Featured Article from Unified Communications Headsets

Employees Don't Care: Is Management the Problem?

By Michelle Amodio
TMCnet Contributor

Often times in corporate culture, there is such an emphasis on customer loyalty and appreciation that businesses tend to overlook the people they should be the most concerned about: their employees. If you’re trying to build a well-oiled machine, you better hope that your employees are happy and actually care about their jobs. Without them, there is no business to have.

Sadly, statistics tell us that employees are not ones to care too much about their jobs. Some 7 out of 10 employees, in fact, are bored with what they do and are rather disengaged from their work. That’s a rather staggering number, so perhaps corporations, both big and small, need to ask themselves what it is they can do to change those numbers for the better?

The long-term success of any company depends heavily upon the quality of its workers and worker loyalty. Few corporate executives would disagree with this idea conceptually, but getting there does not always have a clear path. We know that there are two currencies that drive life and business -- time and money. Financial satisfaction and a good working environment are important, but it’s far more complicated than a paycheck and offering an adequate work/life balance.

Salaries and bigger benefits are helpful for keeping employees somewhat satisfied, but facilitating better communication, making employees feel valued, and creating opportunities for education and growth can go a lot longer than money.

Though it may be difficult to attribute costs directly to under-performance, Gallup estimated employee disengagement costs the overall US economy as much as $350 billion every year. This can break down to more than $2,200 per disengaged employee.

Jabra’s (News - Alert) recent blog post on employee engagement tells us where the problem really lies: with management.  An effective leader must continually demonstrate integrity and trust, clearly communicate their vision, and encourage the inner work lives of employees.

Creating a culture of communication in which managers and employees share common goals and work together to meet them can boost a company up and keep the top talent within your workforce.

Companies with happy employees outperform those whose companies are flooded with a disengaged workforce. Happy workers stand apart from their non-engaged and actively disengaged counterparts because of the discretionary effort they consistently bring to their roles. These employees willingly go the extra mile, work with passion, and feel a profound connection to their company.

What are you doing to actively engage your workforce? Do you have the right tools, communications or otherwise, to make sure you’re connecting to your staff? How is your office environment? What do your leaders bring to the table? When you shift from the customer-centric mindset of running a corporation and put the emphasis on the employees, you may just see the tides turn for the better.