Making sure that your employees are engaged should be a top priority for any business leader. By Kate Pritchard, head of employee research, ORC International.

Engaged employees are not only satisfied at work, but also more motivated, positive and committed - the kind of people that you want in your business! Conducting employee research through surveys is a great way to both measure employee engagement and identify areas in which you can improve.

Measure engagement with ‘Say, Stay and Strive’
 
Say – This measures how likely an employee is to be an advocate of the organisation.  Would they recommend working there to a friend? Would they sing your praises as an employer?

Stay – Commitment is key, so it is vital to measure your employee’s loyalty to the business. Do they plan to remain in the company? How long do they envisage working there for?

Strive – Are your employees more than just satisfied with doing their work well? Would they be prepared to go ‘over and above’ the call of duty to ensure organisational success?

Ask the right questions

Think about what issues are important to your employees. Possible areas to cover could include Pay, Management Style, Career Progression, Training, Work Environment, Benefits and Work/Life Balance. You might even find that running a focus group with staff before you compile the survey can be beneficial.

Keep it simple

Understanding and filling in the survey should be as easy as possible and something that employees can do within the course of their working day.

Keep the questions concise and ensure that questionnaire completion takes no longer than 10 minutes. If this is your first survey you might find it useful to work with an expert to ensure that the questionnaire is as effective as possible.

Choose your method

Once a survey has been prepared, you should consider the best method for completion. Anonymous surveys are usually preferred by employees and technology has made these easier than ever to administer. Online surveys are a cost effective option for companies with a workforce with computer access.

However, if you have a lot of field staff or a manual labour force, you may get a better response with a paper survey. These can be kept anonymous by having a ‘drop box’ where employees can return their completed surveys.

It’s important that all employees complete their survey, so you could stage a survey session. Designate 30 minutes where all staff are to fill out their surveys. An incentive of tea and biscuits while they are working on them can also help!

Analyse

Once the survey is complete, the results require analysis. Comparing data against an external norm can put results into context. For example, you may find that only 46% of employees are satisfied with their pay.

Without further information you may feel this is a poor result, whereas in fact this could be above average when compared to other organisations in your sector.  

Analysis also allows insight into how your employees feel, and why they feel that way. For example, it’s interesting to know that 30% of employees are highly engaged, but it’s more useful to know that it’s the recognition they receive from their line manager that drives this engagement.

Analysis like this allows you to identify the areas where the company is performing well and where there is room for improvement.  

Take action

At an organisational level, the challenge is ensuring that the survey leads to real improvements. Areas for change and improvement need to be prioritised, and commitment should be given to taking action in up to three key areas. Employees should remember the actions as well as the survey.  

Once actions are underway, be sure to communicate your progress in all of the action areas, and of course don’t forget to celebrate your successes.

Repeat as needed

Most organisations find it beneficial to survey their staff regularly. Once a benchmark has been created you should continue to examine employee attitudes and progress against initiatives.  

Businesses should be committed to a long term programme of employee engagement and regular employee research forms an essential part of this.

www.orc.co.uk

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By Kate Pritchard  on   Jul 08,2008

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Keywords

employees    management    employee feedback   

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