Avoiding the Danger of Detachment

The esteemed Gallup organization has recently sounded the alarm on what they have labeled “The Great Detachment.” What Gallup and other researchers are finding is that employees across the country are feeling increasingly detached from their jobs. People are seeking new job opportunities at the highest rate since 2015, while overall satisfaction with their employer has returned to a record low. But unlike the “Great Resignation,” many people feel trapped with their current employer due to a cooling job market and an economy marred by inflation.

Employees are increasingly feeling detached from their companies.

Having team members that feel detached brings multiple potential problems, including lower productivity, future talent loss, and lack of support for organizational goals and change initiatives. Let’s look at the major causes of detachment and practical cures to correct and prevent.

Causes of Detachment

Here are five causes of detachment:

1. Changed Team Member Expectations

The pandemic and the days that followed have caused many to reevaluate what they want from their career and employer. Employee surveys have been showing a higher importance in the work-life balance, better compensation packages, and work flexibility. When there is a mismatch between what employees want and what employers offer, team members can feel undervalued and question their futures, leading to detachment.

2. Rapid Organizational Changes

Most organizations have gone through significant transformations post-2020. There was record-high turnover and hiring during the Great Resignation. A recent employee survey found that 73% say their organization has experienced disruptive change in the past year. A survey of managers found that 55% report disruptions from team restructuring, 69% say there are additional responsibilities for employees, and 46% report budget cuts. The result? Managers are often faced with the challenges of stabilizing disrupted teams and onboarding new employees while dealing with a tighter budget.

3. Hybrid and Remote Work Challenges

There are production-oriented and other jobs where in-person work is needed, but for many jobs, most of the required tasks can be completed remotely. This opens up the possibility of fully remote or hybrid work. Often, people like the opportunity to do some work remotely, which brings challenges. Potential challenges include communication, coordination, and emotional distancing. Fully remote workers are especially prone to feeling disconnected, as recent Gallup research found that fully remote workers are consistently less connected to the organization’s mission compared with hybrid workers.

4. Unclear Expectations

Gallup research has found the most important ingredient in a person’s performance and development at work is knowing what is expected of them. Without clear expectations, there is no agreed upon standard for success.

5. Feeling Uncommitted to Organization’s Mission and Purpose

People want to know that their work matters and that what the organization does makes a difference in the world. The sense of employee connection to the mission and purpose of the organization has eroded during the Great Resignation, recently dropping to a record low of only 30% (ouch!). Connection to mission and purpose is particularly low among fully remote workers, younger employees, and front-line workers.

Cures for Detachment

Let’s look at 10 ideas to help prevent and resolve detachment.

1. Solicit feedback and act on it. It’s important for us in leadership roles to regularly gather feedback from our team members, then act on it. We can gather feedback via surveys (such as the Gallup 12), focus groups, open forums, regular one-on-one meetings, anonymous suggestion boxes, and other means. Then, to improve engagement, we need to act on feedback when it makes sense. A survey by TINYpulse found that 92% of employees feel more engaged when their ideas are taken into consideration, and Gallup research found that employees who feel their opinions count are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to do their best work.
2. Clarify expectations and priorities. As mentioned, Gallup research has found the most important ingredient in a person’s performance and development at work is knowing what is expected of them. What we need is two-way conversations with our team members to clarify expectations and priorities. Expectations are better understood and received when they are:
   • Collaboratively set and prioritized with team members.
   • Aligned with what the team aims to achieve.
   • Regularly discussed.
   • Take into consideration workload, well-being, and unexpected circumstances.
3. Connect individual work to an organization’s mission and purpose. As leaders and managers, we need to clarify and model the mission and values of the organization. We need to help our team members see how they contribute to something bigger. Management guru Ken Blanchard encourages leaders to, “Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity, and meaning in their job.”
4. Foster clear communication. Effective communication is foundational to employee engagement. Team members are more likely to feel engaged and motivated when they understand organizational and team goals and values, and their role in the team’s success.
5. Provide opportunities for growth and development. Team members want to feel that they are progressing in their career. A study by LinkedIn (opens as a pdf) found that 94% of employees would stay longer at an organization if it invested in their career development. We can offer continuous learning opportunities in a wide range of opportunities, such as internal and external training classes; webinars and seminars; cross-training and job rotations; mentorship programs; conferences; professional association involvement.
6. Recognize and reward contributions. According to a study by Gallup, employees who receive regular recognition are more than five times as likely to be engaged in their work. Recognition can come in many forms — verbal praise, emails or texts, bonuses and other gifts, reward programs, or simple thank-you notes.
7. Encourage work-life balance. When team members feel they have the flexibility to manage their professional and personal lives, they are less likely to experience burnout and more likely to feel engaged. In a survey by FlexJobs, 29% of employees listed poor work-life balance as the top reason they wanted to quit their job. We can explore ways to help keep a healthy balance, such as offering flexible work hours, remote work, additional paid time off, and reasonable expectations regarding work communications during non-work hours.
8. Give team members more autonomy. People naturally like autonomy, so we can look for opportunities to empower our team members to make decisions and contribute to how work is done (within parameters, of course).
9. Cultivate a positive and inclusive culture. When team members feel respected, valued, and included, they are more likely to be engaged and contribute to the success of the team. I appreciate this quote from human capital management thought leader Pamela Stroko: “People want to know they matter, and they want to be treated as people. That’s the new talent contract.”
10. Make work itself less stressful and more enjoyable. One way to make work less stressful is to ensure that team members are adequately trained on the tasks they need to do. We can also ensure that we develop “bench strength” for every task our team does; we want to avoid the stress of something not getting done because a team member is unavailable for any reason. We can also build in “fun” activities into our work schedules. If you need ideas, just ask team members for their suggestions.

A final thought: The opposite of detachment is engagement. We can proactively and collaboratively work with our teams to create the conditions leading to engagement — then enjoy the benefits, including the lack of detachment.