How To Improve Employee Engagement in the Workplace [#Infographic]

If you’ve ever put salt in your coffee instead of sugar, you can understand the awful taste disengaged workers leave in employers’ mouths. When an employee plays video games or yaks it up on personal calls at work, it can feel like an insult to the company and to the hiring personnel who brought them onboard. It’s your job to engage employees, and there are numerous ideas to improve engagement in the workplace.

What’s more, disengagement hurts companies’ ability to turn a profit. Distracted workers cost U.S. businesses a whopping $350 billion in revenue annually. Why such a big chunk of change? Well, it may have to do with the fact that only 3 in 10 workers are engaged—meaning the other 7 are wasting their time and employers’ money.

Another side effect of disengagement is high turnover. Approximately 2.7 million workers quit their jobs each month, making employers spend more than $11 billion to refill all those empty desks.

The obvious solution is to hire the right workers in the first place. But engaging those workers isn’t so simple. This employee engagement guide from Company Folders will show you why employees are disconnecting—and how you can help them.

As you can see, employee disengagement has reached epidemic levels. And since people act engaged in the interview (they want the job, after all), it’s hard to tell whose good behavior will continue and whose will taper off after they’re hired. Besides, even the most engaged employee disconnect if they’re thrown into an environment that doesn’t motivate them—or worse, one that harms their morale.

The real solution requires employers and recruiters to understand that disengagement stems from needs that are going unmet. It’s your job to engage employees. You can do that by creating a workspace that meets their needs and by using the four methods of motivation to keep them focused and happy.