7 Factors Leading to Employee Disengagement


Whenever you are hired, you are very excited and hopeful about your job. You think about getting fair enough pay, learning new skills, and availing benefits. In short, you are optimistic about your future. But why does excitement start vanishing once you start working in an organization? The reason is disengagement.

So, what factors lead to employee disengagement? Employees become disengaged when they misunderstand their role, have not been adequately trained, have roles that do not fit their skillsets, have unbalanced lives, are not stimulated by their role and are micromanaged.

From an employer’s perspective, retaining employees is a very difficult job in any organization, whether big or small. You need to engage your employees for a successful working environment. You should provide the fundamental necessities to retain your employees. A healthier working climate accelerates an employee’s interest in his job.

Failing to do so, your employees disengage and start quitting mentally and physically. This lack of interest affects your organization’s turnover. No matter how hard you worked, lack of strategy, and planning overcomes your efforts. Here are some of the major reasons that cause employee disengagement.

1. Failure to set clear goals for employees

Initially, the problem starts with the unclear job description. It’s when an employer advertises the post without a deep analysis of the job requirement. Before hiring any candidate, the employer should thoroughly understand the signed contracts, the company’s policy, and the terms and conditions of the contract. An advertised post with a poor description builds up your deceiving impression on the employee.

So, it’s the time where the employee gets discouraged and ultimately loses interest in the job. The disengagement does not happen in a day. It is a process of stacking up discouragements that led to disengagement.

The problem is also associated with the hiring team. Usually, hiring managers are not much linked to a specific job. Thus, wrongly assessing the candidate and expecting unrealistic skills. It will be much better if the company hires senior managers who are already working in that field.

2. Mismatched job requirement and employee’s skills

Not only the new hiring is based on wrong job descriptions, but the already hired employees also face identical problems. A survey report showed that nearly 80% of employees are not satisfied with their job. Therefore, they fail to put in their energy.

This misalignment happens when a company allots a mismatched task to the employee that does not fits with his skills. This reduces the employee’s interest, yielding an unsatisfactory performance. The HR managers offer tasks to the employees without digging enough to know their expertise.

The optimum solution to tackle this problem is hiring new employees and training them according to the company’s requirements. Focus more on the skills of employees rather than cost per employee. The employees already working should be delegated by assigning tricky tasks that optimize their skills.

3. Insufficient coaching and feedback to employees

Coaching employees is a critical task that is extremely necessary to foster the company. A clear descriptive image of the company’s goal should be shared with the employees. This can be possible with frequent workshops, seminars, and meetings.

The team head should clarify the duty of each employee, his role in flourishing the company, and the path to follow towards the destination. Setting up the corporate goals will build an engaging environment where every employee is well aware of his duties.

Alongside coaching, another key factor to energize the employees is to provide them feedback. Frequent employee evaluation keeps a track of his performance that is also accessible by the higher authorities. This can improve productivity and self-evaluation results in better focusing.

The organizations failing to develop coaching and feedback systems cannot dig out the outcome efficiently from the employees.

4. Fewer promotions and grooming opportunities

When an employee spends many years working in the same position, he starts losing interest in his job. With this fast-growing world, nobody wants to stick to the same position for so long. An employee starts looking for an alternate position in a different company to gain benefits.

Promoting an employee on the basis of this feedback and productivity is highly appreciated. Self-assessment tools enable an employee to target specifically those areas where he lacked.

This becomes fruitful in enhancing the employee’s performance and consequently increases his chances of promotion. Terminate the non-performers at this point.

Lack of awareness programs and coaching keeps running the company in a traditional working environment. The company should share the current market trends and periodic survey reports with their employees to give them an insight into the market.

Try to prefer internal employees for higher positions rather than picking outsiders. This develops confidence in employees.

5. No recognition and lack of motivation

An employee deserves recognition when he has provided his services for an organization. Normally, the managers do not bother to acknowledge their subordinates. This in turn creates a feeling of least valued by an employee. A demotivated employee cannot perform efficiently and thus affects the organization’s turn over.

Rewarding a deserving employee is an effective way to buck him up. Positive behavior and proportional acknowledgement by heads nourish a working atmosphere. A pleasing environment uplifts the employee’s personality and results in the potential growth of the company.

A company should provide a bonus with every creation. In this way, a low-rank employee can earn more than a high-rank manager. This builds up direct proportionality between the company’s success and employee’s success. On the other side, the company never runs out of creative ideas.

Apart from the above factors, sufficient compensation develops satisfaction among employees. Try to provide a healthier working atmosphere to prevent any hindrance from your side.

6. Unbalanced work and personal life due to increased workload

Among the primary reasons for quitting the job is an imbalance between work and family life. Employees easily get stressed out when they are unable to spare time for their families. Hence, yielding disengagement from work.

One’s personal life often demands days off to cater to personal engagements. Companies having strict working conditions never allow leaves other than casual leaves. In some cases, employees request personal loans. That’s the point where bad credit loansOpens in a new tab. become an obstacle. Companies with poor insurance and loan policies fail to satisfy their employees.

A company’s perspective should always place an employee’s mental and physical health as the top priority. Create a friendly environment at work where employees of every rank work together and are complemented with surprise celebrations often.

Hardworking employees should be rewarded with extra holidays. A company should build up a friendly environment where everyone can groom himself.

7. Lack of trust in senior management

Nowadays, employees witness rude and offensive behavior from much senior leadership of an organization. This is because the company’s leadership has played a role in uplifting the organization in the past. For which, they own the integrity of the organization.

Such a bossy atmosphere pushes the employee towards evacuating his post, sometimes unwillingly. Therefore, the negative impact is then inherited from previous candidates to the upcoming ones.

An effective way to cope up with this problem is to design a central evaluation system that is accessible by all the employees. This depreciates the bosses with conventional work thinking. Create a fair setup that deals equally with higher or lower-ranked employees. To have a better idea, get an employee engagement appOpens in a new tab.. It will help you in the better understanding of what needs to be done.

In this way, a competent manager will take higher positions, automatically. Empowering your workforce is the key enabler for a successful workplace. Keep your employees busy with some fun buster activities and employee engagement mobile apps during breaks.

Frequently asked questions

Which is the one primary reason for employee’s disengagement?

Lack of appreciation and less promotion are some of the major reasons for employee’s disengagement. When instead of appreciating your employee’s talent, you stress them out. This subsequently leads to discouragement.

What is the key enabler of a healthier working environment?

Giving recognition, training, opportunities, rewards, incentives, promotions, and creating a team atmosphere are the key enablers of a healthier work environment. Happy employees are most likely to proceed with their job.

Steve Todd

Steve Todd, founder of Open Sourced Workplace and is a recognized thought leader in workplace strategy and the future of work. With a passion for work from anywhere, Steve has successfully implemented transformative strategies that enhance productivity and employee satisfaction. Through Open Sourced Workplace, he fosters collaboration among HR, facilities management, technology, and real estate professionals, providing valuable insights and resources. As a speaker and contributor to various publications, Steve remains dedicated to staying at the forefront of workplace innovation, helping organizations thrive in today's dynamic work environment.

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