Many times, people confuse engaged employees with happy, content, or long-tenured ones. A happy employee can generally be a happy person in life. And while a contented employee might be OK for the time being, they ought to be open to anyone who can guarantee any % of the hike. And a long-tenured employee who stays with the company just for the nice benefits and pleasant working environment.
Engaged employees go beyond surface-level contentment; they reflect a deeper emotional commitment and connection to one's work, colleagues, and the organization's goals.
I would describe employee engagement as an important metric of an organisation which defines the willingness of an employee to do their work with more attention to quality, enthusiasm and passion.
An engaged employee will work similar to how you would work. With the same effort, focus and dedication to the organization's goals. It means:
I do believe that employee engagement is everyone’s shared responsibility. It is not just the senior leaders or human resource department or an individual contributor to foster a positive and engaging work culture. I would call employee engagement a garden; it flourishes when everyone helps to nurture it.
However, there is one person who can have the greatest influence on an employee’s engagement and satisfaction and that is the direct supervisor. Yes, even more than a CEO, HR, or a skip-level manager. And yes there are all other factors that are not in the control of a direct supervisor like no transportation facility, using old versions of a programming language, and whatever. But we have seen it that some teams have high levels of engagement and others have low levels of engagement. They all have the same boss, using the same programming language. What’s different is their direct manager.
There is no one-size-fits-all formula that will work for every employee to get them to feel the feeling of engagement. The direct supervisor needs to take a genuine interest in knowing the person personally. Take the time to sit down with everyone on your team individually and have a normal conversation about how things are going in life and at work. Just build a genuine curiosity and take a personal interest in knowing the person and have a special one-on-one relationship that is unique for every individual.
Here’s something a direct supervisor can do to enhance employee engagement
You now know the benefits of having engaged employees and if you want to improve at it you should know where you are currently and measure it. The only way you would measure is by asking the employees otherwise it is impossible to know. So, let me break down the steps to run.
Whatever it is that you decide to do make sure you opt for anonymity of the survey. If it is not anonymous then you ain’t going to get honest answers from the team. So keeping anonymity in mind I have listed a couple of options:
Honestly, the organization should determine the frequency. Whether you run it annually, twice a year, monthly, etc., you should aim to get the higher response rate. If you conduct a survey without making people participate, it won't contribute to your improvement. Hence, you can make a wise decision about which type of survey will work for your organization and generate enough interest to get people to participate. Here are some of the most common practices:
Here are some tips for employee engagement survey questions:
A lot about the feelings and emotions of your employee is defined by these category of questions. Whether it is their pride in the work they do or their ability to speak well of their organization and position. A high score in this area indicates that employees are attached, loyal, and driven - qualities that are absolutely essential for any company to run successfully.
As I have made abundantly evident, an employee's decision to stay or go from any company is mostly determined by their immediate manager and leadership. Any organization should gauge how the team views the current leaders and, if there are problems, what can be done to enhance their leadership abilities and decision-making skills.
Employees would want to improve on multiple things in their domain apart from what they are currently working on, or they may definitely look to improve what they are doing. Organizations should be able to support them and prioritize continuous learning and development to create an environment where creativity and innovation thrive. Allow employees to experiment.
Employees must find a company's benefits and pay package appealing so they feel it is competitive and fair in the market. Employees who feel their pay and benefits cover their personal and family costs feel less stressed financially and are happier at work. This surely hampers turnover costs if not thought in advance.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) survey questions are designed to find and address workplace discrimination and unfairness cases. These questions help determine if employees feel included with whatever background they come from. Creating serious policies and strict procedures that stop discrimination, advance justice, and guarantee that every employee feels valued and heard requires this input.
It’s important that you give employees a chance to talk their hearts out about something not addressed and give them more freedom to write something in detail; otherwise, the rest of the questions limit responses to predefined options.
So, you have the knowledge and importance of employee engagement surveys. You also know how you can run and sample questions. So, How do I measure and what’s a good score?
In general, use a five point likert rating system, and assign numerical values to each Likert scale response (e.g., Strongly Disagree = 1, Disagree = 2, Neutral = 3, Agree = 4, Strongly Agree = 5).
Now for example, if you have 5 questions in a survey and each question has an average score between 1 and 5, then consider that the responses of your organization are like below:
The total score will be 4.2 + 3.8 + 4.0 + 3.6 + 4.1 = 19.7
The total possible score can be 25 (5 questions * 5 max scores per question).
So, the engagement score will be 78.8%
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So, coming to a “good” employee engagement score can vary depending on the industry, company size, and specific circumstances of the organization. However, there are some general benchmarks and considerations to help determine what constitutes a good score:
On a normalized scale from 0 to 100, a score above 70 is typically considered good. Scores between 60 and 70 may indicate moderate engagement, while scores below 60 suggest areas needing significant improvement.
In conclusion, it is essential to focus on actionable improvements and openly communicate the results with your employees after determining the employee engagement score. Use the insights to pinpoint areas that need work and create focused plans to deal with any problems. Prioritize comparing your current scores with past performance to track progress, rather than competing with other organizations. This approach ensures you focus on the internal growth and development of the organization.
Employee engagement surveys are thoughtful sets of questions that an organization creates to measure all employees' motivation and emotional connection to the organization and its goals. An employee engagement survey can have multiple themed questions and should be run anonymously to get honest feedback from employees.
The 5 C's of employee engagement - Connection, Communication, Congratulation, Care, and Coach. Connection fosters strong relationships among employees, creating a sense of belonging. Communication ensures transparent and open exchanges of information, building trust. Coaching encourages guidance instead of micromanagement. Congratulate recognizes and celebrates employees' achievements, boosting morale and motivation. Care reflects the organization's commitment to employees' well-being and personal growth.
Structure an employee engagement survey to meet the specific goals of the organization. Run the survey on a regular basis, not just once or twice a year. Make sure the survey is not too long and that employees do not feel survey fatigue. Include multiple themed questions in a survey, with a mix of positive and negative-toned questions. Use a Likert scale rating to measure answers.
