Introduction Recap:

In order to truly understand what makes a company a great place to work, it is important to explore, evaluate and improve several different aspects of the employee experience. Best Companies Group manages more than 40 “Best Places to Work,” “Best Employers” or “Best Companies” programs. We use an employee survey that has 8 very distinct areas of evaluation. We call them our “8 Core Focus Areas” of employee engagement and satisfaction. We have created this blog series to explore each of those “8 Core Focus Areas.”

Our goal is to help you understand these focus areas so the next time you conduct a survey or participate in one of BCG’s programs you have a better idea of how we go about identifying the best. This blog is part 8 of our feature series. To read part 7, please click here.

This week we will focus on, Overall Engagement.

Even though there have been volumes written on defining employee engagement, we like to keep it pretty simple. We see “engagement” as the extent to which employees are emotionally connected to their employer. Simple, right? Well, for as much as there is written about defining “engagement,” there is probably ten times that written on how to measure it. In this, eighth and final “core focus area,” we pose the following eight statements to gauge the levels of employee engagement. We think engaged employees have the willingness to go above and beyond for the good of the company. They have pride in the organization and its brand, they feel like what they are doing matters, and they will recommend where they work to a friend. Would you be able to answer “agree” to the statements below? If so, congratulations. You love where you work! 59% of U.S. employees don’t agree with these statements.

• Most days, I look forward to going to work
• My job provides me with a sense of meaning and purpose
• I am proud to work for this organization
• I feel this organization has created an environment where I can do my best work
• I am willing to give extra effort to help this organization succeed
• I plan to continue my career with this organization for at least two more years
• I would recommend this organization’s products/services to a friend
• I would recommend working here to a friend

The percentage shown represents the national average percentage of positive response (Agree or Agree Strongly) in the “Overall Engagement” Core Focus Area for all the winners of our “Best” programs.