Companies are losing millions due to lost productivity from disengaged workers who feel their voices and ideas are not heard.

Jeanne-Lu Bruwer, a psychometrist, who was part of a panel discussion at the University of Stellenbosch Business School about the benefits of neuroscience in assisting leaders in the workplace, referred to the results of a recent Gallup survey. The poll showed that lost productivity due to employee disengagement could be put at about $300-billion a year in the US.

"NeuroLeadership is a relatively new field of study in SA that focuses on bringing neuroscientific knowledge into areas of leadership development such as management training, education, consulting and coaching," says Bruwer. "The aim behind NeuroLeadership is to assist both individuals and organisations to develop a better understanding of how the mind works, which can then be translated into better management policies of staff, resulting in an improvement in levels of activity at work."

"People need to have the autonomy to make decisions and to have their voice heard, so that they feel able to present new ideas. When this is taken away, people begin to get disengaged," Bruwer said.

However, Rick Silverman, a director at recruiterR Silverman and Associates, says: "Employees need to take responsibility for their own disengagement. Particularly in small or entrepreneurial environments, it is up to the employee to be heard and to make suggestions and create opportunities. Smaller companies do not necessarily have the time or resources to ask for employee input, so the individual willing to stand up and be counted will be heard.

"I have two candidates who hold the same qualification and graduated from the same university in the same year. One is earning R15000 a month and the other R60000 a month. The difference? The latter does not just do his job - he innovates, makes suggestions, streamlines processes and adds value to his organisation."

Though Silverman agrees that organisations also have a responsibility to create a culture that allows employees to be heard, he insists that: "The culture needs to be such that individuals who wish to be heard are heard."