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5 Key Reasons to Conduct Employee Engagement Surveys

Written by Explorance. January 13, 2024

Organizations prioritizing employee engagement understand the contribution it makes toward talent strategy development, the role it plays in developing a differentiated employer brand, and the impact it has on productivity.

Employee engagement data help your organization understand where to invest its resources to achieve a positive, inclusive, and career-enhancing work culture. Simply stated, it’s the foundational data to create a motivated and engaged workforce that drives better business outcomes and fosters a thriving work environment.

Conducting engagement surveys helps gather insight into what is important to your employees. However, what can engagement surveys measure, and what will the feedback allow you to do?

Read this blog to learn more about the different levels of employee engagement and five key reasons why you should administer employee engagement surveys to drive growth in your organization.

What is Employee Engagement and How Does it Benefit Your Organization?

Employee engagement refers to employees’ emotional commitment and dedication toward their work and organization. It goes beyond mere job satisfaction and encompasses the extent to which employees feel connected to their work, are motivated, and stay aligned with the goals and values of the organization.

Engaged employees:

Show enthusiasm for their work: They actively participate and maintain a positive attitude toward their tasks.

Feel a sense of purpose and fulfillment: They find meaning in their roles and understand the impact of their contributions.

Go the extra mile: They proactively take on challenges and consistently exceed expectations.

Drive productivity and innovation: They deliver exceptional results, bring fresh ideas, and stay loyal to the organization.

The Key Benefits of Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is not solely dependent on financial rewards. When your employees feel valued, it delivers measurable benefits, including:

Increased productivity: Focused employees drive higher output.

Enhanced innovation: Motivated employees are most likely to come up with creative solutions to challenges.

Improved retention: Valued and connected employees are less likely to leave your organization.

Better customer satisfaction: Engaged employees provide better service, leading to happier customers.

Stronger organizational performance: Companies with engaged workforces consistently achieve greater profitability and growth.

Fostering employee engagement isn’t just a strategy, it’s a commitment to creating a workplace where employees thrive, and in turn, your organization excels.

Measure the Levels of Your Employee Engagement

Employee engagement can be categorized into different levels based on the degree of commitment and involvement employees demonstrate.

While other models and frameworks exist, here are four standard levels of employee engagement:

Engaged

Engaged employees are highly committed, motivated, and enthusiastic about their work. They have a strong emotional connection to the organization, align with its values, and actively contribute to its success.

Engaged employees often go above and beyond their job requirements, willingly collaborate with colleagues, and consistently seek opportunities for growth and development. They display high levels of productivity, creativity, and loyalty.

Not Fully Engaged

Not fully engaged employees may be satisfied with their work, but they lack the same level of passion and dedication seen in engaged employees. They fulfill their job responsibilities adequately, but may not proactively seek additional tasks or opportunities to contribute beyond what is required. They may be content with the status quo and show less initiative in driving innovation or improvement.

While they may not be actively disengaged, their potential for more significant impact and productivity remains untapped.

Disengaged

Disengaged employees feel detached and lack commitment toward their work and the organization. They may exhibit signs of apathy, low morale, and decreased productivity.

Disengaged employees may feel disconnected from the organization’s goals and values, and their dissatisfaction can manifest in absenteeism, low motivation, and a negative attitude toward their work. If their concerns are addressed effectively, resolving their disengagement can help team morale and overall organizational performance.

Actively Disengaged

Actively disengaged employees are not only disconnected and disinterested in their work, but they may also actively express their dissatisfaction and undermine the organization’s goals and initiatives. They may exhibit disruptive behavior, resist change, spread negativity among colleagues, and harm team dynamics and overall employee morale.

Actively disengaged employees can significantly impact productivity and create a toxic work environment. Addressing their concerns through targeted support can help re-engage them and improve the overall workplace atmosphere.

5 Reasons to Conduct Employee Engagement Surveys

1. Measure Employee Engagement

Measuring your organization’s key drivers of engagement allows you to assess where your employees currently fall on the engagement scale as described above.

The process of measuring engagement also includes an assessment of performance across the key dimensions that comprise the employee experience within your organization.

Organizations typically include dimensions like career development, well-being, leadership, work environment, inclusion, equity, and belonging, to name a few.

2. Define the Factors Most Affecting Engagement

Most engagement survey projects include a key driver analysis that identifies the areas and items that are most affecting an employee’s level of engagement.

Focusing organizational action plans around these key drivers ensures that organizations are spending time and resources on the areas that are most critically impacting the employee experience and have a higher rate of impact on factors that affect retention.

3. Measure Performance Over Time

Through the employee engagement survey process, organizations collect data that provides tangible objectives for change.Assessing engagement also allows you to identify areas of best practice within your organization.

A specific department might rate very high on engagement, and by analyzing the data, you can gain insight into how they are achieving it and implement best practices throughout the organization. In subsequent measures, you can manage the impact that action planning is having on the employee experience and, by extension, retention.

4. Give Employees a Voice

Engagement surveys are an essential tool because they give employees a platform for open feedback and shows their voices are heard and valued. The Voice of the Employee (VoE) is critical to the development process, as it offers a direct channel for employees to communicate with management and drive meaningful change.

Active involvement in the planning process makes employees realize they have a stake in the company’s success and play a role in shaping initiatives through feedback. This involvement reinforces their sense of ownership and connection to your organization’s culture.

5. Demonstrate the Contribution of Engagement on Organizational Metrics

More and more organizations are leveraging linkage studies to connect employee engagement data to operational metrics like safety, absenteeism, productivity, and quality.

Linkage analysis can identify additional levers that managers can pull to improve metrics that are typically included in their performance reviews. When there is that kind of connection between employee engagement and impacting operational metrics, you have truly established employee engagement as a change agent within your organization.

Learn How OpusVi Drove Retention from 40% to 90% With Explorance

Make Your Organization Thrive with Enhanced Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is the driving force behind your organization’s success. By actively listening to employees through engagement surveys, addressing their feedback, and aligning efforts with their needs, you can create a thriving, inclusive work culture.

Not sure where to start or how to demonstrate the value of engagement to management? Here’s a simple roadmap:

Foster emotional commitment: Align employee motivation with organizational goals to drive engagement.

Focus on key metrics: Improve productivity, innovation, retention, customer satisfaction, and performance through engagement.

Measure your engagement levels: Regularly assess engagement to understand its impact on morale and productivity, from highly engaged to actively disengaged.