There’s a problem in the workforce today that is costing businesses all over the world billions if not trillions of dollars each year. In case you haven’t guessed by the picture, it’s zombies.
A Zombie is that employee who just goes through the motions, doing just enough to not get fired. Not necessarily hurting the business, but not really helping either. They show up on time, but take 30-45 minutes to get ready to work. Then they take the last 30-45 minutes at the end of the day to wind down before going home.
In any given business, for every ten employees, only three of them are working hard every day. About five of them are the Zombies I just described. And two of them are actually harming the company. These are the actively disengaged.
This type of Zombie is the one who complains about everything. If a new concept is introduced, their comments are something to this effect, “This will never work.” It has been said that if you were to pay these actively disengaged employees to stay home and never talk about your business, you would be more profitable.
What is the problem? And can you breathe life into a Zombie? Let’s start with the problem.
Zombies don’t care because they have no dreams. They have nothing that they are looking forward to. Their job is only to get the paycheck so they can pay the rent, buy some food, go to bed to get some sleep so they can get up, go to work to get a paycheck… You may throw in some TV or video games, but that is pretty much the life of a Zombie.
The cure is, therefore, to give them a dream. Find out something they want to have, or a place they want to go. Take them through the Goals and Achievement Program I outlined in some of my previous posts. Then show them how their job is a means to their dream.
If they catch hold of that idea, their job becomes more meaningful. And if their job is more menaingful, they become more engaged in performing to a higher level.
This takes getting to know your employees better. It requires building relationships (see other previous posts for that). The time you spend doing this will more than pay for itself.
When you have more employees who are engaged, your business works more efficiently and grows. You see, it is really hard to build a business. The right approach is to build your people, and then they will build your business.
How many Zombies do you work with? Are you a Zombie? Do you have Zombie managers? Do you need help breathing new life into them? Shoot me an email at steven@co-inspire.biz. Let’s set up a 30 minute no obligation call. Let me help guide you to a better business and therefore more profitability.