Understanding your employee engagement metrics is an important first step in refining your engagement strategy and improving overall employee engagement.
Employee engagement is an intricate and complex KPI to measure. It lacks concrete definitions and is subject to many influences. Adding another layer to this complexity is the fact that every organisation is unique. So the methods and tactics you use to measure and manage employee engagement will differ; something we have kept in mind as we explore the topic below.
In this article, we give you a detailed understanding of employee engagement, what influences it, and tips and tricks to help you effectively measure employee engagement within your team.
Understanding the definition of employee engagement is important when considering how to effectively measure and manage employee engagement within your team. It will be easier for you to make decisions and improve if you are specific with your own definition.
Employee engagement has a number of different definitions. Research by the team at MacLeod Review recently found over 50 definitions! One thing that is clear is that employee engagement refers to a psychological state experienced by employees. It can encompass their emotional commitment, enthusiasm, and dedication. It is separate from job quality, behaviour, and management actions.
Having highly engaged employees in your workplace means your employees will demonstrate high levels of energy and resilience, will go above and beyond in their roles, bring enthusiasm and creativity to their to-do list, and will have high levels of productivity. All of this will contribute towards overall job satisfaction, team culture, and loyalty.
Research from Gallup shows that making employee engagement a priority can help companies withstand – and even thrive – in tough economic times. Measuring employment engagement frequently and consistently helps companies achieve improvements by giving them insights into how they’re scoring. It also helps organisations measure the impact of employee initiatives, make adjustments for further improvement, and demonstrate their commitment to employee engagement and wellbeing over time.
Measuring employment engagement in real-time is just as important as measuring finances and sales regularly, it helps companies achieve real results. It gives your senior leaders and People team the insights they need to enhance the employee experience and improve overall employee engagement.
Collecting data regularly helps you understand which teams need additional support, and which drivers of employee engagement may need extra attention. If you’re consistently measuring employee engagement you’ll see benefits across all areas of employee engagement. Here is a list of 12 benefits you’ll see by measuring employee engagement:
It is important to continuously measure employee engagement to make sure you are aware of changes and the influences that cause fluctuations. There are several strategies and tools you can use to measure employee engagement. Some of them are:
The best approach is proactive. This is why the best way to measure employee engagement is by using employee surveys. Surveys such as employee engagement surveys and pulse surveys identify problems before people want to leave, and can easily be scaled to the whole organisation (a limitation of 121s and annual reviews).
Tracking employee engagement with surveys allows you to pinpoint when and where problems originate and gain insights into your team’s current strengths and weaknesses. Being able to consistently and regularly track data gives you the ability to be proactive, rather than reactive, on employee issues.
By regularly asking specific questions aimed at measuring employee engagement drivers, you can obtain a well-rounded overview of your employee engagement. This will let you know where to focus your efforts to have the biggest impact on your workforce’s engagement.
You can also use pulse surveys to track engagement progress over time or compare your pulse survey results to your employee survey results to gauge how much progress you’ve made since identifying goals for improvement.
To get detailed, honest feedback you should use survey software that gives full anonymity. This will give your employees the confidence to share how they’re really feeling about the areas they think could be improved.
Download: Buyer’s Guide to Employee Engagement Software
Using KPIs and metrics allows you to effectively measure employee engagement, identify objectives, and set clear goals for your employee engagement strategy. Understanding key employee engagement metrics will typically reveal warning signs up to nine months before an employee actually leaves an organisation.
Measuring employee engagement can’t be done with one metric alone. To get the full picture of your team’s engagement, you’ll need to use metrics that cover a variety of factors. Some of the key metrics you’ll want to consider are:
The questions you ask will depend on the purpose and theme of your employee engagement survey, however, over time you will want to ensure that your survey questions address all five areas of employee engagement. They are: sense of purpose, recognition, wellbeing and work-life balance, satisfaction with leadership, and personal development.
Whilst it’s important to ensure your surveys use a range and balance of questions, you also need to make sure they are relevant and actionable for your organisation. Stribe’s feature ‘Values’ help you achieve this by allowing you to build your own engagement drivers with the questions that matter most to your organisation.
How likely are you to recommend our company as a place to work? (1-10, Very Unlikely – Very Likely)
Based on the answers you’ll categorise your employees as Detractors (score of 0-6), Neutrals (score of 7-8), or Promoters (score of 9-10)
On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your experience working for [Company Name]?
I understand how my role contributes to the organsation’s overall objectives. (1-10, Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree)
I feel recognised and appreciated for the work I do (1-10, Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree)
How would you rate your current work-life balance on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent? (1-10, Poor – Excellent)
The demands of my job are reasonable and manageable (1-10, Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree)
There is open and transparent communication about the company’s purpose and direction (1-10, Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree)
How would you rate the opportunities provided by the company for your personal and professional growth? (1-10, Very Poor – Very Good)
For more inspiration download our guide of the 25 best employee engagement survey questions.
At Stribe we’ve created survey software that gives your employees the confidence to share genuine feedback. Our software arms you with actionable insights, putting you on the right track to engaging your employees more meaningfully.
About the author
Lucy Harvey, COO at Stribe, has 11+ years’ experience in purpose-driven leadership roles across health, wellbeing, internal communications, employee engagement, and marketing. She is passionate about creating workplaces where people are happy, fulfilled, and feel comfortable and safe to talk.
