Alright – So. You’re listening to this podcast because the title intrigues you, of course. And, maybe right now you are thinking of someone at your company who is not engaged in his or her job. Or worse, maybe even several people.

If so, you are not alone.

Because according to a recent Gallup poll, 67 percent of employees are disengaged to some degree in the workplace. And, according to a recent article in FORBES, a disengaged employee will cost on average, 34% of his or her annual salary. 

However, the good news is that the percentage of disengaged employees is actually shrinking because more and more companies are recognizing the value and importance of creating corporate cultures grounded on a central purpose, and a vision which thereby deepens engagement. 

In recent years, there have been countless books, articles and elements of research that demonstrate and prove that maintaining a healthy corporate culture makes a very positive impact on the overall success of any organization. 

So, if you have low employee engagement issues and you’re not focused on your company’s culture, that could very well be a large part of the problem. 

Now, some employees disengage for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with their employer or work environment. 

The most common reasons are illness, injuries or going through a major life event such as losing a loved one, going through a divorce, caring for an ailing parent or dealing with any kind of trauma. These events are distracting enough to prevent anyone from doing their job well.

I refer to this as involuntary disengagement – and let’s face it - it’s inevitable and it will affect everyone at one time or another. Even you!

For these employees, empathy, support and some added flexibility are the three elixirs employers can offer to help them work through these types of stresses. 

And, in some cases, employees even admit that they need the distractions of staying busy at work to help cope with their hardships. 

So, let’s set that aside because I’m talking about a completely different kind of disengagement.

I’m referring to disengagement based on internal factors at a company such as being forced to work in a dysfunctional culture, being frustrated in the workplace, and crappy leadership. Any one of these factors can be debilitating, thereby hindering performance and productivity.  

Under these circumstances, disengaged employees are not simply low-productivity team members who waste time on Facebook or take two-hour lunches.

One single disengaged employee can hurt their employers in six ways.

One. Costing the company infinite amounts of money due to negligence and making careless mistakes. Because when an employee no longer cares, he or she is less likely to pay attention to details, which is where the devil resides. 

And as you know, failing to pay attention to even the smallest of details can have dire consequences.

Two. Angering customers into the welcoming arms of a competitor. The last thing you need is to have a disengaged employee interact with a customer – especially when the customer has an issue that needs to be resolved. 

Because if customers aren’t feeling the love from that one employee, they may become more open and agreeable to going on a first date with a competitor, you know, just to keep their “options” open.

Three. Recruiting others to start a movement – or, in other words, an internal resistance to the leadership team. Disengaged employees don’t always keep quiet and operate alone. 

They always have something to complain about and confide in others the displeasure, disappointment or resentment they have toward the company or its

Several years ago, I had an experience that I get reminded of often as I work with our clients on building their brands. 

I was in the conference room of a mortgage company in San Diego, and the reason I was there was because their senior-leaders were interested in learning our approach to building brands, and how we may be able to help them properly define theirs.  

This company was stuck in a vicious and perpetual state of re-branding for quite a few years, and the reason they found themselves in this predicament was because they couldn’t reach a consensus, or an agreement on what the brand should be. 

Countless hours were spent thinking, planning, and second-guessing themselves, and nothing ever came to fruition. It was a classic case of analysis paralysis. Plus, it didn’t help that they were trying to build a brand by a committee of twelve people. So, it’s no wonder they were in the situation!

So, here I was sitting at a table with their committee, and at the beginning of the meeting the owner of the company said something I’ll never forget: 

Before we can define what our brand is, we must first define what a brand is. And although this makes so much sense and that I knew exactly where he was going, it was the way he said it that really struck me and stuck with me. 

As you know, oftentimes it’s the little things you see or hear in life that really stick with you.

So, in that spirit, I want to start off this podcast with defining what a brand it is. 

A brand is thoughts that come to people’s minds when they hear a company name, or see its logo. 

It really is that simple, and the reason is because the term “brand” has become so ambiguous that its definition has come to rest quite comfortably in the mind of the beholder.

Here’s what I mean: Not too long ago, I asked ten people, individually, what comes to mind when they hear the name BMW. 

Among the responses included: dream car, which came up three times, fast, expensive, which also came up three times, Mercedes’ evil twin, luxury, and their old tagline, ultimate driving machine. 

Okay. So, let’s switch gears and get personal here: Let’s talk about your brand. 

If you were to ask ten random employees and ten random clients what comes to mind when they hear your company name, I think it would be interesting for you to hear the responses. 

How many responses would be similar? How many different ways is your brand perceived? Would there any pleasant, or unpleasant responses? You know where I’m going here.

Now, let’s put that aside for a moment and talk about reputation: Reputation is defined as the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something. 

Yikes! If you give this just a few ounces of thought, that’s pretty darn close to the definition of a brand.

So, here’s the question: What exactly is the fundamental difference between brand and reputation?

Here we go: We’ve already established that brand is defined as thoughts that come to people’s minds when they hear a company name or see its logo. Okay. But, those thoughts and impressions had to have come from somewhere. 

Typically, they come from a number of different sources, such as a person’s prior experiences with the brand, what friends or colleagues say about the brand, impressions of the brand based on any sort of online research such as its website or social media activity, or, whether or not the person has ever even heard of the brand.

Now, if we go back to the definition of reputation – the beliefs and opinions that are generally held about someone or something, we can reasonably and confidently conclude that a brand earns a reputation based on the actions of its people. Specifically, how they conduct business with customers, as well as the quality of its products and&

In this episode I want to talk about the best way you can get candid feedback on the health and strength of your culture. 

But before I do so, I think it’s important to set the stage by defining what culture is. 

Culture is the combination of beliefs, behaviors and attitudes that make up the social construct of an organization. 

So, by its definition, it’s easy to understand why culture is a key point of focus for so many companies. In fact, many prominent CEOs of very large and successful organizations agree that culture is more important than strategy. And they are correct. After all, you need people to execute on your business strategy, and if you have an unhealthy or dysfunctional culture, your strategy will not be executed very well, if at all. And that’s a problem.

Another aspect of culture is that if an organization is to be successful, it needs to be able to attract and retain high-quality people. That can only be done if your company has a reputation for having a healthy culture.

Now you may think, or even assume that the best way to get candid feedback on your culture is through doing an employee survey or questionnaire. Although internal culture questionnaires are very effective, revealing and necessary component of gaining insights into the health and state of your culture, there is another technique, or rather a tool that is in many cases even more effective that nearly all employers are aware of, but not all of them employ. It is the exit interview.

I’m going to explain why exit interviews are so effective, and how to facilitate them to get the candid feedback you need.

Measuring and monitoring the health and performance of your culture, which drives productivity and operational performance, cannot be achieved simply by getting feedback from employees during annual reviews or optimistically counting on them to bring urgent matters to your attention. 

From the employees perspective, the perceived, or perhaps real risk that speaking up could cause more trouble than it’s worth is motivation enough to keep quiet, stay out of the radar, and get through each day without attracting any attention. 

This tends to be a common problem in cultures led by crappy managers who rule through fear, play favorites, or are not respected. After all, no one really wants to be labeled as the company snitch or potentially cut their own throat by being the messenger of bad news. Plus, how many employees really look forward to the annual review process? And how many managers do? Thankfully, there’s been a trend to move away from the annual review and move toward a more frequent and engaging dialogue with employees, like human beings should. 

Think of it this way – If you have kids, do you coach them through life as they encounter new experiences and challenges? Or, do you wait for their birthday each year to do an annual review? 

Okay. Let’s move on…

So, here’s something for you to think about: If your company is experiencing higher than average turnover, or if you suspect there may be an issue with your culture, I want you to strongly consider mapping out and formalizing an exit interview process as part of your employee retention strategy. Give it as much attention as you do to the interview questions you use to screen candidates for hire. 

Alright, so let’s talk about timing. 

Facilitating an exit interview should never be done within that two-week timeframe between the submission of the employee’s resignation and the farewell lunch on his or her last day. The reason is because most people are very anxious when submitting their resignation, and they want to get the process over with as quickly as possible. It doesn’t matter how good or bad the relationship is between the manager and the employee, delivering bad news that will throw a wrench into the company is a devastation. 

So, as the exiting