Making Engagement a Rational Choice
Gallup's latest global research shows that employee engagement is at an all-time low. When I think of critical industries, that statistic is disconcerting. This is especially true in high reliability industries like transportation, power generation, and healthcare.
Now, I’ve been called a dreamer, but I’m not naïve. Economic pressure, reduced headcount, flat salaries, political uncertainty, and profits-over-people make disengagement a downright rational choice.
Why in the world would anyone want to be “all-in” and have an “owner” mindset when nearly every experience we have reinforces the idea that we’re disposable, replaceable, and our value is dictated by what we produce or what we’re able to spend?
…Sorry, blacked out a little there…
I believe there is hope amid that lived reality.
While we cannot meaningfully change global factors influencing us over the course of the week, we can create systems and make choices that care for those around us. We can make disengagement an irrational choice.
When people show up and do the minimum, we call it a morale problem. We launch appreciation campaigns and throw pizza parties. We ask managers to have more one-on-one conversations. None of this fixes the underlying problems.
VERY rough numbers here. That Gallup study would suggest that for every 100 staffed beds, roughly 380 people are not engaged. That is nearly $4 million per 100 beds, in lost productivity.
Productivity is not a god, but most healthcare systems operate with razor thin margins and a mission to care for their local community. What do $4 million dollars in increased revenue mean to the bottom line?
At the Outcomes Institute, we do not treat disengagement as a motivation problem. We treat it as a system problem. We discover the friction that makes disengagement the right choice. We redesign those moments so that truly showing up becomes the default, not the exception.
We cannot fix the world today, but we can start to fix what’s right is in front of us. And the fix is probably not people. It is the system they navigate. Are you seeing any signs of disengagement? How are your systems making disengagement the rational choice?