Now is the time to engage employees, retain top talent, and prosper

Of course, you seek feedback from your customers. Similarly, do you conduct an employee engagement survey that focuses on the people who work for your company? And, are you taking the right steps to increase employee engagement at your organization?

To begin, what is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is a special connection between the employee and work. Engaged employees are committed to the organization. They devote their energy toward their work: cognitive energy, affective energy, and physical energy.

Are your employees engaged? Do they devote their energy toward their work? Additionally, are they motivated to perform to the highest standards? And is your organization practicing the universal Priorities that drive engagement?

When you conduct your employee survey, you can measure the level of engagement and the drivers of engagement.

With the results of the employee survey, you can determine your “key drivers.” For the most part, these key drivers are the areas your organization should focus on and pay attention to.

What are the steps to conduct an employee engagement survey?

Obviously, you want employees to give their honest views on the survey.  But if employees feel others in leadership will know their responses, then their feedback will not be authentic. Therefore, you need an anonymous employee survey. This requires having a trained person outside of the organization to conduct the employee survey. Using outside support helps to guarantee that the responses are kept anonymous. As a result, employees will feel safe to provide their true views.

Contact Sheila to survey staff engagement in your organization. The steps of the process are as follows. Above all, do the proper planning to ensure the process produces honest data. When working with Sheila as your employee engagement consultant, you will typically go through the following steps:

Prepare for the survey

1. Discuss objectives for conducting the employee survey.
2. Discuss best time to conduct the employee survey. In effect, decide the timeline for survey administration and delivery of results.
3. Decide survey instrument items. In addition, clarify the level of engagement items and the drivers of engagement items.
4. Decide open-ended questions.
5. Decide how to filter the data. In this case, will the filtering preserve anonymity?
6. Finalize survey administration plans.
7. Compose survey directions and the cover message.
8. Finalize survey marketing materials. Of course, inform employees of the upcoming survey and the importance of their participation.
9. Prepare survey instrument and translate it in languages needed.
10. Pilot test the survey and make adjustments, if necessary.

Administer the survey and analyze the data

1. Administer the survey.
2. Collect data.
3. Analyze data and then, prepare the report.

Present results and next steps

1. Present survey results to the client with recommendations to improve engagement. Sheila can make presentations to the CEO and HR, to the Board, to the leadership team, and to all employees. Presentations may vary based on the needs of each group.
2. Discuss plans for small group discussion and action planning.
3. Decide how to monitor action planning and measure and monitor change.

Develop and implement a plan to improve employee engagement

With the survey data and the report recommendations, you can create your plan to increase employee engagement. Focus on the key drivers indicated in the survey report.

Develop a plan organization wide and within each department

Create an action plan on multiple levels. Your goal is for all groups to have a commitment to improve engagement.

• First, conduct action planning through a dedicated Employee Engagement Committee(s). Establish download groups. Include all employees in the process.
• Also, have each department create their engagement action plan.
• In addition, the leadership team can create an action plan to improve engagement.

After you get your survey results and create action plans, you must implement changes. Above all, leaders should discuss with employees the changes that are being made. Without positive change, there will not be improvements in engagement.

Your focus for change will be on one or more of the drivers of engagement illustrated below.

Have each manager develop a plan with the employees they supervise

For example, managers can make simple changes that improve engagement. For instance, they can hold employee engagement meetings. In these meetings, each manager has one-on-one conversations with each person that the manager supervises.  Additionally, see the slides at this link to guide the dialogue.

Monitor engagement year after year

Measuring employee engagement is essential. Use employee engagement metrics to compare the level of engagement over the years. That is to say, use these metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of your engagement efforts.