Motivation in the workplace: 7 signs your employees aren’t engaged

Employees are the members of your team within your business. If they are not motivated or committed to do a certain job or perform a certain job within your company, their performance will be poor and the results you will get from your efforts will be poor.

If employees aren’t engaged, your business will suffer.

The average cost of a bad hire is tremendous. If people are not engaged, it is good practice to get rid of them. Change only occurs as a result of motivation. If they lack motivation, they are less likely to change.

That’s because if you try to motivate them or give them different ways to motivate them, you are going to INVEST valuable time along the way.

Motivation generally has nothing to do with you motivating them, but they have to motivate themselves.

Finding self-motivated people to work within your business and filtering out those who aren’t is key.

You have to be very picky when it comes to recruiting team members. Keeping them has to do with the level of commitment or motivation they have to be part of your company.

Let’s consider different signs when employees are not motivated or engaged in what they are doing within their business:

1) Lack of will to achieve and acquire – If your team members don’t like improvement, are constantly challenged and are unwilling to get involved in different opportunities that will help them develop more skills or improve themselves, then that’s a red flag.

2) The temptation to “do” – If you have to constantly tell them what to do, taking the time to give them instructions on what activity to do next, it is a danger sign.

It’s different when you give them some perspective on where your business is going and what action steps they need to take to get there. That’s because if they have the perspective and are motivated to get there, they will find a way to consult with you or other team members. Doing business is a team sport.

3) Isolate – if they try to isolate themselves from the rest of the team members, making things difficult for you, and seem to keep things a secret, not to be fired. It is a sign of danger.

Usually those people are building an artificial structure around their business and making things impossible for someone else to come in and replace them in the work they are doing when needed.

Often times, they may not communicate as often with other team members or they may not count the important pieces of the puzzle.

They establish this “it’s me or them” behavior, rather than viewing business as a team sport.

4) Without knowing “why” they work in your company. – this is often under your control.

If they really don’t know why they are part of your company, it is a red flag. Don’t let them find out for themselves. It is your job as a business owner to inform them, based on your vision for the future of your business.

I am not referring to knowing your responsibilities, duties and course of action within the company. These do not represent the “why”, but the “what”.

The “what” do they need to do within their business?

Is the “why” the reason you get involved in your business operations, trying to make things better?

If they don’t know why they are doing what they are doing, they will easily burn out and you will lose good subordinates.

5) Too much drama – Are they defending the smallest detail, problem or challenge? If they constantly complain about things, attack the company’s agenda, without proposing any improvement strategy, it is a danger sign.

Often times, team members can “complain” in a way that will be good for their business. That’s when they suggest different or better alternatives to streamline the business, based on personal observations.

Therefore, if they constantly complain, and having the need to generate conflicts, it is different and a great danger for your business.

6) Showing few or no results – If you can isolate the performance of each team member, you will notice that some produce better results than others. The more motivated, engaged and excited your team members are, the better they will perform in getting the job done.

You should always be results-oriented, when it comes to evaluating a person’s commitment within your business.

If they say something that you like, it doesn’t mean anything, unless they really do.

Most business owners focus too much on what team members are saying, rather than what they are doing, and more specifically, what kind of results they are producing as a result of what they do.

7) Find reasons not to work (that are reasonable for them) – If you constantly make excuses for unfinished homework and assignments, it is a danger sign.

If they try to make demands on you or try to make excuses for not doing something that needs to be done, it is a bad sign.

Good team members strive to finish certain tasks quickly and move on to the next. Rhythm is everything. Of course, some of those who are performing well are slower than others, but when it comes to deliverability, it is generally lacking in those who are not committed or motivated within their business.

To find self-motivated people, we have to know what mistakes to avoid so we don’t get the wrong hires or unencumbered people in the first place.