When employees are distracted, stressed, or discontent in their personal lives they often bring that negative energy into the work place. Combine outside stress with the general workplace grind and you are bound to have some unhappy employees. They feel disengaged at work, not supported by their organization's management and begin to resent their position, their professional environment, and ultimately try to change their professional situation. The Corporate Leadership Council shows some staggering statistics about recent employee (lack of) organizational engagement. 60 percent of organizations report that they are experiencing a leadership crisis, which is an increase of 40 percent from just a year earlier. Weak leadership often also leads to a restless, dissatisfied workforce. Worse yet, the number of employees that are “highly disengaged” has doubled since early 2008. So how do you combat this negative energy in the workplace? Focus your organization's employee investment dollars on the time employees spend outside of the office. Reward employees' desired behavior with spot rewards such as a gift card to a restaurant employees can enjoy with their family, or create a points system so employees can save their rewards points and redeem for bigger incentives, such as an extra vacation day. According to research done by the Corporate Executive Board employees who feel they have a better work-life balance tend to work 21% harder than those that don’t. So instead of investing in employees work time, invest in employees non-work time, so that when employees are at work they are mentally present, physically present, and just as invested in their job, as their employer is in them.
For more information on creating a positive workplace environment check out this Care2 article.
