Re-engage Dissatisfied Employees in 4 Simple Steps

3 of August, 2022

The world of HR management has long known the dangers of having dissatisfied employees. One could even say the HR department was invented so that employees always remain as satisfied as possible. Ensuring that your employees are always satisfied is easier said than done though, and chances are, there would be some sort of disagreement at one point or the other. Not sure how to re-engage dissatisfied employees? Below are four simple steps you can start using today.

How to re-engage dissatisfied employees?

First find out their pain points

This is the first step in improving employee satisfaction. It is also the first step you should take when trying to re-engage dissatisfied employees. There is always a reason. Sometimes a few reasons behind that employee’s dissatisfaction. Many times even, these reasons are justified. Finding out the source of this dissatisfaction helps you know what the problem is and how to solve it.

An employee survey is a great way to find out your employees’ pain points and how you can help fix them. You might want to create these surveys in a way that promotes anonymity since these kinds of surveys often lead to more honest feedback.

Give it some consideration

Now that you know the source of the employee(s)’s dissatisfaction, take your time to give it some consideration. Look at things from the employee’s perspective and see how the situation might be affecting him or her. Consider your other employees too. Is this an issue facing all or the majority of your staff, or is this a problem unique to just one employee or a single group? 

Now consider what changes can be made to solve this problem at hand. Is this a problem your company can solve? What would it cost to solve them? How easy would it be to employ these solutions? The more of these kinds of questions you answer, the closer you are to getting a solution.

Get into a dialogue with the dissatisfied employee(s)

Once you have considered the cause of your employee’s dissatisfaction and how this pain point affects your company as a whole, it is time to get into a dialogue with the dissatisfied employee. Let the employee understand that you are taking them into consideration and are working on improving their experience with your company. This is also a great place to ask for their opinion on what improvements they think can be made to the company that might improve their work experience. 

More often than not, discussions like these often lead to the best solutions. Contact other employees who seem to share the same pain points your dissatisfied employee is experiencing and get their opinion as well. This would not only help you get a more general understanding of the problem and derive more inclusive solutions but would also let the company know you are taking the issue seriously. This tends to build employee trust.

Create a mutually beneficial solution

The only way to truly satisfy your dissatisfied employees is to create solutions to their problems. No matter how much dialogue you enter with them, if they don’t see improvements, chances are, they’d remain dissatisfied. And the only way they can see any improvement is to see positive changes.

It is not enough to just create a solution, however. You need to create one that is mutually beneficial to both you and the dissatisfied employee(s). Moreover, you also need to make sure whatever solution you have created does not impact your other employees negatively. Creating such a solution would often require the services of experts. HR consultants can help out here.

Get feedback

After creating a solution and implementing it, the final step in re-engaging dissatisfied customers is getting feedback from them. Find out how your solution is doing. Are they satisfied with the current results or are there any other improvements they think can be made? Do they have other pain points they think are worth mentioning? Are there any suggestions they would like to give? You would find that getting answers to these questions is much easier when they know you would actually make changes.

A final thought

Remember, dissatisfied employees are a liability to any company. Ensuring that your employees are as satisfied as possible ensures your business remains as productive as possible. With these five simple steps, you can re-engage your dissatisfied employees and create solutions that would help improve their work experience.

Need help creating these solutions? Sesame HR has the right tools.