In this moment, we are forced to creatively manage our lives and businesses given the challenges of COVID-19. We’re doing more with less — less cost, less facetime, less clarity. For business leaders, it may appear that employees are grateful to be employed. But, does that mean they are engaged? 

Even prior to these conditions, business news regularly bombarded us with messaging that the U.S. workforce is disengaged. If you’re a part of an organization that conducts yearly engagement surveys, your analytics may also raise the question, what do we need to improve?

At Talmetrix, we believe that engagement is about more than just happiness with your job or an intent to stay at the company. Engagement at work actually measures performance, not satisfaction. A part of our definition of engagement includes three attributes: vitality, immersion and dedication. Here’s a definition of each and a description of what each of these attributes impact:

Vitality + Immersion + Dedication

Attribute	Vitality	Immersion	Dedication
What it Means	The level of personal energy related to work The speed in which an individual can work	The level at which someone is absorbed in their work The commitment to superior performance and willingness to put forth extra effort and new ideas	The meaning and purpose in one’s work The level of challenge in one’s work
What it Answers...	How fast and persistent can I work?	Am I willing to invest extra effort or offer new ideas?	Am I challenged by my work?
These attributes and the other components that make up our definition of employee engagement are fully described in our white paper “The New Normal” Demands New Approaches to Measure Employee Engagement. Visit talmetrix.com to download and learn more.

 

Considering these attributes, the seven employee personas that follow provide some unambiguous indicators of lack of employee engagement. As you read, consider whether you have any in your own office!

 

Seven Employees, Seven Warning Signs

1. Late Larry

Late Larry works remotely. He joins conference calls, but is always a few minutes late and never turns the video feature on. He doesn’t ask questions during team meetings and only sporadically answers group chats. Larry usually responds to emails late in the day, often missing out on urgent requests.

Larry’s Favorite Quote

“I didn’t see that.”

Diagnosis

Lack of vitality

Larry is falling behind and underperforming on his tasks which demonstrates a lack of engagement. His personal energy and work speed are low which are indicative of low engagement in the vitality attribute.

2. Burned-Out Bahar

Burned-Out Bahar is the sole remaining team member after his two colleagues were laid off. While still responsible for his own work, he has now taken on some of the responsibilities of his former team members. Behar is enjoying learning from his new assignments, but recently, he has struggled to maintain deadlines and has fallen into a pattern of only responding to the most pressing issues. During meetings, he jumps between topics, having a hard time concentrating on one topic. 

Bahar’s Favorite Quote

“I’m starting a new project.”

Diagnosis

Too much immersion

Bahar thinks he is absorbed in his work, but because he is juggling too many projects, he is not adequately immersed in any of them. His work is based on a fire drill approach, with many tasks falling behind. These characteristics are an indicator that he is burned-out, or rapidly approaching it. Bahar is going in too many directions at once, indicating low engagement in the immersion attribute.

3. Overwhelmed Olu

Olu has been identified as a high-performing employee which has given her access to prime assignments. She has identified both a mentor and a champion within the organization, meets with both regularly and applies their advice. She initiates a one-on-one meeting with her direct manager and leaders of her projects at least weekly to confirm that she is on track with expectations. Olu serves as the leader of the women’s employee interest group and actively plans opportunities for group members to have access to senior leadership, learning and social opportunities. She also volunteers with the company’s employee volunteer program, tutoring students one Friday morning per month.

Olu’s Favorite Quote

“I get my work done after my full day of back-to-back calls.”

Diagnosis

Over-dedication

Olu is a super-achiever with clear goals, meaning and purpose in her work, career and personal life. While she might seem like the ideal employee, she is currently over-challenged. The short-term benefits of her drive may seem worth it, but Olu has work-life boundary struggles (answers emails and calls at all hours, never takes PTO, etc.). She may be one step away from burnout — an indicator that she is over indexing on the dedication attribute.

4. Punchcard Pauline

Punchcard Pauline shows up -- almost always on time. But, she does the minimum work required, with no sense of urgency. Pauline’s manager has to specifically instruct her on what to do and then regularly follow up to make sure it gets done. 

Pauline’s Favorite Quote

“That’s not my job.” 

Diagnosis

Lack of vitality

Pauline shows up and does the bare minimum, demonstrating a deficiency in the vitality attribute. Her personal energy at work is just enough to maintain her role.

5. Selfish Susan

Selfish Susan completes her work to specifications, efficiently and on time. Sometimes her manager complains because there were obvious next steps or other considerations that Susan could have made to improve the project. Although Susan is a seasoned professional, she is not interested in providing guidance to or answering questions from other team members. 

Susan’s Favorite Quote

“Sorry, I have too much on my plate.”

Diagnosis

Lack of immersion

Susan is not willing to take on accountability to help others or do work beyond what is assigned to her. This indicates a lack of energy around her work, which is in line with a diminished immersion attribute.

6. Bored Brett

Bored Brett has a solid five years of work experience and is interested in advancing his career. In his last review, his manager Karen shared that she didn’t feel Brett was ready for a manager role. She acknowledged that his work was well done and suggested that he just needed more time to develop. Despite Brett consistently asking for additional work and more responsibility, Karen is hesitant to trust him to take on more. Internally, she feels confused about what she should assign to Brett or to herself. Karen usually chooses to complete plum assignments herself, leaving Brett with important, but uninspiring work.

Brett’s Favorite Quote

“I have the bandwidth for that!”

Diagnosis

Loss of dedication

Brett is stuck behind a manager that is not ready to trust him to do more. As a result he is at high risk for losing engagement under the dedication attribute. 

7. Protocol Pat

Protocol Pat has encyclopedic knowledge of all the processes and procedures for the organization since 1996. They finally accepted digital filing requirements; however, you’ll still find at least five binders on Pat’s desk. Pat completes work efficiently, but doesn’t innovate any process or approach. They push back against requests to develop new thoughts or improvements and take a while to adapt to a new way of working or new work relationships.

Pat’s Favorite Quote

“That’s not how we do things.”

Diagnosis

Lack of immersion

Pat is absorbed in work and the company, but only dedicated to getting the work done, not striving for or contributing to new ideas and processes. This indicates a deficit in the immersion attribute.

Solutions

Have you spotted any of these employees in your workplace? Do any of them work for you? Or, are you one of them?

Spotting lack of engagement in an individual or team can be as simple as directly observing the level of dedication, vitality and immersion. However, this is more difficult to accomplish at an aggregate level. Additionally, we know that the employee has some accountability for their own engagement. That’s why the Talmetrix IMPACT Survey™ also measures optimism, self-efficacy and accountability (further described in our white paper here). Only by using quality talent analytics can you ascertain collective engagement and improve it in your workforce. 

Talmetrix’s IMPACT SurveyTM

Our IMPACT survey can help you learn the specifics that are driving engagement in your organization.