Employee Engagement Surveys: Be Clear About What You Want

Before you even begin thinking about conducting an employee engagement survey, know clearly what you want out of it. Done right, you can learn an enormous amount about the health of your organization now and into the future. Done wrong, there will be confusing data and unreliable conclusions. 

Here, at the very least, is what you should hope to achieve:

• Data interpretation that will carry weight with the executivesNumbers alone won’t impress the C-Suite. They want to know about risks, implications and results. What could happen if engagement were not improved? And what is the upside of effective employee engagement training?  Remember employee engagement is both an art and a science.  The science involves asking valid questions, having statistically high response rates and correlating the leading drivers of engagement to the fundamental lagging anchors of engagement that improve an employee’s level of advocacy, discretionary effort and intent to stay.  The art involves putting the critical few leading drivers for engagement in the context of the company strategy and culture to select the 2-3 actions that will have the greatest impact on moving the organization forward in a way that makes sense.

• An understanding of the level of trust employees have in their leadersDo employees feel that their contributions are truly valued and that their leaders truly care? A very strong indicator of engagement is how closely employees feel aligned with their managers, both personally and professionally, and with the goals of the organization.   Make sure that your employee engagement training improves the level of trust employees have in the leaders to set the right direction and lead the company to future success.  This includes ensuring that leaders are honest and trustworthy and consistently demonstrate integrity – especially during tough times.

• A commitment organization-wide to impacting business results through peopleResearch results prove that the more engaged the employee population, the better the business results. Measure before and after the initiative to demonstrate the effect greater engagement can have on the business...proof positive that engaged employees directly improve levels of discretionary effort, productivity, retention, advocacy and business performance.

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/leading-for-employee-engagement/