Employee engagement – A quick guide

Overview

According to the latest research from WorkBuzz, employee engagement and experience is a ‘top priority’ for 44% of the HR & business leaders surveyed. But what exactly is employee engagement? What drives it? How can you measure it? And what benefits does it bring to an organisation?

Quick contents

• What is employee engagement?
• Why is employee engagement important?
• What are the other benefits of having engaged employees?
• What happens when employee engagement is poor?
• What drives employee engagement?
• How can you measure employee engagement?

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is a deep rational and emotional connection to your organisation and the work you do. It’s the outcome of a great employee experience, and starts during the recruitment process – before you even turn up for your first day.

Why is employee engagement important?

Engagement unlocks the potential of each individual, their motivation, and maximises their discretionary effort. If they’re engaged enough to become advocates for your organisation, engagement can live on long after employees leave.

At WorkBuzz, we talk about Say, Stay and Strive:

• Employees say how proud they are to be part of your organisation, and what a great place it is to work;
• They stay for the long haul, even if a comparable opportunity comes up elsewhere;
• And they strive to do their best work.

What are the other benefits of having engaged employees?

Employee engagement impacts almost every aspect of an organisation’s success – from retention and absenteeism, to productivity, revenue growth, and even customer satisfaction.

What happens when employee engagement is poor?

If employees aren’t feeling engaged, you lose all the benefits of good engagement. More dangerous still, you risk turning potential positives into serious negatives.

A strong employee experience and successful exit, for example, could mean an advocate for life. But flip that on its head and you’ve got a disgruntled ex-employee warning others not to join your organisation.

What drives employee engagement?

There are many factors that impact employee engagement throughout the employee lifecycle, but here are the 10 we think are most important:

1. Leadership: Trust in the senior leadership team
2. Growth: Opportunities for personal and professional growth
3. Teamwork: Strength of relationship with colleagues
4. Managers: Positive and supportive manager-employee relationships
5. Flexible working: Arrangements that suit employees’ needs
6. Empowerment: Level of autonomy
7. Reward and recognition: Making employees feel appreciated
8. Wellbeing: Prioritising employee ‘health’ factors
9. Diversity and inclusion: Working in an inclusive environment
10. Purpose: Alignment with your organisation’s strategy

How can you measure employee engagement?

The key to a successful employee engagement strategy is collecting and interpreting related data – and translating that into concrete actions to improve engagement and organisational performance.

The best way to measure employee engagement and experience is via regular pulse surveys, often run on a quarterly basis. By consistently asking specific questions, you can obtain a holistic view of what matters most to your workforce.

You can then make plans to tackle the issues that emerge – either organisation-wide, or on a more targeted basis – and your survey results will let you know where to focus your efforts to have the biggest impact on employee engagement.

Read more about how to measure employee engagement here. Or to learn more about employee listening with WorkBuzz – and our employee engagement platform – get in touch with our team.