Employee Engagement to Disengagement: Creating false job

expectations

Some recent research has highlighted how a new enthusiastic employee can

go from Engagement to Disengagement in a relatively short space of time.

What happens in the new hire’s experiences with their new employer that

causes disengagement to set in? We all know the costs of disengagement so

to lose motivated and engaged new hires so quickly is alarming.

Data from employee feedback shows that employee engagement is an

individual outcome based on the employee’s experiences with an employer

from the first day of interaction between the employer and the employee.

The employee takes these experiences and learns from them – what is

expected here?; are communications clear and honest; am I valued and

respected? And, so on. The employee then chooses future behaviours

based on these experiences.

In future articles we will explore this Journey to Disengagement. In this

article, I will consider the early stages of the recruitment process and the

inadvertent ‘promises’ it makes.

The First Day of Interaction

The first day of interaction between the employer and employee is the job

advertisement which the potential new recruit reads and is attracted to by

the benefits on offer in this fabulous sounding job. Responsibility,

development, interesting projects, challenging work and career

enhancement are all on offer on top of perhaps a pay rise. The skilled and

talented applicant pool is enticed by these promises.

All too often, the bright promises made in an advertisement and/or during

the recruitment process are not fulfilled. The intention is to fill a vacant

post with little thought on the. impact of the promises made. Are they even

viewed by the employer as ‘promises’? They certainly are viewed as such by

every applicant and they form a set of important expectations from the job

and employer. It is these expectations that engage the applicants in the

recruitment process, why they submit an application and go through the

challenges of an interview etc. They weigh the benefits of the expectations

against the difficulties of applying for the job.

What is happening to create Such Expectations?

It is usually one of two things:

1. HR haven’t accurately communicated the job role, the responsibilities

of that role, or the environment in which the role exists.

2. Linked to this, there can be a disconnect between what the employer

wishes the job role to be and what actually happens at ground level.

Often, this can be the result of an underdeveloped or incompetent

team manager.

Impact on the New Hire

As I stated earlier, the vast majority of new hires start their new job as

engaged employees full of enthusiasm and hope that this is the beginning of

a successful chapter in their career.

Then the inaccurate promises made in the recruitment process start to fall

apart. The promises of development and career enhancement and the

requirements for a creative and innovative problem solver, for example, are

quickly shown to be inaccurate. The real requirement was for a paper

pusher where a day off attending a training course is deemed less valuable

than ensuring the paper gets pushed.

The new hire soon experiences the impact of that deflating feeling as

his/her career ambitions suffer a setback. Then decreasing motivation sets

in followed by the onset of disengagement. A lack of commitment is

evident as performance becomes patchy. The employee, in truth, feels let

down by a process and people who should both know and do better. Then

the employee suffers the indignity of being performance appraised by the

very same people who should have done better.

Who is to Blame?

There is a lot of focus on the disengaged employee being bad for business

and should be moved on as quickly as possible. However, the employee

isn’t to blame here. If organizations are keen on maximising the benefits of

an engaged workforce, then there is work to be done in many aspects of the

workplace, including recruitment.

Engagement is a shared responsibility between employer and employee.

The employer’s role is to provide an engaging environment and the

employee’s role is to address personal engagement issues.

Solution

There are several steps an organization can take to start shaping the

solution to such a problem:

1. Know and understand the culture of the organization

To understand the culture of the organization means that you will be able to

accurately communicate this during the recruitment process. Unsuitable

applicants may now opt out of this opportunity.

It also means that you understand what it takes to be successful in this

environment e.g. resilient and self-motivated; able to work on own

initiative for protracted periods; or must be a real team-player etc. The

skills and personal qualities required again can be communicated

accurately and attract the most suitable potential applicants.

2. Know and understand the different culture particular to each team

Knowing organizational culture, and understanding it, should also bring

the understanding that organizational culture is made up from a host of

different cultures. Each team will have its own culture formed by the line

manager, the people that work there and the work they do.

The personal qualities required to be successful in each team will be

different because of the team culture. Knowing this can help HR develop a

more accurate job description and attract the most suitable applicants who

will not only possess the skills to do the job, but are also more likely to

enjoy both the job and the environment and context in which it takes place.

This knowledge also helps avoid unrealistic ‘promises’ made in recruitment

communications. The culture can be communicated using positive

terminology in order to attract people who will relish that environment.

3. Measure and learn what is driving engagement/ disengagement

It is important that employee engagement is measured to identify what is

driving both engagement and disengagement across the organisation and in

each team. These drivers will almost certainly vary between teams. For

example, if it is known that the key driver of disengagement in a team with

a vacancy to fill is ‘communication and clarity’ then measures can be put in

place to start rectifying this issue.

Interventions can be focused at team and line manager level to address

some of the issues within that specific team environment. This helps to

create a positive culture within the team environment, focus on what

‘works’ in that environment and avoid disengaging new hires so quickly.

Etimes2 provides employee engagement software that enables client

organizations to benefit from individualized engagement feedback and

engagement building action plans. This empowers employees to take a

shared responsibility for creating and contributing to an engaging

environment, building it from the bottom-up.

4. Identify the time it takes new hires to move from being engaged to

disengaged

As these measures are put into place, it is worth looking at how long it takes

for new hires to start becoming disengaged. Monitor the trends such as

where it happens more quickly and where the descent is slower. This helps

tailor on-boarding and support given to new hires in the early days of their

employment. Leadership and management development can be focused

where needed to help specific team leaders to support and embed new

hires.

It will also help to use single question pulse surveys to monitor what is

happening in the organization and how interventions are impacting on

engagement. These can identify how different groups of employees are

reacting to certain issues and build a bank of valuable feedback for the

organization.

The key to this solution is to be able to drill down to team engagement

drivers as well as enabling individual employees to understand their own

personal drivers of engagement/ disengagement and to take action on

these.

It is important that the organization learns from previous experiences and

focuses its recruitment communications on the real working environment.

How accurate are your organizations recruitment

communications in reflecting the actual working experience the

new hire will have?

Nigel McPolin is the creator and founder of Etimes2, an Employee

Engagement Survey Software Platform that drives sustained behaviour,

engagement and performance throughout the organisation.

Visit etimes2 for more information and a free trial.