Manufacturing Excellence - Inspire, Lead and Succeed with AWARENESS!

"Awareness without action is worthless."

~ Phil McGraw

Do you know that half of all Canadian employees are disengaged? 

The results of Mercer's new "What's Working" survey are loud and clear. Out of 2,000 Canadian workers a shocking number of 36 % are seriously considering leaving their organization at the present time, up from 26 % in 2006. Another 22 % are increasingly dissatisfied with their employers. This means your good people will take action and move on, and the whiners and complainers will stay on and their negative energy will affect the rest of your team. It's like a sneaky silent disease.  

Mercer's survey reinforces the importance of knowing what is going on inside the minds of your employees, which changes over time and evolves as new generations join the workforce.

Countless times I have heard employers say that they are not surprised with the outcome of my findings with respect to employee dissatisfaction. In fact they claim to know the reason for their employees' disengagement, yet nothing has been done about it. Instead many companies are "surveying their people to death" without putting their employee's feedback into action. As much as I believe in the power of asking questions, be advised that if you do, make sure that you want to hear the answers and invest the time and energy to implement the necessary changes. If you miss out on this great opportunity, you will lose the trust and respect of your people. 

Let me ask you, how would you feel if someone asks you for your opinion and ignores your input but then asks you the same questions 6 months later?

Today I want to share what you may not know about disengagement because you just may not be aware.

Let’s just imagine a regular workday. One of your workers comes to work. Let’s call him John. You don’t hear him complain and he seems to be doing a good enough job. John doesn’t really take initiative but you would certainly not call him a problem employee. He doesn’t stand out of the crowd.

Do you have guys like John in your company? No doubt you do, but here is what you don't know....

He spends approximately half of his day finding ways to slack off. If John works in the office, he may spend time on the internet or copying personal stuff. If John is a production guy, he does what he has to do but his energy is consumed by his frustration and negativity. His work ethic is kept at the bare minimum and this behaviour won’t get him fired.

John has many ideas in his head. He knows how to cut costs by more than 20 % and he has some great productivity ideas in his head but he doesn’t bother to tell anyone. John has emotionally disconnected from the company a long time ago. He is disengaged.

You cannot be blamed for that, can you? There are so many things on your mind and you just didn’t see it. You trusted that other management members would have an eye on it but they didn’t realize it either. Maybe you also didn’t worry about it because society as a whole has settled for mediocrity. Good enough is enough and that’s why guys like John don’t stand out in the crowd.

He is just one of many.

My question is…. Are you aware that you are not aware that you are not aware? It's time to put your awareness into action.