Employee Engagement Behaviors: Key Signs and How to Improve

What behaviors signal an engaged employee?

Surveys can identify engaged employees through their responses to items measuring the four indicators of engagement:

• Intent to stay

• Pride in organization

• Referral behavior

• Intrinsic motivation

Two of the indicators are perceptual; the other two, referral behavior and intrinsic motivation, are behavioral. Typically, the behaviors of engaged employees will align with these indicators of engagement.

• Consistently deliver strong performance

• Take accountability for results

• Build trust-based, collaborative relationships

• Proactively improve processes and remove obstacles

• Seek out learning and skill development

• Offer and receive feedback constructively

• Anticipate challenges and act before problems escalate

• Go the extra mile when it helps the team succeed

Referral behavior is exhibited in the observable employee behavior of recommending their employer to others. An employee who is willing to refer others to the company as employees or customers is an employee who feels invested in their connection to the organization, embraces its mission, and has a sense of ownership of their role in making the organization and their clients successful (think building a better community, providing outstanding healthcare, superior product manufacturing, etc.). The act of referral is a vote of confidence in the organization and the product or service it offers, and an expression of enthusiasm in being a part of something they care about.

The other behavioral indicator of engagement, intrinsic motivation, is entwined with the feelings and perceptions behind referral behavior. Employees who feel ownership over their roles and recognize how their work contributes to the organization’s success are employees who are energized and fulfilled by doing good work. Their contribution is important to them, so they don’t “phone it in” when presented with a challenge; instead of feeling put upon, they see it as an opportunity to shine. The limitations or restraints imposed by the challenge aren’t experienced in a painful way, but serve instead as a motivation for creativity.

The behaviors that signal intrinsic motivation are easy to spot. These "lighthouse" employees typically:

• Overcome Obstacles: Focus on removing barriers rather than raising superficial objections.

• Share Knowledge: Freely exchange ideas and guide others through challenges.

• Adopt a "Yes, And" Mindset: Remain open to doing more than asked and developing their peers.

• Promote Culture: Act as a positive influence and align ethically with the organization's goals.

• See Potential: View the work not just as it is, but for the opportunities yet to be realized.

Looking for these behaviors in employees’ daily work routines can serve as a real-time employee engagement check.

What are the signs of a disengaged employee?

Just as highly engaged employees are easy to identify through their behaviors, actively disengaged employees are also easy to spot. If engaged employees are “yes, and” people, then disengaged employees are “no, but” people. When presented with a challenge or a new way of doing their work, they may complain, question the validity of the change, or otherwise express or act with pessimism.

Disengaged employees often act as "no, but" people. Common behavioral signs include:

• Increased Absenteeism: Frequent or unexplained absences from work.

• Minimal Effort: Doing only the bare minimum required to get by or "going through the motions."

• Poor Collaboration: A reluctance to work with others or disparaging the ideas of coworkers.

• Rigid Boundaries: Frequently asserting that tasks are "not my job" when asked to step outside daily routines.

Employees who are disengaged sabotage their own experience, but even worse, they may contaminate the experience of other employees as well. Just as enthusiasm can be contagious, so can negativity. The poor attitude of a disengaged employee can have a huge impact on team members, especially new team members, negatively shaping their perceptions of the job and organization. Recognizing the behaviors that characterize disengagement and identifying “bad apples” is important to stop the rot.

How do you re-engage disaffected employees?

While the disengaged can be the source of wider workplace discontent, it is important to make distinctions among disengaged employees. In many cases, an employee who formerly displayed the behaviors of engagement may now show signs of disengagement. This is a clue that something has changed for the worse in their experience at work, and what used to connect them to the work and the organization is now gone or isn’t enough anymore. With these employees, it’s important to look for what has changed. Is it the work? Have new processes or technologies been introduced? Does the employee have a new manager or team? Continuously listening via survey feedback and observing day-to-day behavior is important in these cases to identify the cause of the change; if the cause can be identified, an intervention to address the problem may help the employee to re-engage, pulling them back in by giving them a new foothold.

It’s also important to recognize that not all disengaged employees are poor performers and there is no need to just cut them all off. There can be opportunities even in a group of disengaged employees. While some need to self-select out or be terminated, there will likely always be some contingent of productive, though disengaged, team members. A culture of engagement will protect against malcontents and increase the ratio of engaged employees to those who are disengaged, albeit more passively. Addressing opportunities revealed by surveys can create the backbone of engagement you need to protect against the problems disengaged employees might cause.

It’s also important to keep in mind that stress causes vulnerabilities and creates challenges for stabilizing engagement. Continuously monitoring employee engagement in real time by observing behavior and giving employees the opportunity to share their concerns via survey feedback will give you the insights you need for crafting interventions and sustainable adjustments to the “new normal” to “stop the slide” if employees begin to drift or disengage.

See the path to higher engagement

The Perceptyx platform gives you the flexibility to develop a listening strategy that fits the needs of your organization and identify the barriers blocking engagement. Combined with support from our analytics experts, our platform can help you keep your finger on the pulse of your people’s perceptions, so you can provide the support they need to become fully engaged. Get in touch to see how we can help your organization increase engagement—and profitability.