Workforce apathy towards the job is one of the biggest problems faced by organizations. When employees are apathetic to their organization, work and customers/clients, the company suffers. Prof. VGT illuminates the way to deal with this challenge and instill passion in your team.
Workplace apathy increases business costs. It manifests attrition rate, less return on investment on employees and disappointment of customers. Indeed most problems faced by the customers of a company are the result of its employees’ apathy.
The initial signs of apathy in employees are spending time surfing net, gossiping, making personal calls, sending emails, dozing and even day dreaming.
In fact, they do everything but their job. The little output they give is to save their job for the moment and their work is not perfect either. The most worrying part of workplace apathy is that it is observed in a huge chunk of the workforce.
There are several reasons behind workplace apathy. One of them is the transformation in the notion of work in the past few decades. Downsizing, corporate greed and global trends have changed the work culture and employee-employer relationship.
Terms like ‘employee loyalty’, ‘work-life balance’ and ‘dedicated employee’ hold little relevance.
– Prof. VGT
Today, employees neither trust their immediate bosses nor the management. They believe that their companies do not value them. Employees work only for their personal goals. Terms like ‘employee loyalty’, ‘work-life balance’ and ‘dedicated employee’ hold little relevance.
Added to this mindset are factors like uncomfortable working conditions, abusive managers, unfriendly employee policies, office politics, tough competition, compromised ethics, discrimination, unreasonable authority and some unpleasant experiences at the workplace that further dills an employee’s enthusiasm in work. They incite the employees to take unprofessional steps in the spur of moment. Mounting work pressure and long working hours are other aggravating reasons that increase work place apathy.
While it is obvious that fighting workplace apathy is not a one-time battle, organizations must strive to eliminate it. To attain the full benefits of an accomplished workforce, organizations must first instill a passion for work among employees.The first step towards this is attending the issues of employees promptly.
Address their concerns, help them solve their problems, treat them justly, trust them, bestow responsibility and support them in their efforts. In short, eliminate all the factors that can make them dislike their work or workplace.
And the only way to know these factors is to directly ask the employees. These initiatives make them feel valued. The next step is to make them find satisfaction and happiness in their work. Healthy competition, friendly work relations, respect, some fun, recognition and reward for accomplishments help in ensuring this.
Then comes the step to make the employees discover their inner strength to be able to fight all odds themselves. Be it the need to prove oneself at workplace or overcome problems at personal front, employees must be self-dependent. The confidence to be so gradually changes their attitude towards work. The issues that previously led them to be apathetic at workplace now seem as some more challenges. However, this does not mean that the organizations can resume their old ways.
Organizations must make sure that they are in constant touch with their employees. They must involve the employees in inspirational sessions periodically to maintain their spirit in work. They must manage to impress upon the minds of their employees that their workplace can help them find solutions for most of their problems. They must ensure that the employees perceive work not as an obligation but an interesting part of their everyday life. It is impractical to expect quick and absolute results from these initiatives but over a period of time, the organizations can see significant positive e outcomes in form of improved business.
