The Subtle Signs Your Team Is Struggling - And What To Do About It
Early warning signs of employee disengagement
Benefits That Matter: A Founder’s Guide to Modern Employee Benefits
How we as business owners invest into the holistic wellness of our employees has been a mind-boggling question throughout the ages. Employee benefits has become a somewhat weird topic that sometimes feels antiquated in the modern work environment - potentially due to the fact that the industry feels like it's not evolved with the needs of the end consumer. Right now, we are looking for practical ways where the current economic climate, the state of employees’ minds, and the strategies of how to merge more desired outcomes for businesses and humans can harmoniously merge.
Turns out there has been some eye-opening research done, and there are practical strategies that can be learned. This topic ultimately comes down to humans and their emotions; and we've set out to publish our learnings and thoughts on where we are in 2025, in South Africa, trying to build sustainable businesses with happy, productive employees, against all odds.
This six-part series takes you on a journey from that sickening gut feeling to actionable solutions. The narrative follows the path most business leaders naturally take: Recognition → Understanding → Consequences → Solutions → Implementation → Measurement.
The Subtle Signs Your Team Is Struggling - And What To Do About It
Do you know this feeling? You walk into the office, or dial into your team meeting, and something just feels... off. The energy is different. Conversations stop when you approach or are just not flowing. Your star performer seems to be going through the motions. That project that should have been finished last week is still dragging on.
Your gut is screaming that something is wrong, but you can't quite put your finger on it.
Trust that instinct. It's probably right.
The Faces Don't Lie
Recent research by the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) reveals what many of us fear: 61% of employed South Africans would quit their jobs tomorrow if they could afford to. That's 6 out of 10 people in your team who are staying purely out of financial desperation, not because they want to be there.
And here's the kicker - South African businesses are bleeding R12-16 billion annually due to employee absenteeism alone (Workplace Wellness Association Southern Africa (WWASA)). That's not just a HR statistic. That's real money walking out your door every single day.
What That Gut Feeling Actually Looks Like
So what exactly are you sensing? Here are the warning signs that most leaders miss until it's too late:
The Performance Shift:
- That overachiever who used to stay late is now strictly a 9-to-5er
- Quality work is becoming "good enough" work
- Deadlines that were never an issue suddenly become problematic
- The enthusiasm for new projects has evaporated
The Cultural Cracks:
- Monday morning energy feels like Monday morning dread
- Team lunches are becoming solo affairs
- The office chat has shifted from weekend plans to job market complaints
- Resistance to change has become the default response
The Talent Haemorrhage:
- You're losing people you never thought would leave
- Exit interviews are revealing patterns you didn't see coming
- Recruitment is taking longer and costing more
- Your competitors seem to be winning the talent war
The South African Reality Check
Our context makes these warning signs even more critical. We're operating in an environment of:
- Economic uncertainty that's amplifying financial stress
- Rising inflation eroding purchasing power
- A generation gap in the workplace that's wider than ever
- Infrastructure problems (like loadshedding) disrupting traditional work patterns.
Our teams aren't just dealing with work stress - they're navigating a perfect storm of pressures that would challenge anyone's resilience.
Why Your Gut Feeling Matters More Than Ever
Here's what's fascinating about that instinct: it's usually picking up on micro-signals that your conscious mind hasn't processed yet. The slight delay in email responses. The lack of voluntary contributions in meetings. The way conversations shift when leadership enters the room.
These aren't imaginary concerns. They're early warning systems telling you that the psychological contract between you and your employees is under strain.
The Cost of Ignoring Your Instincts
When that gut feeling persists and nothing changes, here's what typically happens:
- Performance issues escalate into bigger problems
- Cultural negativity spreads faster than good news
- Your best people start updating their LinkedIn profiles
- Recruitment becomes a constant, expensive necessity.
The companies that act on these early warning signs save themselves millions. The ones that don't? Well, they become cautionary tales about the cost of inaction.
Where Do You Go From Here?
If you're reading this and nodding along, recognising that feeling in your own business, you're already ahead of most leaders. Acknowledging the problem is the first step to solving it.
While your gut may be flagging culture, productivity or engagement issues, the underlying cause is often more complex—and so are the solutions. In today’s working world, a payslip alone isn’t enough to retain great people or ignite their best performance.
Employee benefits is a powerful lever in a broader, more human-centered people strategy that help address underlying issues and stressors that lead to poor employee wellbeing and performance. Our goal isn't to oversell benefits as the cure-all, but to help you understand when and how they can be a game-changing part of your broader people strategy.
In the following articles, we’ll dive into possible next steps and solutions. We will unpack common pitfalls and myths around the traditional view on employee benefits and look at some of the latest trends worth noting!
