Linda Sage MA, BA Ed(Hons) DTM Helping organisations cultivate & strengthen the mental health capacity of their staff in order to increase morale, enhance productivity, improve retention, engagement & efficiency. Unmask Mental Health in the workplace
$3,400 are lost from every $10,000 for each employee, through the symptoms of burnout and disengagement according to Gallup, 37% higher absenteeism, 18% lower productivity and 15% lower profitability. Burnout is not only killing people is it killing business as well, the overwhelming costs of hiring, training, sickness payments and production losses over time will erode profits and force closures.
Staff Engagement
Another vital point in staff engagement is their direct management 70% in a Gallup poll said that it was a direct influence on their personal engagement at work. Leaving as little as 21% saying they are actively engaged in your business. The rest, just doing enough not to get fired, or suffering from the symptoms of burnout and withdrawing from your workplace completely.
34% per employee, per pay day – How much is that costing you per month? Per year? Let’s play the maths game:
· The average salary in the USA is $47,060 per annum
· 34% of $47,060 is $16,000
If you increase the salary range for higher qualified staff i.e. $60,000 your cost is $20,400 per year. An $80,000 disengaged employee costs you $27,200. Is this now adding up?
It gets very scary when you take this equation across your workforce; a small to a medium employer of 250 employees
Using the previous data, 21% are engaged workers, which is 52 employees, leaving 198 that are disengaged or complacent,
- At an average cost of an employee $47,060 = $16,000 x 198
- · Disengagement and complacency is costing you $3,168,000 per year out of your total payroll of $11,765,00
· Adding to this cost is then tempory staff to cover sickness (how engaged are they in your business?)
What are your numbers?
Now you can play with these numbers for your workforce and see how much it is costing you. If you are not shocked by your own results, maybe it is time to question your own disengagement and complacency.
Ways you can change this now
Your first step as a leader is to admit there is a problem, then get your management team in agreement, this may seem simple, but it is far from easy. According to Achievers.com only 9% of management are keen to address the issue and 58% are not interested or will to be reactive rather than proactive.
A change of workplace culture needs to happen and be accepted at all levels, if the leadership is complacent about their own and their staff wellbeing, why should any employee be any different?
A key to this issue is communication and most importantly listening to staff. management often offer knee-jerk responses to situations, but they are not necessarily the responses or resources that best help their staff. Feedback from the floor up, your staff will often give you the solution if you ask and listen to their responses, instead of dismissing them and thinking that management knows best.
Once your staff feel like they are being listened to, you already have a better engagement and a great starting place.
However, if you keep all this great information that you receive to yourself, your staff will be further alienated. Taking action on your findings and implementing these plans is then essential, each individual is an essential component of your business, which if not cared for will adversely affect the overall function of your bottom line.
In my international workshop on avoiding burnout and staff engagement offers many solutions to both the individuals and the companies to enhance this situation.
Such as:
1. Be Open and Transparent
Tell your organization what you are doing and ask them to participate honestly, this may be better in the first stage anonymously by a survey, as many people will be warry and feel they cannot be honest and keep their job.
Once you have these results, share them will all the staff, the good and the bad results. Don’t be inclined to show off just the good, you need change and you need them to see you are willing to work on that.
2. Get Everyone Involved
Once you have disseminated this information to your management team and given them time to consider it, bring them together, get a general consensus of 3-5 strategies that have been highlighted and ask them to engage with each member of their team individually over a 2 week period and feedback on their responses. A whole company meeting at this point can be counterproductive with some people using it as a venting opportunity.
Once their collation of feedback is done from each department bring it back to a meeting and consider the 5 points, which ones can be implemented, how and a time factor.
3. Keep Your Workforce Posted
Keep updates going to all the staff, whether on noticeboards or company emails, Don’t hide delays in progress, explain them. Keep your staff engaged in the process with personal accountability for their part in the progress and implementation of strategies.
4. Continued Monitoring
Whatever your timeline is, this is not the end, this is the beginning, keep up the monitoring and evaluations to ensure the engagement of your staff. Then always act on them. Your staff will be more willing to be engaged when they see results and that their ideas/opinions matter and are valued.
Outcome
Employee wellbeing and engagement are completely linked and they are mercurial, you cannot have one plan fits all, but if your staff and management, know that they are important and valued your overall function will undoubtedly run a lot smoother.
This is not a magic blueprint for tomorrow, because yes, it will take time and investment to implement and even longer for your staff to trust the change in culture, but in 4-6 months you will see a marked positive difference. It is unquestionable that staff wellbeing and engagement are key commercial development, the investment in change is minimal compared to the 34% being lost at the present time on a daily basis, the return on investment will be huge.
The concrete numbers make it a no-brainer for any leaders that want to maximize their business performance and may just make you the business owner of the year with your staff.
For further information on how to enhance your workforce, please contact:
Linda Sage MA, BA Ed (Hons), DTM
Know more about Linda:
Website: – www.lindasage.com
Learning from Life – https://bit.ly/LindaSagePodcast
Caring for the Caregiver Book – https://www.amazon.com/dp/1974635651
www.linkedin.com/in/linda-sage
https://twitter.com/meetLindaSage
Business radio show ELFM – https://www.chapelfm.co.uk/?s=business
Stressbuster radio show ELFM – https://www.chapelfm.co.uk/?s=stressbuster