How to Motivate Disengaged Employees: Expert Strategies

What if we told you a single emoji can motivate your disengaged employee?

Doubting it?

Wait for one particular case study.

We’ve prepared a list of strategies and success stories on employee motivation in disengaged teams.

Meanwhile, let’s talk about the dangers behind workplace disengagement. Strikingly, it has been progressing year-to-year and slithering into more job sites, remote or in-office. Today, employee engagement reached its lowest level of 30% in 11 years!

The worst part?

It may touch anyone. If you have already sensed the alarming signals in your team members, we’re glad to give you a helping hand. This guide will assist you in re-engaging and motivating your disengaged employees.

But first, let’s understand your detached worker and dig out the roots of this problem.

Understanding Disengaged Workforce

“I felt disengaged at work and unmotivated to do anything more than what was asked. I eagerly anticipated the clock turning to 5 p.m. each day so I could leave my miserable job and go home.”

This confession belongs to Laurie Maddalena, CEO of Envision Excellence, who referred to it as “quiet quitting,” when such an emotional detachment eventually leads to leaving the job.

It may serve as an illustrative example with obvious signs to spot disengaged employees in your workplace:

• They feel wretched.
• They perform a bare minimum and never aim to go above and beyond.
• They are the first to log out or leave the office after work hours.
• They may constantly complain or even badmouth the employer in front of colleagues, relatives, or friends.

Reasons for Employee Disengagement

Before running headlong to execute your employee engagement action plan, there’s a preparatory stage you can’t omit.

Understand what demotivates your team members or makes them feel disconnected from the team.

It may be:  

• Feeling undervalued
• Insufficient training
• High workload or burnout
• Unaddressed conflicts
• Toxic corporate culture
• Injuries, etc.

Jeffrey Zhou, CEO and Founder of Fig Loans, says, “Even personal injury at workplace sites can harm your employees’ physical and mental wellness and disengage them from their teammates. Here’s why. They may feel excluded or useless, with limited ability to perform tasks because of injury.

Then, remote employees may be disengaged due to work-from-home fatigue, a lack of tools and resources, or other factors.”

Best Strategies to Build a Motivational Work Environment

Master the art of motivation to drive your workforce from disengagement to perpetual engagement.

Determine your employees’ motivational triggers.

How exactly?

Just ask your team regularly what motivates them best. You can also conduct employee engagement surveys monthly or quarterly to see how their motivation drivers change over time.

John Baek, Founder of JSB Digital Works, also recommends, “After collecting survey results, you should create motivational profiles for every employee to understand how to motivate disengaged workers with an individual plan for each.”

Look at the employee profile (from the digital marketing agency), which includes motivational triggers and the “how-tos” for engagement.

Rather than scattering your employee engagement efforts, group them around one goal: belongingness. It requires a sharper focus on inclusion to help you motivate and engage your excluded workers.

Develop a culture of inclusion and belonging

Motivosity incorporates this strategic approach in the workplace. Logan Mallory, Vice President of Marketing at Motivosity, reveals, “We engage employees by building an inspired community of MVers (members of Motivosity), where everyone lives up to its values and is treated as a family member. Every Motivosity employee is a proud MVer, spurred by shared enthusiasm and valued as an irreplaceable member.

We also encourage transparency and honesty in conversations. This is like the family—you can tell even the coldest, hardest truths to your family members.”

Let’s take your brand. How can you name your community of employees? What core values will you share? Just think of it.

For instance, Accenture calls workers Accenturians. Another example is about Facebookers turning into Metamates after Facebook’s rebranding. Have you noticed how the word “mates” was used to enhance the feeling of camaraderie?

Rejoice in triumphs

“Every employee’s personality matters. Every achievement matters. Every milestone matters.”

That’s what Morgan Taylor, Co-Founder of Jolly SEO, said when asked about the best strategies to create a motivating atmosphere for disengaged employees. He also highlighted, “Importantly, you must count both professional and personal achievements. Then, honor and applaud these accomplishments. Your employees’ landmarks and victories deserve to be noticed and valued.”

Morgan Taylor recommends adding these milestones to your calendar of company celebrations:

• Birthday
• Marriage
• Birth of a child
• Work anniversary
• Promotion
• Certification, etc.

For example:

Jolly SEO celebrated a “Jolly-4-year-versary” of one of their employees with a special shout-out via Slack.

Allocate time for relaxation 

Your employees may be disengaged and unmotivated due to burnout at work. Do you give them enough time to relax during the workday?

Activity-driven breaks

Sergey Taver, Marketing Manager at Precision Watches, remarks that scheduling micro-breaks throughout the day may help prevent employees from experiencing emotional and physical exhaustion and make them more productive and engaged. He shares, “Our watchmakers have regular breaks throughout their eight-hour shifts. It may be a lunch, a coffee break, a friendly chat with colleagues, or any other activity the employee prefers.”

For instance, you can try fast team-building activities that take less than 30 minutes without leaving the office or virtual workplace.
Here are some ideas:

• Would-you-rather questions
• X-word storytelling
• Coin logo
• Team charades
• Happy hour trivia
• Group stretching or yoga
• Word association, etc.

Nap-powered breaks

What if we told you a 26-minute catnap can boost your employee’s performance by 34%?

Obligatory nap time is another superb tactic to re-energize your disengaged workers.

For example:

Wakefit introduced “Official Nap Time” in the workplace. The company pays employees for napping between 2 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. work hours.

Although many organizations, including Zappos, Ben & Jerry’s, and Nike, don’t make napping time mandatory, they encourage power naps in specialized nap rooms with comfortable beds and mattresses and meditative interiors. Alternatively, follow in the footsteps of Google, NASA, and Samsung, which installed sleep pods for their staff.

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2 Success Stories of Using Motivation for Higher Engagement in Teams

Look at several companies and their examples of using motivation successfully to engage workers.

Success Story #1. Motivate with emojis like LeadsBridge.

Is it really possible to motivate disengaged employees with an emoji?

Well, it surely is! This strategy worked for LeadsBridge, which implemented emojis to boost engagement and productivity in the remote team.
Here are the most frequently sent stimulating emojis at LeadsBridge:

Club — a funny way to say: “Pay more attention!”

Logo — for a feeling of belonging to the corporate family and collective projects

Clap — for a feeling of approval and support

Plus, they use one of the greatest tools for remote employees: the Growbot App synced with Slack, where they send even more emojis and uplifting GIFs.

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Isn’t it time for your team to communicate in the motivational emoji language?

Success Story #2. Motivate with bonuses and rewards like Klika Tech.

Like many other companies, Klika Tech faced employee disengagement.

So, the brand launched a recognition and rewards program, Klika Hero, to empower team members to reach their fullest potential and develop new skills. Employees earn financial bonuses for each completed activity and collect points to become the Klika Hero winner at the end of the year.

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Klika Tech gives incentives for different activities, most of those aimed at employee development:

• For getting certificates in their professional areas
• For content mastery (crafting articles, videos, or presentations for events)
• For additional language skills
• For referring new talent

Now, over to you: Do you properly recognize and reward your employees to never leave disengaged workers off-board?

Engage and Motivate Your Team with Outback

Outback may be the only energizer you need if you want to motivate a disengaged worker or the entire team. Whether you aim to train your staff, organize an in-office game, or hold a virtual team-building event—you pick; they make it happen!

Request a quote and they’ll get back to you with a creative and fun idea.

P.S.: If you need time to weigh the options, read more case studies about Coca-Cola, Microsoft’s Azure team, and others engaging and motivating their teammates with Outback solutions.

Author Bio

Catherine Schwartz is an author who specializes in employee well-being and engagement.