I’ve talked before about the power of an engaged workforce.
But did you know there are different “levels” of engagement? And you’d be surprised by where most U.S. workers fall.
Gallup data has divided the American worker into three categories on this front: those who are engaged, those who are not engaged and those who are “actively disengaged.”
Right now, just 30 percent of the American workforce is deemed “engaged.” Many more workers – at 50 percent of the total workforce – are “not engaged.” And a whopping 20 percent are “actively disengaged.”
If you’re a leader or business owner you want your employees to be among the 30 percent, right? That’s because engaged employees look out for you. They take ownership of your business. They’re your “star pupils.”
Chances are, though, you’ll have a lot more employees who are not engaged. They’re the ones who are punching the time card. They show up. They are present. They’re not causing any problems, but they’re not going out of their way to help you or your customers. Let’s call them ROAD warriors – “Retired On Active Duty.” They fill space. They’re average. Doing the bare minimum. Detrimental to your organization in their own way.
But, the worst are the 20 percent who are actively disengaged. These workers “get even.” They’re unhappy and are out to make everyone else miserable as well. They’re the stereotypical bad apple, and have the power to infect the entire team. They’ll go out of their way to do damage to any progress you have accomplished. These malignant folks are CAVE people – “Consistently Against Virtually Everything”.
High-performing organizations have a higher proportion of engaged to actively disengaged employees. 5:1 is the ratio to target.
If your ratio of star talent to bad apples is low, you’ll want to work to move those figures in the other direction.
Make it your aim to weed out the disengaged, find the sweet spot of those hanging out in the middle ground to get them “plugged in”, and keep your rock stars on center stage.
How does your team stack up?
