Many organizations spend quite a bit of money and resources on misguided efforts to improve employee engagement which only contribute to employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction is influenced by factors such as pay, benefits, safety, tools, resources, and perks. These factors need to be in place so that employees are satisfied with their jobs but increasing these factors will not boost employee engagement.
What is Employee Engagement?
Employee Engagement occurs when we find Meaning, Autonomy, Growth, Impact, and Connection–MAGIC–in what we do. The DecisionWise ENGAGEMENT MAGIC® model of employee engagement stems from two decades of research, gathering and analyzing feedback from tens of millions of employee engagement survey responses in over 70 countries. As an employee engagement survey vendor, we show you which elements are driving engagement in your organization, where they’re missing, and what to do about it.
Measuring Employee Engagement
The DecisionWise engagement survey is a customized tool that uses research-based questions that are actionable, validated, and reliable. Actionable employee engagement questions produce results that a manager can easily interpret and take action on to improve. Valid employee survey items simply measure what they are supposed to measure. And reliable employee engagement questions produce similar results each time they are used.
There are two types of questions on the DecisionWise engagement survey. The first type measures the overall level of employee engagement. We call these anchor questions. Anchor questions measure the current state of employee engagement that an employee feels. The average score of these anchor questions produce an overall employee engagement survey score.
The second type of employee engagement survey question measures the drivers of engagement in the organization. These questions make up the bulk of the survey and measure things like leadership, organization policies, teamwork, and the job experience. Comparing scores from the driver questions to those of employees who are fully engaged based on the anchor question scores, shows which items influence employee engagement in the organization.
Administering an Engagement Survey
Our team of assessment consultants can administer surveys online via email or a stand-alone kiosk or with paper forms. Online surveys are the easiest to administer and provide the most flexibility and accuracy for reporting. Paper employee surveys are best for employees who do not have ready access to a computer.
To achieve high participation on an employee survey, communicate the purpose and intended outcomes of the survey. Employees will want to know that their valuable feedback will both be kept confidential and used to make improvements in the organization. Make sure to provide enough time for employees to complete the engagement survey and recognize their participation efforts.
Analyzing Employee Engagement Survey Results
The employee survey results should be rolled out to all levels in the organization to allow managers to work with their employees to develop action plans. The amount of detail provided to each manager will vary. Executives will have access to the results for the entire organization including breakouts by demographic categories such as tenure, gender, and department. Front-line managers normally only receive results for their respective group. Our online employee engagement survey reporting tool is the most advanced system in the industry. It allows complete flexibility to drill down by any number of groups in the organization.
The HR team will want to compare the employee engagement survey results to industry benchmarks, internal business metrics, and past employee survey trends. The HR team is also relied on to answer questions from the executive team and other managers about any number of data points and needs to be have easy access to query and analyze the results.
Action Planning
Action plans are normally created at the executive level for the organization and by each manger for his or her work group. The executive team will need time to process the results and decide on the two or three main themes that are most important to the organization. Executive team action plans are created during an Engagement Summit meeting and are rolled out to the employee survey companies. Individual managers are responsible for creating action plans with their teams to address areas within their control.
Action plans are more about seeing a box checked in our online action planning tool. It takes time, energy, and follow-up to ensure that real change is being made in the organization. DecisionWise partners with organizations to create a “what’s next?” plan and execute the implementation to improve performance.