Employee Engagement

Are your employees happy? Would you know if they are ‘engaged’ in their job with you?

An ‘engaged employee’ is: “one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organisation’s interests.”The factors driving engagement vary from company to company, so, as an employer, how do you find out what your employees want from you to become (or remain) engaged?

The first step is to talk to them. Sitting down and listening to what your employee’s have to say is a great place to start. The more you learn about their needs and what it is that helps them stay engaged, you should find it easier to retain them and have less employee turnover.

There are many ways to establish how engaged your employees are and learn what areas your company needs to improve upon to ensure employee engagement is raised and then maintained.

Below are some ideas that should help you and your employees. The ideas should show your employees that you value them enough to listen to them and, where possible, change your business practices to meet their needs:

1. New Hire or Induction Survey
An effective induction process means that by the end of the first 4-6 weeks, a new employee would have been provided with information relating to each of the following areas:

• Resources: What tools and training do they need
• Routines: Which systems and regular events should they be a part of
• Relationships: Who do they need to connect with

By asking questions and then acting on the results, the gap between the employer’s expectations and the new hire’s performance can be more closely aligned, leading to … you guessed it … more engaged employee!

2. Satisfaction or Climate/Culture Survey
A regular survey of this nature can provide employees with an appropriate platform to voice their concerns. If you take on board the information generated, you may find that keeping your employee engaged is not as expensive as you may have thought. You can ask the following questions:

• Are your employees happy or is there an air of discontent amongst employees?
• What is making them feel this way?
• Have they got any suggestions to improve their working environment and/or the company culture?
• Would they be happy to refer a friend to work at your company?

3. Reward and Recognition Survey
No matter how much money people earn, financial compensation on its own generally won’t maximise employee performance or retain employees. By the same token if your employees aren’t getting a package that ‘matters’ to them they are more likely to be disengaged. By doing a Reward and Recognition Survey, you can learn more about your employees and see what each individual requires. Effective benefits packages combine two elements:

• Tailoring to individual needs, and clear links to organisational goals
• Ascertaining whether employees feel this is being delivered

4. Training Survey
Most employers provide training to their employees, as a way to reward and as a way to provide further advancement for that employee. However, do you actually take the time to measure what the employee really thought of the training and if it benefitted them? Doing a Training Survey, can help you find out if the employee actually benefitted from the money spent. You can ask questions like:

• Was the course content and duration appropriate
• How will you apply the training to your role
• Would you recommend the course for other people in the company? If so, have you got anyone in mind?

5. Exit Interview Survey
When someone leaves your company, do you really ask ‘why’? If you use a structured interview process you may be able to identify some common issues you need to address to improve the engagement of your remaining employees and help improve retention rates. Once you have this information, you will be able to establish strategies to rectify the issues, which in turn, will help your current employees, see that you have taken an active interest in their needs. Employee engagement levels should begin to rise and your employee turnover costs will reduce.

Focusing on engagement gives you invaluable insight into what is driving your employees and identifies the areas within your business that will have the most positive impact on your people and your business results. As well as providing a platform for positive change, participation also sends a strong message to your people that your organisation values their input and cares about the ‘employee experience’ with the ultimate driver being improvement on their businesses performance.

If you would like to find out more about any of these surveys, please don’t hesitate to contact your PerformHR consultant.