{"id":154,"date":"2018-07-02T21:04:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T21:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielvlopes238992071.wordpress.com\/2018\/07\/02\/how-can-you-tell-if-you-have-a-disengaged-employee-ask-these-11-questions\/"},"modified":"2025-02-28T11:17:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T19:17:02","slug":"how-can-you-tell-if-you-have-a-disengaged-employee-ask-these-11-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2018\/07\/02\/how-can-you-tell-if-you-have-a-disengaged-employee-ask-these-11-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"How can you tell if you have a disengaged employee? Ask these 11 questions."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Employee motivation isn\u2019t as mystifying as it should be. Ask these questions to get to the bottom of it.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWhat really<\/em> motivates employees?\u201d<\/strong> A CEO asked me this recently, quite skeptical of the deluge of books and articles on what influences employee engagement and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s managers! It\u2019s career opportunities! It\u2019s learning and development! It\u2019s employee recognition! It\u2019s all of the above!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What \u201cthe experts\u201d say is dizzying. The truth is simpler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research shows that employee motivation boils down to one thing: Progress. A 2010 study published<\/a> in Harvard Business Review describes how making progress on meaningful work is the number one indicator of employee engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When employees make headway toward a significant goal, overcome obstacles in a reasonable timeframe, and feel supported in their work, their motivation is the strongest. When they feel their wheels are spinning, run into preventable roadblocks, or notice the end-goal is constantly changing, their motivation wanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given this, if there\u2019s only one thing you should be focused on as a manager, it\u2019s progress. You want to be relentless about discerning, \u201cAre employees making progress on meaningful work every day?<\/em>\u201d With limited time and competing priorities, you don\u2019t have to make employee engagement more complicated than this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To best distinguish how your employees feel about the progress they\u2019re making, I\u2019ve pulled together 11 questions from the data we\u2019ve collected through Canopy<\/a> over the past four years, specifically designed to tune into an employee\u2019s sense of progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may be wondering, \u201cWhy can\u2019t I just ask my team, outright, \u2018Do you feel like you\u2019re making meaningful progress on the work you\u2019re doing?\u2019\u201d <\/em>Absolutely, you can. And you should. But pose that question enough times, over<\/em> time, and fatigue sets in. You\u2019ll notice your employees starting to answer \u201cYes\u201d out of knee-jerk reaction, not genuine reflection\u2026 or, to just to get you off their backs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, these questions below will bring into your view invaluable insights that an employee might not always divulge: The root cause of why they feel the project is quicksand, who on their team is the pain-in-the-ass nitpicker causing unnecessary friction, and what you can do about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the 11 questions to figure out if employees feel they\u2019re making meaningful progress\u200a\u2014\u200aand what we\u2019ve found most employees say in response:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#1: Is there anything you worked on recently that you wish you could do\u00a0over?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dissatisfaction should always cause your ears to perk up\u200a\u2014\u200aand this question is particularly effective at unearthing it. You\u2019ll learn if an employee was dissatisfied with the outcome of a project because of team dynamics, or because it was rushed, or because there wasn\u2019t enough direction given. Either way, the answer to this question will point to how you can better support an employee on certain projects. Notably, 67% of employees<\/strong> who we asked this question to through Canopy<\/a> said, \u201cYes, there\u2019s something I wish I could do over\u201d (877 employees responded across 137 companies<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#2: Is anything holding you back from doing the best work you can do right\u00a0now?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To uncover what blockers someone is facing, we tend to rely on stock questions like, \u201cWhat challenges are you facing?<\/em>\u201d or \u201cAre you struggling with anything right now?<\/em>\u201d While there\u2019s nothing inherently wrong with those questions, because these questions tend to be overused, you may not always get the honest answers you\u2019re looking for. Rather, asking what is holding them back<\/em> helps you triangulate more specific challenges an employee faces, while avoiding routine answers. In fact, we found 58% of employees<\/strong> said, \u201cYes, something is holding me back from doing my best work\u201d (1,027 employees responded across 124 companies<\/em>) when asked through Canopy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#3: Do you feel like customers directly benefited from the work you did this\u00a0week?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Progress feels most meaningful when you can see the impact that you\u2019re making. So knowing whether or not an employee feels like customers benefited from their work is a useful proxy for progress. The good news too is that when asked, we\u2019ve found that 90% of employees<\/strong> say, \u201cYes, I feel like customers directly benefited from the work I did this week\u201d (1,114 employees responded across 134 companies)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#4: Do you wish you could be working on a different project right\u00a0now?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Affinity toward a project can signal an employee\u2019s sense of progress. Someone may purely be intrinsically disinterested in the subject matter of the project, while others could be sick of tolerating bad blood on a team, or an employee might feel the work you assigned to them is a mismatch of skill. In all situations, there\u2019s more to poke around and learn more\u200a\u2014\u200aand this question helps lay that bare. Nearly a third of employees<\/strong> we surveyed (29%) said they wish they could be working on a different project right now (1,942 employees responded across 148 companies<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#5: As a company, do you think we\u2019re behind the curve on anything in particular?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For employees to feel they are making progress, they need to feel the company as a whole<\/em> is making progress. This question reveals that. It\u2019s disheartening as an employee to pour their best work into their team, but feel the company doesn\u2019t prioritize areas that it should be ahead in. Perhaps most fascinating is that the majority of employees say, \u201cYes\u201d to this question: 65% of employees <\/strong>think their company is behind the curve on something in particular (1,267 employees responded across 190 companies<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#6: Do you feel like you\u2019re spread too thin right\u00a0now?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOverworked, scattered, drained\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200athese are all hints that an employee doesn\u2019t feel she\u2019s making sufficient progress. Not to mention, overworked employees report<\/a> more health problems, and as a direct consequence are less productive and use more sick days. Yet, it\u2019s rare an employee will come up and tell you outright: \u201cI\u2019m overworked.\u201d However, asking if someone feels \u201cspread too thin\u201d is a much more palatable to answer. It doesn\u2019t have an employee feeling guilty or wondering if their work ethic will be in question. We found that 36% of employees (<\/strong>slightly more than a third!) said they feel spread too thin right now (2,173 people responded across 179 companies)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#7: Do you think we\u2019re doing our best work right\u00a0now?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Ask this question to get an idea of if your employee thinks the team is holding itself to a high enough standard. If she feels good about the quality<\/em> of the work, then you can likely deduce she feel good about the progress<\/em> of work being made. Encouragingly, we found 59% of employees surveyed<\/strong> said, \u201cYes, I feel the company or team is doing the best work right now\u201d (1,073 employees responded across 160 companies<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#8: Is there an area outside your current role where you feel you could be contributing?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When an employee feels like they could be doing more, it\u2019s probable that she is discontent with the rate of progress that she could be making in her current role. Ask this question to recognize out what other projects, skills, or knowledge domains an employee wants to dive into\u200a\u2014\u200aor if there\u2019s more growth opportunities you could provide them with in her current<\/em> role. This will help you figure out how to ensure they\u2019re motivated. Take notice that an overwhelming majority\u200a\u2014\u200a76% of employees<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200asurveyed said, \u201cYes, there\u2019s an area outside my current role I feel I could be contributing\u201d (814 employees responded across 135 companies<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#9: Are you being forced to do something that you think is a waste of\u00a0time?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Nothing feels more depleting for someone\u2019s motivation than wasting time. Asking this question will draw your attention to the excess baggage weighing your team down, or pointless bottlenecks holding up your team. We found that 25% employees<\/strong> said, \u201cYes, they\u2019re being forced to do something that is a waste of time\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200awhich is not insignificant (852 employees responded across 113 companies<\/em>). Ask this question to accelerate progress for your employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#10: Are you working on a project that you feel like has gone on too\u00a0long?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When a project drags out forever, an employee\u2019s motivation to see it through naturally diminishes. You\u2019ve most-likely felt this way in your own career, feeling dejected or peeved when a project stalls for a reason outside your control. Now as a manager, you\u2019ll want to detect within your own team who is feeling this way. We discovered a surprisingly high number\u200a\u2014\u200a37% of employees<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200afeel that they were working on a project that had gone on too long (615 employees responded across 94 companies<\/em>). Identify which projects those are, so you can help remove barriers to progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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#11: Is there any red tape you\u2019d like to cut at the\u00a0company?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Policies that are no longer necessary, procedures that you\u2019ve even forgotten were there in the first place\u200a\u2014\u200athis all slow down the rate of progress. Fortunately, as a manager, it\u2019s within your scope to trim this fat. Remember how freeing it is for yourself<\/em> to operate without impractical constraints. And, keep in mind that 24% of employees <\/strong>said \u201cYes, there is red tape I\u2019d like to cut at the company\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aso there is ample opportunity for you to slash the red tape that is preventing your team\u2019s progress (591 employees responded across 105 companies<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here\u2019s the best part of all of this: 80% of the answers will expose things that you have control over. You have control over what the policies in the company are, what projects are assigned to which employees and when, the goals of a project, the deadlines set, the amount of support that\u2019s being given, and the sense of direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for the things you don\u2019t have control over \u2014a difficult client you can\u2019t fire right away, or an incompetent team executive who doesn\u2019t report to you\u2014 knowing<\/em> the impediments to progress can inform your decisions to a clearer path of progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employee engagement isn\u2019t as mystifying as it should be. Progress is the linchpin. Asking these questions can help you secure it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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