What’s the Difference Between Disengaged and Unengaged Employees?

What if a warning light went off each time your company’s best assets (employees) was in danger?

Let’s look into how to identify some symptoms of disengaged and unengaged employees – before it’s too late and your business suffers.  

Being unengaged at work is the first decline down the employee engagement scale. When an employee is unengaged, he or she simply isn’t going the extra mile in his or her work and is not passionate about it anymore.

Warning signs of an unengaged employee include:

Excessive tardiness or absences may be a sign of indifference toward work. The quality of a person’s work is affected by how often they are late or missing work. The issue needs to be addressed immediately. If he or she is more into clock-watching than getting tasks done, productivity is plummeting. Perhaps there is something going on in the employee’s personal life causing this mood change or they are feeling underappreciated at work. Checking in through consistent one-on-one meetings with provide you with the details you need in order to encourage the employee to get back on track, appreciate their contributions, and find what incentivizes them to be more productive.

You notice the bare minimum of work being completed and the employee is slacking in multiple areas. When your team members aren’t giving it their all, your company is missing out. It is critical to meet with any disengaged employee to see if there is a particular reason for the sudden decline in quality (and quantity) of work.

Even more detrimental to a company is a disengaged employee. Instead of caring less about their work, these employees tend to not care at all. They are the polar opposite of engaged with their work. Disengaged employees may even go out of their way to challenge company practices or sabotage aspects of the company. 

Warning signs of a disengaged employee include:

They’re not motivated. These employees ‘drag their feet’ on simple tasks and may not even follow it through to completion. This problem could be stemming from poor management and a lack of recognition when jobs do not get completed. These types of employees are likely to retaliate against management, demotivate other workers and cause problems within the workplace. If your company benefits from referrals, a disengaged employee who doesn’t care about the well-being of the business won’t be of any help, whereas an engaged employee will be constantly singing your praises to prospective clients and employees.

Enthusiasm to grow with the company is nonexistent. If an employee is not asking clarifying questions about an assigned project and does not take initiative to develop themselves and the company, they might not be an asset to your team. When an employee is engaged at work, they pursue growth and look forward to the success of the company.

What do I do?

If you notice these warning signs in an employee, it’s time to have an honest conversation to evaluate the level of engagement within your company. If you have disengaged or unengaged employees, consider implementing a employee recognition program where they will immediately get rewarded for going above and beyond while living your values. With the ability to be nominated by their supervisors and peers, productivity levels will soar!

"Research indicates that workers have three prime needs:

Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company."

- Zig Ziglar