by Kathy Ratcliffe founder of WorldLine Training
Everyone wants to be happy at work. After all, we spend a good percentage of our waking time in the workplace, so enjoying that time has to be a natural priority. Alarmingly therefore, 47% of people are reported to be unhappy in their role, most of those who leave do so because they are discordant with their boss, and more than 70% of the working population is said to be disengaged from the objectives of their company. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report found that disengagement was costing the world economy $438 billion in 2024.
“Lots of people on the shop floor have never seen engagement in action. New innovation can be perceived as a threat to jobs and resentment can spiral out of control. While people may feel that the organisation is important to them, there’s a concurrent sense that the company does not value their input, so they become reluctant to demonstrate commitment as a result.”
This statement came from a leader at a recent Roundtable discussion on workplace engagement in the engineering sector, and puts into a nutshell exactly what is faced. The consensus is that not enough is being done to advance people-centric policies, and that fear of failure is a contributory factor.
Resistance to change is a common problem which every established company has experienced to some degree. Whether it’s a new computer system or a new protocol, an upsurge of dissent arises from attachment to familiarity. ‘The way things are always done’ becomes a default that people are reluctant to forsake; anything that overturns what they already know is likely to represent perceived threat.
The human brain is hard-wired for protection, avoiding risk at all costs. The most ancient parts of our brain structure take over at times of stress, even when the stress factor is mild or temporary. Our conscious mind has less control over outcomes than we like to believe, as explained in this article from the National Library of Medicine (PubMed Central for the US Government):
No wonder, then, that companies have so much trouble introducing innovations and advancing cultures beyond present levels of performance. With negativity and resistance being ingrained in human tendency, it’s easy to see why slipping standards are easier to maintain than upward curves in continuous improvement.
How, then, do we tackle this sticky state of affairs?
There are three composites that reliably appear in all programme participations I have delivered. Priorities to be addressed, according to employees from all levels of the hierarchy, invariably include Communication, Recognition, and Morale.
For the directorship, it’s crucial to have the management team on board with any innovation, and to forestall sabotage where it’s likely to occur. Mid-tier leaders may talk the talk for their superiors while walking a completely different path on their own turf, so it’s important to build protection into employment contracts. Leaving behavioural protocols open to interpretation is asking for trouble – better by far to have documents ready at the outset that reflect intended changes clearly for everyone involved.
Involve the whole company in the developmental process – this is absolutely essential. People readily buy in to choices they have made of their own volition, and peer support helps to elevate performance. On the other hand, people do not respond well to dictatorial memos or behavioural directives that someone else is imposing upon them – these make them much more likely to fear the consequences of mistakes and prove reluctant to be seen making changes themselves. The element of choice is crucial for success – without it, slippage into old patterns will impact on future innovations you may want to implement, embedding resistance issues even further.
With communication comes collaboration, with recognition comes reward. It is also crucially important to ensure that change becomes standardised, by varying the methods by which collaboration happens and the type of rewards made available. In this way, resistance itself is thwarted as people have something to look forward to; excitement and proactivity can then replace the inertia associated with low morale.
As employees grow in confidence, they are keen to try new things. Giving them confidence to grow in their own right enables people to step outside those self-created boxes of familiarity dependence and drop destructive practices such as blame, shift-shunting (leaving issues for others to resolve), scuttlebutt and hidden down-time. As choices are made that benefit the whole, results reflect an increase in outstanding performance to be celebrated, recognised and rewarded. The cycle takes an upward curve and trends towards best-practice become standardised, willingly and proactively.
This is why the ROI on people-centric investment is so high. Recouping €4 for every €1 spent gives scope for benefits to promote the company internally and externally, both to stakeholders and the wider community. Reputation develops accordingly, and customers take notice of advanced protocols that they themselves have placed store by in selecting their suppliers.
Engagement isn’t rocket science, nor is it something to fear. In fact as society progresses and evolves in its own right, engagement becomes increasingly important for all companies seeking strength and temerity in an exponentially competitive world. Workplaces that enjoy these advancements also enjoy increased productivity, higher staff retention, better quality of output and greater customer focus. People who love coming into work every day are much more likely to align themselves with company values and work towards a mission that, to everyone, makes sense.
About the author
Kathy Ratcliffe is a qualified coach and facilitator who has worked with engineering companies since the 1990s from media and sales to inter-team training, ultimately delivering her own bespoke programmes to raise productivity and improve people-centric
factors renowned today as workplace engagement. Her experience includes record-breaking achievements in the steel industry and successful projects across a range of
manufacturing sites, mainly in the SME sector. She finds that shop-floor employees are as keen to learn and apply new logic to workplace development as anyone, and that
expanding the field of outreach brings incredible transformations to operational culture.
