It was Henry Ford that asked “Why is it that when I ask for a pair of HANDS, the BRAIN comes along with them?” What he meant, of course, was that he wasn’t really interested in the person, just the task. Unfortunately, this is still true in many companies today. This is in direct contrast to many innovative business leaders who believe that the entire workforce is a tremendous source of original and productive thought and can solve any current and pending problems their organization faces.
The problem for these progressive managers is the lack of differentiation among their workforce that really care and those that feel like corporate “hostages” and stay because they feel there is no better current alternative. These folks are obviously disengaged at work and are, what we call – R.O.A.D. Kill (retired on active duty).
How many times have you worked along side these disengaged co-workers and heard them confess the sins of their boss, their company, the world? It is contagious and hard to fix. It is also a huge drain on the productivity of the work unit and anyone in the path of this unhappy tornado. Is it just a nuisance or does it actually cost the business money? Consider this…
Multiple research companies agree that the percentage of employees that are not engaged (passionate, innovative, happy with their work) is approximately 70%!!!! Moreover, the cost to US productivity has approached $430 billion annually. This equates to about 15% of a company’s annual revenue that is lost each and every year. What can be done? Actually, plenty. But it starts with diagnostic knowledge of who, how many, and where the engaged and disengaged workers are lurking within the company.
The best news of all is that the diagnostic process is not difficult, nor expensive. In fact, our company specializes in this work and what to do to improve the percentages in your favor.
For more discussion, contact me at bheth@APGTX.com