We all know people are valuable assets in organisations across the globe. Companies face many challenges but perhaps the most common people issues are;

• Finding and attracting the right people to work for your organisation,
• Retention to ensure you are keeping your IP and getting a return on investment
• Managing poor performers out of the business.

Spotting a disengaged employee
Disengaged employees regardless of whether they are contractors or permanents are like cancers in an organisation. These employees breed resentment amongst the team because the rest are often required to increase their workloads in order to compensate for freeloaders and they cannibalise management time which could be better served working on productive and positive tasks such as meeting business objectives or project deadlines.

These employees damage your organisation more than you realise through lost productivity, revenue, customer experience and your employer brand.

Companies are often hesitant to get rid of non-performers. Reasons for not taking action include managers showing too much empathy towards an employee, fear of legal action or unrealistic optimism that the employee will change their ways.

Unfortunately these views are misguided and the manager should focus on company success and ensuring good employees remain rather than wasting energy on those who are not performing.

So what causes them to disengage?
There are many blogs suggesting any number of reasons but the most popular seem to be;

• Poor leadership/management
• Lack of recognition
• Lack of career opportunities for growth
• Lack of training
• Pay
• Lack of tools and collaboration
• Lack of work

I don’t think I found one that said

• Apathy (although I have seen it!)

How to engage and keep your employees and contractors engaged?
Hire the right person for the role, hire passionate people, be crystal clear with what you want and set those expectations and measures from the outset, if you can’t measure performance you really can’t judge it.

Take time to understand who they are and establish inclusive teams which encourage collaboration. Eliminate permanent versus contractor culture. Stay up to date with market rates and most importantly talk to them regularly.

Is your team fully engaged?