Greetings Readers!  I think everyone can relate to Mark’s story of employee apathy.  What bothers me most is that Mark’s experience, repeated billions of times per day, carries with it a great cost.  Frustration to customers, waste of capacity, damage to the brand and the organization’s goodwill, are just a few of the negative consequences of this problematic workplace phenomenon.  While many leaders would love to use a single event or focused approach to solving this problem, as J.B. Kassarjian points out, we have to shed a mindset of simplistic ideals and move beyond the hopes that “prescribing a little blue pill” mentality works. 

Mark, you point out that even though these behaviors are widespread, they must be overcome.  In fact, while employee apathy is common, it is not insurmountable.  Recent research I have done might provide helpful insight into the solutions to employee apathy.  What I have discovered aligns with Brandi’s ideas of leaders helping employees internalize what value is (from the view of stakeholders) and McKeown’s view that leaders must provide the chain of evidence that leads from employee performance to organizational performance.  I have surveyed employees from two levels of the organization, top executives and clerical staff, across multiple firms.  I was surprised to find out that both groups suffered from the same problems, and that these issues caused them to experience stress and be less productive (a situation that often is expressed in employee apathy).  These common problems include:

1.     A lack of clarity regarding roles and responsibilities

2.     A lack of communication

3.     A lack of strategic planning

4.     A lack of analysis of understanding root causes of problems

(Interestingly, measuring outcomes and taking more action on ethical beliefs were not areas of concern.) 

So, what I have learned to date is that there is a common understanding the outputs of work, namely the outcomes.  There is also an understanding of the parameters of work, and specifically ethical behavior.  What is missing on all levels is an understanding of how to proceed with processes, protocols and structures that make a difference.  Hence, there is no little blue pill solution here.  Rather, acumen for systemic thinking, skills in process-based approaches and the mental discipline needed for sustaining continuous improvement are called for. 

Dr. Shannon Flumerfelt leads the Organizational Development Practice of Inflexion Advisors.

 

1. - I enter the DMV in Washington, DC and step into the queue.
2. - The counter employee (who I did not identify as “on duty” given her disinterested elbow-lean and gaze into space) literally screams at me to come forward.
3. - After I convey my need, she turns (with no visible signs of comprehension) and silently waits for her colleague to become available to answer my question.
4. - Now two employees are yelling at me, between moments of angry staring.
5. - Following some sarcastic commentary on my part, I leave without my issue having been resolved.

Shocking, I know. Unfortunately, this plays into so many preexisting stereotypes that it’s hard to have expected anything but this outcome. That being said, I am 100% certain that each of you have had a similar experience either at your local DMV, with your cable provider, your cellular company and/or at the local mall. As consumers of a wide variety of goods and services, we constantly encounter this sense of complete and utter customer disinterest. As professionals in the HR industry, it’s our duty to try and overcome this employee apathy in some systemic way. Here are some ideas to consider:

• Max McKeown of Management Issues suggests that, “Those who become apathetic (or give up) do so because they see the situation as a problem they have personally caused or something that happens everywhere (pervasive) and always.” McKeown believes, “A leader’s task is to provide evidence that effort is worthwhile and that things can be better both generally and particularly. In so doing, they will succeed in overcoming apathy, beating boredom, and restoring purpose to people’s lives.”
• Joanna Brandi of Customer Care Coach thinks that service givers are suffering from what she calls “E.D.S. – Empathy Deficiency Syndrome”. Among a variety of suggested improvements, Brandi emphasizes that, “it is the manager who is really the connection between the customer and the company. When a manager understands and communicates the importance, the lifetime value, of the customer to the company, people begin to understand why delivering great service should be something they want to do. It’s the responsibility of today’s managers to get people excited about interacting with the customer.”
• Babson Insight’s J.B. Kassarjian has a different point of view, offering that, “The current conventional wisdom suggests that involvement and participation are critical to getting buy-in for any change, and the key is empowering your people. Unfortunately this is more likely to produce cynicism and confusion than to produce measurable change. The optimism of a single dynamic to overcome employee apathy, release creative potential, and mobilize human talent to ease the road to renewal, is in fact a hollow promise.” He adds that, “to be real it has to be earned, it cannot be bestowed.”

The fact of the matter is that there is no silver bullet in addressing this issue. It takes time, emphasis and the proper behavioral motivation to be applied in a systematic way to each individual stakeholder. Many forgot the simple WIIFM rule (“What’s In It for Me?”), and if you can’t provide your front line employees with an answer to this most basic question, I fear this behavior will continue to plague our service industry.

Let’s keep the conversation going.