7 High Performer Employee Engagement Warning Signs

Top High Performer Employee Engagement Warning Signs
Do these high performer employee engagement warning signs exist on your team?  Engaging employees is an ongoing challenge for organizations who want to grow and succeed.

Engaged employees have higher levels of advocacy, discretionary effort and retention.  They are also 40% more productive than their disengaged counterparts.

The Early Warning Signs
The challenge for companies, however, is to pay attention to the early warning signs that your levels of employee engagement are at risk.  Here are the top seven high performer employee engagement warning signs from our Best Places to Work Employee Engagement Survey Data:

1. Lack of a Voice
   In too many companies, there is a bureaucracy that reigns – and often just by its sheer weight. All too often, policies, rules, and processes that were initially created with good intentions, impede the agility that high performers need to succeed.

   Top talent likes to “get things done” and to feel like their opinions count in the rules they must follow.

2. Lack of Career Development
   High performers are invested in learning, growing, and facing ever greater challenges in their work. If there’s not a compelling future path that entices them, they are likely to look elsewhere to build their career.

   If you want to engage and retain your top talent, ensure that they find their work challenging, see growth meaningful opportunities, and are able to play to their strengths.

3. Lack of an Engaging Project
   The best talent looks for work that is interesting, has real impact, and inspires their passion. They quickly lose interest in working on something that anyone else could do. High performers thrive on stretch assignments that are well matched to their interests and skills, have visibility, and will make a lasting difference.
4. Lack of a Vision
   Unless your company and your teams have an inspiring vision that excites your employees and gives their work meaning, your “A” players may become disengaged.  To engage top talent, make sure they believe the organization will be successful in the future.
5. Lack of Accountability
   High performers expect themselves and those around them to be held accountable for their performance and their behavior along the way. If all workers are not held responsible for maintaining performance and cultural standards, higher performers will eventually lose their motivation to stay and get results.
6. Lack of Confidence in Leadership and Team
   If high performers lack confidence in their immediate boss, the team, or the company leaders, they are at risk for leaving. High performers need to believe leadership is trustworthy, capable, and responsive to change.

   To engage top talent, make sure they trust your senior leaders to lead the organization to future success.

7. Lack of an Open Environment
   High performers loathe complacency and thrive on new ideas and innovative approaches. In fact, most high performers become bored doing the same things the same ways. Top talent thrives on sharing ideas, the transparent flow of information, and always looking for ways to improve.

The Bottom Line
No company can afford to lose its key employees. Make sure you are doing all you can to retain your high performers. Engaging them at a high level will serve both you and them well.

To learn more about boosting employee engagement levels of your high performers, download The Top 6 Forces Driving Employee Engagement and Key Strategies to Move the Engagement Needle

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.