Employee engagement metric of success for any organisation. Regardless of what industry an organisation operates in, optimal employee engagement is pivotal for long-term success of a company.
An organisation concerned about the overall well-being of its employees should have an effective employee engagement strategy in place.
Contrary to what one might think, better employee engagement also results in higher customer satisfaction, better sales and turnover, and long-term loyalty.
Before we dive into how to measure employee engagement, let us get our bases covered and see what it exactly is.
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement is basically a human resource concept that can be used to quantify the dedication an employee has to their job. It can be defined as the motivation and passion an employee has for their job as well as their workplace.
An optimal employee engagement is attained when all the healthy and positive work culture factors are in balance.
While job satisfaction plays a huge role in employee engagement, these two cannot be used synonymously. It is a much more abstract and complex concept that directly affects a company’s success.
Why is measuring employee engagement important?
Now that we have established what employee engagement is, let us see why it is important for enterprises to dedicate time and resources to measure the same.
Better employee engagement poses a myriad of benefits to an enterprise including:
Below, you’ll find the key benefits of running effective employee engagement activities in an organisation:
Increased productivity
Increasing productivity of employees his is a no-brainer, really. An employee who is engaged and invested in their work and company is more likely to get things done quickly and effectively. As one genuinely likes and takes an interest in what they do, that is bound to reflect positively on the output.
Better profits and turnover
As employee engagement increases, there is a natural increase in productivity. Hence it is not surprising that your sales and profit will also reflect this positive trend.
The profits your company can gain in the long run with better employee engagement should be reason enough for you to take employee engagement very seriously.
Increased brand value
When the employees of your organisation are better engaged and are happy with the way things are done, they are more than likely to be vocal advocates of the brand as a whole. Employee advocacy is a great way to ensure branding.
Employees know the inside outs of any enterprise. As these employees themselves are vocal about the efficiency of your enterprise, it creates trust in the customers.
Employee satisfaction
Burnouts are common in the corporate world. Employees are not satisfied with the work they do and fall into despair. This trend is never good for any organisation.
An employee who feels satisfied and happy with their work will positively impact your organisation. The connection between employee satisfaction and productivity is undeniable.
Participation in company initiatives
It is common practice for businesses to develop new programs and initiatives to boost business. Do not let your employees feel that these exercises are a waste of time. This will lead them not to participate or do it half-heartedly.
Employees who are highly engaged are more likely to participate in these company initiatives.
Long term loyalty
Long-term employees are an asset to any organisation. They are efficient and almost always have a deeper connection to their place of work. Employee engagement is necessary to retain employees in the long run.
This employee retention is also great for your organisation as hiring and training new employees is a hassle.
Low absentee rate
Employees who are dissatisfied with their work conditions are likely to be absent from work at the drop of a hat. But as employees are better engaged, they will look forward to coming to work and ultimately causing low absentee rates.
This will definitely financially aid your organisation. It also enhances overall productivity and company morale.
Image: Pexels
Measuring employee engagement
We hope you have an overview of employee engagement and why you should be allocating resources to find trends and patterns in your companies’ employee engagement strategy.
Measuring employee engagement is quite frankly a difficult task. It is not a tangible and quantifiable number.
It is more of an abstract concept and often a subliminal connection an employee feels towards their place of employment. This feeling or state of mind cannot be quantified.
A lot of factors come into play while trying to accurately measure employee engagement. Especially with the corporate world going through a shift with virtual work from the home model due to the pandemic, it is increasingly difficult to gauge employee engagement.
But fret not! We have curated a list of tried and tested methods to help your organisation measure employee engagement.
Have an overview of employee engagement benchmark
For proper measuring of employee engagement, you should have a clear idea of what to look for. Even though one cannot be entirely sure, some employee engagement benchmarks can be used to distinguish an active, engaged employee from a disengaged one.
These include:
- Employees feel their opinions and inputs matter
- Low absentee rate
- High employee retention for longer periods of time
- The staff is actively participating in team-building and other initiatives by the company
- The employees see potential personal and professional growth in your company
Conduct employee engagement surveys
One of the most common and easiest methods to identify and measure employee engagement is in the form of employee engagement surveys. This method is quick and effective.
You can use a mixture of numerical scales and open-ended questions to gauge the reaction patterns of your employees. For better results and honest real-time answers, ensure anonymity and confidentiality of the survey.
Corporate gifting is possibly one of the most effective strategies to show your employees you care, acknowledge, and recognise their efforts.
Here’s an insider tip to find out if your employees are satisfied and feel proud to be associated with your company — when you gift your employees to honour their contributions or celebrate their achievements, they are likely to share their gratitude and experiences on social media.
Getting started with corporate gifting is easy as there are many corporate gifting ideas available that you can give to your employees as a sign of employee recognition.
Perform pulse surveys
Similar to employee engagement surveys, employee pulse surveys are a quick and effective method to measure employee engagement. These types of surveys include short, revised, and fast-paced questions that employees can answer within a short period of time.
The advantage of pulse surveys is that they are short and fast-paced; hence employees do not have to spend a lot of time reading, rereading, and pondering the questions.
Concise questions regarding employee satisfaction, growth opportunities and alignment can be included in pulse surveys.
Hold one-on-one meetings
Depending on the number of members in your team, HR can conduct quarterly, half-yearly or yearly one-on-one interviews with the team members. Private conversations allow the employees to open up in a way that a group evaluation cannot.
Ask relevant questions, but more importantly, make the employee feel listened to. Ensure confidentiality of the conversation of paramount importance and honour it.
Host group discussions
Even though one on one discussions are very effective, this approach might not be practical for large-scale companies. In this scenario, group discussions in semi-personalised forums are the way to go. You can go about this in two ways.
Either you can make a group of individuals working in the same department and discuss their challenges. An alternative method is to make a random group from varied departments to get an idea of the big picture.
Prioritise exit interviews
Conducting exit interviews is a very effective way to gauge employee engagement. When an employee leaves your company, have a one-on-one conversation with them to get honest feedback about their experiences within the company. Ask questions about job satisfaction, and working conditions, make relevant notes, and act upon them.
An added advantage of exit interviews is that, as their job is not at stake, the ex-employee might be more open and honest in expressing their opinions and feedback more than typical employee engagement surveys.
Arrange “stay” interviews
Not a very common practice in the corporate world, but we strongly advocate “stay” interviews for long-term employees. When an employee reaches a certain milestone in how long they have stayed loyal to your enterprise, arrange an interview with them.
See why they prefer to work in your company rather than jump ship. Value their experience and take the time to learn which company policies are making them stay. It might also be a good idea to see how well the younger staff respond to company policies.
The insight of employees can be very valuable while measuring employee engagement and to formulate strategies.
Perform eNPS calculation
eNPS or employee Net Promoter Score is a quantitative way to measure employee engagement. Even though employee engagement cannot be accurately measured numerically, eNPS does give you a general insight into the matter.
eNPS is calculated by finding out the difference between t=your most engaged and least engaged employees.
You can ask specific questions like:
- How likely are you to jump companies if presented with an opportunity?
- How likely are you to suggest this company to your friends and family?
- Rate your job satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10?
The participants can then give their answers anonymously by sliding across the numerical answer image to their desired area.
Use employee engagement software
Employee engagement software allows you to find where you stand in terms of engagement by gathering necessary feedback from the employees. These software are usually implemented by human resource departments across the organisation to gather a clear picture of employee engagement.
Taking an initiative to gather information about employee engagement is a positive step toward the betterment of your enterprise.
In Summary
Employee engagement is a broad topic, and we hope this article has given you insight into how to gauge and measure employee engagement. The most important aspect of measuring employee engagement is to act on your results.
No matter where you stand in terms of employee engagement, continuously striving for improvement is the way to go for the smooth sailing of your company.
One should also keep in mind that without proper maintenance and strategies in place, employee engagement will easily plummet and fluctuate. For an enterprise to be truly successful, adequately implementing strategies and measuring employee engagement should be paramount.
About the Author
Srikanth Acharya is the founder of Offineeds, a corporate gifting company in India. In 2020, he founded TheHomeOffice to help employees find everything to build their work from home furniture and setup.
