How Employee Engagement Really Works

We need to talk about employee engagement surveys. It’s great news that organizations are paying attention to engagement and its impact on performance. The bad news is that senior leaders want a clear metric to judge how satisfied and motivated their people are. 

Management requires metrics, after all. Decisions require data.

Employee engagement surveys are the tool of choice to measure a company’s employee experience, motivation, and overall culture.

Problems with Employee Engagement Surveys

Gallup research suggests that employee engagement is linked to many other important organizational metrics like productivity, employee retention, and profitability. Unfortunately, Gallup has also found engagement is on the decline across the United States, particularly among remote, hybrid, and younger workers.

Ultimately, the reasons for the recent decline in employee engagement and the inability to turn it around stem from a few problems with how most leaders treat engagement as a concept and engagement surveys as a tool. In this article, we’re going to review the top three problems with employee engagement surveys and offer a solution for each one that will not only boost engagement scores…but will engage your people.

Employee Engagement Problem #1: People Don’t Take the Surveys Seriously

Employee engagement surveys are only as important as leadership thinks but may be slightly flawed. No, don’t throw out surveys completely because the data might be flawed.

Here, it’s important to know the context of how this engagement data is collected.

Your employee gets an email. It typically goes something like this:

“Dear Valued Employees,

Our company has brought in “GloboEngage360” to survey different aspects of the company according to the point of view of its employees. This survey is not mandatory, but your feedback is greatly appreciated and will remain anonymous.

Sincerely,
Management”

Put yourself in an employee’s shoes. They have meetings all day. They have tasks to do and people to coordinate with. If it isn’t mandatory, something like this is going right to the bottom of the list of things to do or just put into the trash immediately.

Most employees’ gut reaction to a message from leadership or outside consultants saying this is anonymous is, “This is definitely not anonymous.” So, will employees take this survey seriously at all? 

Hard to say. Is there some value in collecting the data this way? A little, but it’s best used as a starting point for your own investigation into engagement.

However, we must also consider the leadership’s point of view. 

The survey goes out. The survey consultancy collects the data, makes a nice packet of insights, and boils down your people’s performance, happiness, and productivity into nice little percentages. However, the data is only as serious as the seriousness of the people who filled out the survey, and their seriousness is determined by how seriously they think leaders care about the survey.

Seriously.

Employee Engagement Solution #1: Share the Results

This should be an easy thing to do. It’s the easiest way to communicate that you’re serious about employee feedback and improving the employee experience. It’s a mystery why companies don’t typically share the results with those who took the survey. By not sharing, people can only speculate, and they’re probably going to draw the worst-case scenarios like “The company is going to restructure” or “My job is in jeopardy.”

So, share the results. 

You may not have gotten an accurate and serious picture of engagement in the results you’re sharing, but when employees see that you considered their responses and you’re making changes as a result, they’ll give these questions more consideration next time a survey is sent around.

To articulate that these surveys matter to your team, you don’t need to send them the entire data file or even the summary report the consulting firm created for you. It can be way simpler than that. Just take the time to share:

• What positive results are you proud of?
• Why are you so proud of those results?
• What unexpected results did you receive?
• What you’ll be changing as a result.

That’s it. 

Just a simple email, memo, or quick video on what senior leadership learned from the survey and what they’ll be building upon or changing completely because of the survey.

Employee Engagement Problem #2: Leaders Interpret Data Wrong

After a survey is taken, the team from human resources or the consulting firm administering the survey will compile everything and prepare a summary report. This is where things can go really wrong. Often, the report is broken down by the different questions asked, and the lower the score of the question, the more attention it gets. If one item is particularly low, then we start a company wide initiative to improve on that one item. 

Because when leaders only look at the company wide data, they tend to make decisions that impact everyone…companywide.

But if your company has issues, there’s a chance it’s not in every department or team. Most people’s work experience isn’t reflective of the entire company. It’s a commentary on the parts of the company they work with. Company culture is the average of the culture on each individual team.

You know what happens next. Your top-performing teams are subject to mandatory programs that will slow them down, confuse them, and ultimately make them feel punished. Those top-performing teams need to be protected!

Employee Engagement Solution #2: Look Team-by-team, Not Companywide

When you look at the data, don’t just take the overall metrics and run with them. If you have direct contact with the agency you used, ask them or your HR or culture team to get the metrics broken down to the team level or as much functional or regional separation as you can.

Then, use those metrics to isolate the teams underperforming in whatever areas you measured and provide a solution for them. Talk to the manager and the people on that team. See what’s going on.

A solution for an individual team will not be company wide. Big initiatives that touch every team in a company and intend to weed out a problem are often too broad and diluted to fix the issue.

So, break those numbers down to the team level. Then, help the team leaders who are dragging the overall numbers down and reward the team leaders who serve their people well. Building a company culture is about building strong team cultures. It takes time, effort, and more than just numbers and one big solution.

Employee Engagement Problem #3: Surveys are Too Infrequent

Employee engagement surveys are typically done once a year. Maybe twice. 

Remember, leadership and HR teams know people don’t want to be inundated with surveys all year. So, companies will concentrate on the one survey asked each year. They will rely on HR and culture teams to implement an inclusive workplace environment that sparks innovation and motivation for their people.

It makes sense not to administer formal surveys too frequently throughout the year. HR should be very judicial when sending out surveys. But just because you’re not surveying people regularly doesn’t mean you can’t be monitoring employee engagement regularly.

Employee Engagement Solution #3: Keep the Conversation Going on the Team Level

Managers can do their own anecdotal surveys, better known as a “conversation” with their team.

As a team leader, you are ultimately responsible for your employees’ engagement and for fostering a purposeful culture. A company’s culture is the aggregate of all the teams’ cultures. 

This work really falls to you. Have ongoing conversations with your team and in your individual check-ins. Ask them what projects are going well. Ask them what their energy levels are like. 

Ask them how they’re interacting with their teams, and most importantly, ask them if you can help with anything.

If you keep an open dialogue with your team about how things are going, the metrics from a yearly survey will not surprise or shock you. If you’re good, you’ll know before the survey.

Employee Engagement Problem #4: Emphasis on Quantitative Data

Employee engagement surveys are usually focused on numerical data like ratings or having responses on a scale. While these are good metrics for viewing trends over time, they do not capture the motivations or employee frustrations, struggles, and emotions behind those numbers.

So, the rather complex things that go behind the scenes remain unaddressed.

As a result, your workforce feels unheard and unmotivated.

Employee Engagement Solution #4: Include Open-Ended Questions in Surveys

One way to cater to the situation is to include open-ended questions in the survey. These allow employees to give detailed feedback, which makes up for many of their concerns or areas they feel should be addressed.

You can include simple questions like:

• What are your biggest challenges that stand in the way of your growth?
• What’s one thing you want to change about the company? 
• How do you think we can help make your job more fulfilling?

Then, you sit down to analyze these open-ended responses to get further insights into the employees’ minds. You can also identify patterns or similar responses that highlight a key issue. It also serves as a way to find unique opportunities to develop targeted strategies for the betterment of your employees and the workplace.

Employee Engagement Problem #5: Ignoring Cultural and Generational Differences

Many organizations treat employee engagement as one metric. This generalization is incorrect, as it implies that all employees have the same needs and are driven by similar motivations. It overlooks the diverse perspectives and priorities of the teams, individuals, and generations.

For instance, some people value career development opportunities, while others may seek job security or retirement benefits. Still, others might be looking for something that gives them a good work-life balance and financial security.

If you generalize, you let go of all these variations and often alienate certain people and groups. This creates a noninclusive culture, further weakening engagement and creating workplace gaps.

Employee Engagement Solution #5: Customize Engagement Strategies

You should segment your workforce based on demographics, departments, or geographical locations and use the data that comes from the surface to identify patterns and create strategies accordingly.

For instance, if you are catering to younger employees, you can offer mentorship programs or skill development, but for the older workforce, provide them flexible schedules, maybe to manage their families or other personal responsibilities.

If you have people from different cultures in the organization, ensure they are given equal respect and space. When you take these initiatives, your organization will benefit as it will create a culture where employees feel safe and are likely to be more committed to work.

Conclusion

Remember, a company’s culture is the sum of its team cultures. Invest in your teams and have open communication; the engagement numbers will care for themselves.

There’s a tendency to treat employee engagement like the score of a game, so we shouldn’t be surprised when people try to game the system and improve the score. But the point of collecting all that data isn’t to learn how to improve a number. It’s to know where we need to pay more attention to our people and how we can help them feel more connected to their work and the team they work with.