How do you track employee engagement—and ultimately, what does it mean for your organization? Those wondering how to measure staff engagement among their team aren’t just looking to discover how involved their employees are in the day-to-day operations, but rather, they’re wanting to dig deeper into employee involvement with workplace culture and learn how it impacts the organization as a whole.
Employee engagement is all about uncovering how committed employees are to their work and to larger organizational goals and achievements. Are they actively engaged? Or could they be quiet quitting? Are team-building activities and human resources initiatives having a positive impact on workplace culture and investment—or is there still room for growth?
The Truth About Workplace Culture
Here’s the stark truth about the state of today’s workplace culture: More employees are disengaged than not. In fact, in October 2023, just 31 percent of employees polled reported that they felt engaged, energized, and enthusiastic when referencing their work.
It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic created massive shifts in how workers engage with their employers. Many companies report a decline in staff engagement, pointing to an expanding disconnect between employees and employers. Additionally, employees feel less of a sense of ownership for the products and services their companies provide. This is especially true for the youngest workers, but also for older employees, many of whom now work remotely full-time.
Fortunately, there have been some positive outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to a more remote work environment. Many organizations now offer employees more flexibility in when, where, and how they work. The pandemic served as an opportunity to rethink the employee experience with a greater focus on employee work-life balance and well-being.
Tracking staff engagement can provide a snapshot of how committed and invested your team is and better guide improvements. With a careful approach, you can use these metrics to foster a positive, healthy connection between your employees and your organization. Why does this matter?
Why Employee Engagement Matters
Every day, your organization’s employees act on behalf of your company. They make decisions in real time as part of their job, and all of these actions can have a big impact on your company’s productivity, culture, consumer experience, and even the bottom line.
Many reports confirm a similar theory: The higher the staff engagement, the better the business outcomes.. Comparing the companies where employees are the most engaged to the businesses where employees report being the least engaged, the results are clear. Organizations with engaged employees experience:
- 81 percent less absenteeism
- 64 percent fewer safety incidents
- 18 percent higher productivity
- 23 percent higher profitability
- 18 percent less turnover
Conversely, what are the consequences of not considering staff engagement? More absenteeism, higher turnover rates, and decreased productivity, profitability, and morale.
Evidence of Employee Engagement
What does it look like when employees are engaged? It is most evident when you observe the following:
- Employees understanding what is expected of them
- Employees witnessing and delivering on how their work contributes to the organization’s larger mission or purpose
- Employees feeling that they are given chances to do what they do best
- Employees having access to opportunities to learn and develop their skills
- Employees feeling that the leadership in their company cares about them and their well-being
- Employees feeling connected to their employers even though they no longer connect in person regularly
- Employees proactively solve problems and improve processes to ensure efficiency and positive consumer experiences
Here’s what you need to know about how to measure staff engagement and what this practice can do for you.
Measuring Staff Engagement
Working to boost employee engagement benefits everyone, and measuring staff engagement can provide a read on how well your company is doing. By measuring staff engagement, your company has a clear path to take meaningful action that will really have a positive impact on employees and track your progress along the way.
Even so, these measurements have to be conducted and tracked properly, otherwise they may not have any discernible effect on business objectives or staff engagement. Accurate, objective engagement measurement can have a huge impact on your organization—here are a few strategies for how to measure staff engagement.
Results Observation
What’s the state of your organization right now? You already possess a wealth of data about employee engagement, and an experienced professional can sort through this data to determine what your organization’s employee engagement is like. This can include:
- How long employees stay with your company
- Absentee rates
- The change in productivity over time
- Turnover rates
By evaluating this data and tracking it over time, you can start to understand staff engagement.
Engagement Surveys
Surveys are a great tool to assess and follow employee engagement, with long-form surveys and quick follow-up check-ins or polls. This can help you track specific concerns or sticking points over time across your entire organization quickly and efficiently.
In addition to traditional engagement surveys, other formats include:
- Pulse surveys, which provide quick insights and feedback on culture and engagement, are simple to administer while also providing concrete information on the employment experience.
- Inclusion and belonging surveys assess employee perception of diversity, equity, and inclusion and help to discover more information about employee sense of belonging, which can be used to identify actionable steps to create a better workplace for all.
Interviews Across the Employment Lifecycle
Surveys can provide you with a large volume of trackable data and give you an overarching look at engagement, but another strategy is to conduct employee interviews across the employment lifespan. These interviews, especially when conducted by a neutral third party, give employees a chance to share their honest thoughts and provide you with an accurate picture of engagement. And when done routinely, they also give you the opportunity to track metrics over time.
Not only does this give your workers a chance to express concerns and offer feedback, but it also ensures they know they have an avenue where their voices can be heard, which in itself can be beneficial. When there is a continuous channel for offering their thoughts, needs, and opinions, interviews can be a critical piece in supporting healthy communication and positive associations with your organization for employees, further enhancing engagement, productivity, and overall job satisfaction.
Interviews can include:
- Stay interviews (also referred to as retention interviews), which help to understand what keeps top-performing employees at an organization.
- Exit interviews, which help determine the real reasons that people leave an organization.
- Training effectiveness interviews, which help get to the crux of strengths and opportunities in an organization’s recruitment process and training programs.
Tips on Conducting Engagement Interviews and Surveys
What are some guidelines to keep in mind as you prepare and conduct engagement interviews and surveys? Here are a few considerations:
- Know what your goals are, what you want to learn and achieve, what you plan to measure, and where you are willing to make changes based on the data and where you are not.
- Keep questions short and straightforward, and limit the total number of questions.
- Ensure questions are only about one thing—that they don’t pair two ideas (like pay and benefits, for example) together in a single question.
- Use neutral statements rather than loaded language.
- Know when to keep responses anonymous—especially if you want honest answers.
- Use results as a benchmark to move forward, comparing future interviews and surveys to track progress.
- Think of conducting surveys and interviews as a closed-loop process, from preparation to execution to analysis to action.
Additionally, think about who will be conducting your interview. For honest answers, well-crafted questions, and objective results, you may want to work with an experienced third party.
Your Partner in Tracking and Analyzing Staff Engagement
At Combined Resource Solutions, we understand the importance of employee engagement and the process it takes to investigate and analyze the state of staff engagement across an organization.
CRS knows that measuring engagement is about measuring how committed people are to contributing to the culture and success of your team and the progress of your company. Our surveys, interviews, and analyses are curated from a holistic perspective, customized to fit your unique needs, and always ready to offer our support or professional perspective.
Are you ready to examine employee engagement? Contact us to learn more about how we can help discover and improve engagement across your organization.