Many employees want to change jobs and can’t quite make the move — but employers have a few options, says expert
With many Canadians worried about the current state of the economy, many do not feel like they can look for other opportunities and jobs.
More than half of working Canadians (55 per cent) worry about job mobility and opportunities, according to this month's MNP Consumer Debt Index report. The findings highlight that 32 per cent of Canadian workers are concerned they will not be able to find new jobs with similar pay and benefits, even though one in five (20 per cent) would like to change but do not feel financially secure enough to do so.
“We used to talk about golden handcuffs, where people were stuck because they couldn’t get anything better anywhere else. It wasn’t that they loved where they were; it was just that financially, there was nothing better out there,” says Catherine Connelly, a human resources and management professor a McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business in Ontario.
However, what she notes is new from the MNP findings is the number of Canadians turning to side gigs due to economic uncertainty and worry. According to the report, 47 per cent have been looking for ways to earn additional income, including selling goods online, learning new skills, working a second job, and taking on freelance work.
The findings raise questions around what employers can do when an employee feels stuck — and whether re-engagement efforts and internal mobility are the answer.
What disengagement costs
When employees feel stuck, it can mean overall engagement and effort go down, says Connelly.
“People typically deliver higher performance and interpersonal helping — overall engagement — when they have a different kind of connection to the organization. When they feel they’re part of something important, something bigger than themselves, or they feel they’re onto something really good with this company, that emotional attachment tends to be very powerful,” she says.
That feeling can mean shifts from genuine connection to obligation, while others simply stop trying to do better.
Connelly says while having a disengaged employee does not necessarily mean they will stop showing up or doing the work, it can affect their creativity and willingness to share knowledge and solve problems.
She shares an example through her research, which looks at how knowledge can be hidden in the workplace — such as employees withholding information from colleagues who ask for help. The more engaged the workforce, she says, the more people share ideas and work together to solve problems.
The conversation most managers avoid
While it might not always be easy to spot the signs when an employee is disengaged, Chris Zatzick, a professor of management and organization studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, says it is often the coworkers who notice first — not the manager.
“They’re the ones working directly with someone and they notice things like coming in late or leaving early. These are red flags that may not always get passed on to a manager,” he says.
For any disengaged employee — especially a high performer who has slipped to average — Zatzick says the first step is a conversation, and it should not be about performance.
“The reason those difficult conversations are hard is because people are defensive. A manager might also, with their assumptions, be angry or frustrated with the person because they’re not putting in more effort or not working the way they used to. But a little compassion in that situation can go a long way,” he says.
However, warning signs should be discussed and caught early, when employers have a positive relationship with employees, he says.
“Hopefully there’s continuous feedback happening in an ongoing dialogue, so that when you have that difficult conversation, it’s not the first conversation you’ve had with the person.”
The limits of indirect pressure
When conversations alone are not enough, some employers have tried to move things along without addressing the problem directly — and Zatzick says that rarely works out.
He points to what happened after the pandemic, when companies such as Twitter required employees to come into the office full time.
“The hope was that people would leave,” he says. “But the risk is you lose a lot of good people that way too.”
Any policy put in place to push one group out, he adds, can end up affecting people you did not mean to lose.
Rethinking what mobility looks like
For employers who still have room to work with a disengaged employee, Connelly says internal mobility can be the way to go, and it does not have to be through a promotion.
One practice she recommends is a staying interview — sitting down with an employee to find out what their pain points are, whether they feel stuck, or whether they need a new challenge, to uncover other opportunities within the organization.
“There are often responsibilities within an organization that are going unfulfilled, and it would be useful for someone to take them on. An unwanted piece of one person’s job can become a very wanted part of somebody else’s job,” Connelly says.
“A skilled manager can look for those opportunities — rather than keeping everyone’s role cookie-cutter and one-size-fits-all, organizing things in a way that better matches someone’s interests."
That can mean something as simple as giving a team member who loves design the task of managing presentation templates. Or, for a high-potential employee who is feeling stale in their role but is not ready for a promotion, leading a charity campaign — giving them something new to work on without a title change.
“There is always at least something,” Connelly says.
When it’s time to document
When none of those options have worked and performance has declined, Zatzick says the next step is documentation — and it should not be put off.
“If it’s really gotten to the point where they’re not producing at an adequate level and their performance has declined, you need to document their performance and move it into a probationary period. These are reasonable steps to take that may free a person up to go find something else they’re more engaged in,” he says.
What both experts agree on is that doing nothing is not an option. Left unaddressed, Zatzick says, a disengaged employee can become a disgruntled one — and that is a different situation entirely.
“All employees want to feel seen, respected, cared about, and supported by their organization,” he says. “When they don’t — and nothing is done about it — things tend to get worse.
