Modern Approach to Measure Employee Engagement

Do you feel that your employees are not giving their best at work? Do not be too discouraged; it happens almost anywhere. According to the Gallup, only 32 percent of employees are engaged in 2015. The rest of the workforce is either not engaged or actively disengaged, and it has been the same way since 2000.

No matter how well-intentioned managers like you are, they still fail at getting their employees engaged – a fact that points to the need to get rid of the annual engagement surveys of old and to reconstruct the way they measure employee engagement.

What are you doing wrong? 

Employee engagement leads to improvements in productivity because employees are more committed to their tasks and find greater satisfaction in knowing that they contribute to the company’s successes. Thus, management holds yearly employee engagement surveys in the hopes of knowing where employees stand in terms or engagement. However, the initiatives done to address the points in the survey are rarely done right, due to the following points:

1. There is too much emphasis on employees’ feelings.
We are not saying that you should treat your employees as automatons. We are saying that you should know that measuring attitudes is very subjective, because attitudes are a mixture of your employees’ personal and professional attributes. What you need to do is to look for connections between attitude and workplace behavior, while bearing in mind that these two aspects are not always related.

2. Managers often see themselves as “saviors.”
Yes, we get it. Executives want to solve problems – that is part of their responsibility as leaders. But solving all the company’s problems can be too overwhelming, so leaders must seek help from employees as well. Employees must also have a stake in the changes happening in the company.

3. The results generated from the survey are not timely.
The process usually goes like this: the HR releases the survey, requiring everyone to take it. After the results are recorded and collated, an action plan is made and rolled out, with the leadership team crossing their fingers and hoping it works this time. However, the delay in the feedback does not cause any real impact so everything remains the same. 

In order to drive change, there must be a continuous feedback loop that allows management to act immediately on the survey results.

How should you measure employee engagement? 

If you wish to raise the engagement levels of your staff, you must first be clear about what you want to measure. This must then be the basis of surveys held frequently to assess the immediate needs of the employees. Your initiatives do not have to be big-scale; simple things like valuing and showing your employees respect can go a long way to increasing engagement. Your initiatives must also be driven by the values you hold dear as a company, which can include:

1. Being more transparent.
It pays to let your employees know what is happening in the company, especially if it directly concerns them. This does not just refer to policies, but also to the daily grind – their tasks and how these tasks could be improved by collaborating with other employees or departments. Therefore you must introduce tools that will increase collaboration.

2. Empowering individual employees.
When employees know that they are being listened to and heard, they get the encouragement and the empowerment they need to contribute their ideas about solving problems. It gives employees a great boost to know that their leaders see them as a source of solutions.

3. Focusing on employee wellness.
This means paying attention not just to the work output of your employees, but to their mental well -being, individual health and financial security as well – which can all affect engagement. Therefore, your proposed engagement initiatives must also include these aspects.

When you measure employee engagement and design a good actionable plan with your staff’s welfare in mind, you have a higher chance of having successfully achieved goals. By redefining the way you look at engagement, you can hear your employees better and see how it will give you success.