Why it is often noticed that even after meticulous planning, robust strategies, and all possible means, and tools, one organization fails to reach the expected milestones while other scores the tremendous success. Yes, it could be because of external factors, but predominantly it is the Employees that carry the baton during the race.
A key component of any organization is its people. But just having the people hired and deployed to perform specific roles will complete the puzzle? Of course not, it is the set of engaged employees which completes the success story.
So what is Employee Engagement?
Employee engagement is the emotional attachment an employee has to the organization and its goals, and welcome to stretch the extra mile for the betterment of the organization. The engaged employee cares more for the organization, tends to be more productive at work, offers better service, and even has longer employment tenure with the organization. Needless to mention this leads to happier customers, which drives sales and higher profits, finally resulting in an increase in stock prices. On the other side, if the employees are not finding any meaning in their work and do not see the value of their contribution towards the organization’s goal it is very obvious that the organization’s success is at stake. Being operating in the consulting environment, I have had multiple opportunities to interact with the Head of people functions who are highly cautious when it comes to engaging their people.
What to measure?
In the era of globalization where organizations are hiring and deploying talents across borders and geographies, conducting employee surveys covering all important parameters such as communication, leadership, career development, Job-role clarity, recognition, Learning & development, Empowerment, Support, Working conditions, etc,. come handy to gather necessary information and get the people’s pulse. Though there are multiple models available to follow, it is always recommended that organizations put emphasis on the factors which are more specific to the target group, organization, and industry level.
Organizations that measure employee engagement annually see stronger improvements in engagement than those that survey less frequently. However, organizations should be cautioned to conduct such surveys very often as the employees may lose their trust in the objective of the exercise and may look at it as just another intervention forced on them by the management.
Every single employee who is participating in the exercise should be sensitized well in advance on the exercise and its objective, and the announcement should be from the top-most authority in the organization to make people understand the seriousness of the whole process.
Survey done…What next?
Many times, organizations turn their back on the survey outcome and overlook the fact that the factors that prevent employee engagement often alleviate them. They should be addressed as soon as possible and if left unattended they shall multiply and result in:
- Higher employee turnover
- Shrinking performance
- Loss of time and resources
- Lower morale
We scored fair in almost all the parameters except this, that, and those. If your employee engagement survey indicates a pattern of low satisfaction levels in a few of the areas that means you should better get on your toes to fix it. The results should be shared with the employees and it is good if the leadership team can be involved while doing so and wholeheartedly endorse and participate in the improvement interventions. Involve your employees to come forward and suggest fixing the grey areas wherever possible.
It is not possible to show the improvements fort-night, offer time ranging between 10 – 12 months before the organization run the re-survey, and measure the effectiveness of the changes implemented.
This article is based on the experience we gathered while conducting several Employee Engagement surveys and we welcome readers’ inputs to improvise the guidelines we follow.
