Our own Leila Zayed, VP, joined Meghan Biro of TalentCulture to discuss measuring employee engagement for a hard-hitting episode of the popular #WorkTrends podcast. As TalentCulture posted, “Sometimes a #WorkTrends episode answers a trending question so clearly it’s as if we never have to ask the question again.”
The podcast quickly went from whether or not we should measure engagement to the best strategies and benchmarks for understanding your workforce like never before.
Leila has worked with companies of all shapes, sizes and industries to help employers measure employee engagement and satisfaction, and pointed out that it’s hard to improve employee engagement if you’re not clear on how to define engagement. Once you know what it is, you can’t find out if you’ve got it if you don’t know how to take measurements.
A True Sense of Purpose
Engagement, Meghan and Leila agreed, has to do with not only being satisfied with your employer, but really looking forward to going to work — with having a sense of meaning, purpose, and pride. “They feel you’ve created an environment where they can do their best, they’re willing to give extra efforts to see you succeed, and they plan on staying a while,” Leila added. Another sign of engagement they both agreed on: employees will recommend your brand to a loved one.
Use a Dual Approach
Meghan noted that Leila’s approach — measuring two sets of demographics — made far more sense than an all-in-one-bucket approach. Personal demographics include our individual identities and perspectives, like generation, gender and ethnicity, while workplace demographics are how employers categorize employee groups: department, brand, length of service and location, for example. The question came up about whether small companies can survey engagement effectively: “Talk to us about how this approach can work for organizations of any size,” Meghan said.
Actually, Leila offered, it can, even with a company of 15 employees. Whatever the size, she recommended, compare your employee feedback data to employers of a similar size, in the same category — so you really have a sense of what you’re up against in the competitive market. Leila shared that, for example, Best Employee Surveys offers a benchmarking universe of more than 6,000 employers for comparison.
The Modern Workplace, Reimagined
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Ready to Measure Engagement?
It’s powerful to know what your employees think! You can identify problems like poor supervision, communication breakdown, and mounting plans to leave your company before expensive turnover affects your business. When you’re ready to learn more about employee survey timelines, process and pricing, schedule a time to meet with one of our employer coaches. We’ll get all your questions answered.
