Are you aware that since the early 2000’s Gallup’s yearly surveys have shown, on average that only 30% of all employees are engaged?
Gallup, even state that of the remaining 70%, 30% of all employees are actively disengaged.
To put this into perspective let’s convert these percentages to numbers.
In 2021 the world population is 7.75 billion. For ease, let’s round that up to 8 billion.
Gallup states 60% of the world’s population is employed, which equals 5 Billion
Therefore, 1.4 are engaged, 1.4 are actively disengaged and 2.2 are disengaged.
Houston, I think we have a problem 3.6 billion people in the world are disengaged.
Imagine what would happen when we found a way to engaged these people. Even a small percentage.
Imagine the ripple effect of having people who love what they do. Imagine the creativity and innovation that would come to these businesses, communities, countries and the world.
Let’s explore a different way to start to engage our people.
People and Loss
As a CPA, former CFO of a publicly listed company, just like you understood profits.
Now as a Beyond Loss Expert I understand Loss. Both the P&L kind of loss and the people kind of loss.
Are you aware that there are over 40 different loss events that can affect all of our lives?
This means that each and every one of us will have multiple major losses throughout our lives.
It could be a death of a loved one, a divorce/separation, job loss, your health, wealth, your pets.
Or as we experienced in the 2020 pandemic, when some of the lesser-known ones came to the forefront: Loss of freedom. Loss of Choice. Loss of Status. Change in work conditions. Change in social activities. Recreational activities.
Take a second and look at the list. How many losses have you experienced to date?
When you start to look at all of the 40+ loss events. Add the fact that we will all have multiple losses and that most of us don’t know how to easily move beyond loss, you can start to see WHY 70% or 3.6 billion people worldwide are disengaged in the workplace!!
You can also start to see why we have all created trillion $ industries of alcohol and pharmaceuticals, which compounds the disengagement even more.
People are suffering all of these multiple loss events. Many times, they do not even realise that the loss that has just happened is grief causing the incident. They just carry on. Wondering what is wrong with them. Wondering why no one understands why they feel the way that they do. So, they end up suffering in silence and even more disengaged.
Now repeat this scenario for every employee in the workplace, you may start to wonder why it is that only 70% of the workplace is disengaged?
As a CFO, you may not have realised just how much your people and your profits are connected.
Disengaged employees are costing you money. Trying to motivate them is also costing you money.
Though what if there was a slight mindset shift you could do that would assist you to easily reap the rewards from motivated employees?
Let’s move “your employee costs” from the P&L to the Balance Sheet.
Ok, I am not talking about changing the accounting standards, just our mental attitude.
Start to see your employees as Your Greatest Asset as opposed to an expense.
How do you treat your greatest asset?
You maintain it. You look after it. You make sure that it is in Tip-Top working order. If something stops working you investigate what has gone wrong.
This very simple mindset shift is the first step in engaging your disengaged employees.
Karen Chaston is the co-founder of the Chaston Centre, a place for meaningful living.
As a former CFO of a publicly listed company and senior manager for 25+ years, she understands profits. As a Beyond Loss Expert, she understands people and how crippling and life-changing loss can be. The Chaston Centre’s many programs have two focuses:
- Firstly, assisting individuals to create a better everyday life after any kind of loss.
- Secondly, assisting businesses to ensure that their People, Productivity and Profits are thriving.
