behaviours that support engagement", and that was very helpful. Now let's go to the darker side of this question and brainstorm the top 10 engagement killers. I will start the list and hope that many of you will add/refine the list. Here goes:

Job boredom
Performance issues do not get addressed around me
Salary well below market for my level of responsibility and performance
Little/no respect for my boss
Uncaring executives
Feel like a cog in the machine with little opportunity to be involved in the business
Company culture is to resist continuous improvement and waits for things to break before fixing
In a job that does not contribute to my career goals, just putting in time
I don't understand how my job contributes to the business
The workplace is highly political with hidden agendas and undercurrents everywhere
We really don't care about our customers

[David Zinger]

David,
An interesting forum post. I am a bit too busy right not to respond but I would like you to keep this in mind as a contribution when we collaborate on the Employee Engagement Top 10 book.
David

[Terrence Seamon]

You've got some "good" (i.e., BAD) ones on your list. I'll just amplify one of yours, "Feel like a cog in the machine with little opportunity to be involved in the business."

- unnecessary micromangement that is little more than meddling by higher ups who "don't have enough to do"

- no real involvement and participation by front-line employees; though management "talks a good game," all decisions are made at a higher level

Both of these stem, I believe, from management's misunderstanding of their role and priorities, and lack of faith and trust in employees.

Terry

[David Zinger]

David:

Here are a few more:

Engagement is used solely as a tool to suck discretionary effort out of employees.

The organization declares that people are our greatest resource but treat people like oil.

Rather than seeing people as humans we add the word capital and turn people into human capital.

Energy in the organization is so depleted that all engagement efforts feel like just another energy drain or something to add to an already overflowing plate.

In tough times we engage others by saying, "you are lucky to have a job."

There is a few from my perspective.

[Peter Cash]

Hello David

You have already got a good (bad!) list so I don't feel the need to add to it......
But another serious engagement killer is the serious mismatch of what employees want in terms of recognition/reward and what they actually get. When coupled with the senior teams perception of what employees want and are getting the gaps that emerge can and do derail large and small organisations.
If you are interested a good description of a process to identify these gaps is described in "Discovering New Worlds" on apterinternational.com/art

Peter