If you’re looking to measure your employee engagement and experience levels, you are going to need to focus on specific employee engagement drivers to get both accurate and fair results.
In this article we have listed the 10 most important employee engagement drivers we think the questions in your engagement surveys should track, and why they’re important:
1) Leadership – Trust in the senior leadership team
Employees look to leadership teams to communicate the company vision and encourage buy-in. Employees need to trust the senior leadership team, believe the company is well managed, and feel the company is headed in the right direction. If employees do not ‘trust the process’ or buy-in to the company vision, they’ll be less engaged and less likely to perform to a high standard because they’ll feel their efforts are wasted.
2) Growth – Opportunities for personal and professional growth
Ambitious proactive employees are not content to rest on their laurels. They want to ‘future proof’ their careers by equipping themselves with new skills and understanding of the latest technologies and ways of working. An organisation that invests in growth and provides internal development opportunities, is a further reinforcement that it values and appreciates its employees – especially those willing to go the extra mile. This investment might be the difference between an employee staying or leaving your organisation. It could particularly make a difference with your younger employees. It should be part of your brand.
3) Teamwork – Strength of the relationship to colleagues
When an employee has a positive relationship with colleagues, they’re much more likely to feel engaged at work. Any job has its ups and downs but having a supportive group of colleagues to turn to helps employees get through the tougher times. When it comes to wellbeing, often it’s your day-to-day colleagues who can spot any changes in behaviour and offer real-time support.
4) Managers – Positive and supportive manager/employee relationships
Did you know that your organisation’s success is closely tied to the quality of your managers? The presence of supportive managers positively affects your culture, so it’s worth checking to see how your employees feel about who they are working for. When an employee leaves an organisation, they may have decided to leave a manager first. It goes much deeper: do you select the best people to be people managers based on the ability to inspire and lead teams, rather than the fact they were the best person at doing the technical part of their job; do you train them up and support them into a new management role; do you give them enough time and support to do the people management part of their role? A survey can give you these answers.
5) Flexible working – Work arrangements that suit employees’ needs
The typical nine-to-five working pattern might not suit all employees. Some might have caring responsibilities, some might have to collect their children from school, and some may be managing health issues. Flexible working is a known driver of high engagement, so it’s important to understand how satisfied employees are with their flexible working arrangements and whether any improvements can be made.
6) Empowerment – Level of autonomy
Did you know that leaving your employees alone to get on with things might be the best thing you can do? We used to want mangers to keep a very close eye on employees, but today’s workplaces are changing rapidly. Two people in the same role may not get things done in the same way. What matters is what works for each of them. It’s worth realising that each employee thinks differently about this and that by being flexible to their circumstances and requirements, a manager can enhance the contribution an employee makes.
7) Reward and recognition – Making employees feel appreciated
Recognition should be a part of every organisation’s culture. When an employee goes beyond the normal expectations of a role, appreciation from a manager, colleagues, and even customers can reinforce that behaviour – making it all worthwhile and encouraging more of the same in the future. Otherwise, your employees could start to question why they’re putting in extra effort. You want them to give you that extra effort as a matter of course. They also need to see a clear differentiation between great performance and a performance which is below expectations.
8) Wellbeing – Prioritising employee ‘health’ factors
Employee wellbeing goes hand in hand with a positive employee experience. If employees don’t feel ‘well’ – whether that’s their mental wellness, physical wellness, social wellness, career wellness, or financial wellness – they’ll struggle to stay engaged at work. Employees will also struggle to stay engaged if they don’t think your organisation is prioritising their wellbeing.
9) Diversity and inclusion (D&I) – Working in an inclusive environment
Do employees feel like they belong at your organisation? If employees feel like they are valued, respected, included, and belong at an organisation, it creates a more positive culture which contributes to an improved employee experience.
10) Purpose – Alignment with your organisation’s strategy
Do your employees understand what your organisation is trying to achieve? There are good reasons to believe that if your employees have a solid grasp on your organisation’s strategic priorities, they make better day-to-day decisions, aligned to the priorities you’ve chosen. They need a clear organisational North Star.
If you’re an HR leader looking to retain your best talent and get the best possible results from your workforce, measuring metrics such as employee engagement and experience will allow you to see what a difference they can make to your business’s performance over time if they are worked on and improved.
These metrics also allow you to better demonstrate to senior management/the Board how important it is to, and why you should, prioritise employee engagement and experience. For a more in-depth look at employee engagement drivers and experience drivers, download our brand-new eBook: Employee Engagement & Experience – A measurement and metrics framework.
If you are looking to start implementing employee engagement surveys or would like to send them out on a more frequent basis to ensure you are receiving moment-in-time results, get in touch today to see how the WorkBuzz platform can help you create a happier and more inclusive workforce: hello@workbuzz.com.