If you are thinking of taking steps for measuring employee engagement, then you’ve finally understood the correlation between high employee engagement and organizational success. However, the way your organizations measure employee engagement makes all the difference. The quality of the process and result will hinge heavily on the questions chosen by you. So what should do question be? Let’s find out!
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Do you think that you’d love to do an employee engagement survey for your organization, but that appears to be a lot of work to take on right now and you’d look at it when things slow down? Well, spoiler alert – It’s not a lot of work to take on and neither will things ever slow down. You shouldn’t blame yourself for feeling overwhelmed. Plenty of well-intentioned organizations over-complicate their employee engagement surveys by not knowing which are the right questions to measure employee engagement.
The covid-19 pandemic has upended workplaces and workforces, establishing lasting metamorphosis in trends that directly influence employees’ engagement and productivity. During disruptions, it’s critical to prevent your employees from becoming disengaged or frustrated as they adjust, for instance to a new hybrid or remote work culture or new organizational priorities. When you’re measuring employee engagement to gauge that impact, ensure to focus on key performance drivers and include questions that will really surface whether your employees are feeling motivated enough to put their maximum effort and energy into the work.
Even though it’s tempting to rely on sentiment-based questions that revolve around recognition and respect received by your employee, such questions are not that effective at surfacing whether your employees remain productive and engaged through disruption or feel motivated to exert facultative effort. Before jumping to the questions straight away, let’s take a glance at the three identifiable drivers of employee engagement and performance that you need to look out for.
Test 3 drivers of engagement and performance
Whatever questions are handpicked by you have to ensure that the following three drivers of employee engagement are tested through them:
1. Commitment to coworkers
Even as your employees endure high levels of disruptions in their work and environment, you have to ensure that they collaborate with each other effectively. The questions chosen by you should be aimed at making you understand whether your employees are continuing to actively collaborate with the other team members and whether they value each other’s support.
2. The right capabilities
Capability is a broad team that comprises your employee’s agility, comprehension, direction, expectations, and network. It is extremely critical to measure it during times of significant change. The questions used by you should determine whether the employees are aware of and can tap into the tools, people, and information that can help them navigate changes stemming from disruptions.
3. Organizational trust
The extent to which your employees trust your organization is an incredible barometer for measuring the levels of employee engagement and productivity. It is no rocket science that employees that have high levels of organizational trust will show high levels of engagement as well. The questions should help you in knowing whether or not your employees believe in the organization, its values, and its leaders.
8 questions to effectively measure employee engagement
Employee engagement is multi-faced so to hit the nail on the head while measuring it, you’ve got to include a variety of questions. Using them will let you uncover the meaningful engagement of your employees and give you a clear picture of how your organization stands in terms of employee engagement.
1. How do you feel about your work today?
The question that helps you to get to the core of the topic as you inquire about the attitude of each employee with a focus on the present moment. It opens the door to a more expansive conversation and serves as a reminder to your employees that their organization actually cares about how they feel. You just cannot measure your employee engagement accurately if you do not include this question in your employee engagement activities.
2. Would you recommend our organization to your friends as an employer?
As it is said, a happy client will go to a friend but an unhappy one will go to at least 10 friends. When it comes to the employees, the number just doubles, to say the least. You must already be aware that the people that work for you are the single best source of word of mouth for recruiting. Whether they would recruit their friend or warn them to stay away from is a revealing measure of how engaged they are with your organization.
3. Do you find your work meaningful for our organization?
Employees who consider their work to be meaningful tend to work harder and are more engaged with the organization. Such employees are far more likely to weather bumps in the road and remain committed to your organization over a more elongate term. This is why making your employees aware of how their contribution leads to the bigger picture is critical for establishing a highly engaged workforce.
4. Do you have the tools needed to maximize your potential here?
This is the question that enables the employees to evaluate what is holding them back and provides a chance for them to identify ways for improving. It serves to send out a message that you and your organization care about the employees and want to equip them with everything they need to succeed. The best bit is that it quickly brings to light the resources your employees need to attain success.
5. Does our organization’s culture foster a comfortable and supportive work environment?
Particularly this is the question that assesses whether your employees see the organization’s culture as an extension of their own objectives or in conflict with them. What can be a better way to measure your employee’s engagement than asking them about the organization’s work culture? The response to this question will reveal uncomfortable truths about the organization’s culture that will enable you to foster a more engaging work culture.
6. How can our organization improve your engagement at work?
You have to ask your employees such open-ended and direct questions if you want an accurate measurement of employee engagement in your organization. Seeking their direct input on how they feel can help them get engaged better with the organization. Not only will this assist you in boosting employee engagement in your organization, but will make your employees feel valued that their voice is not only being heard but taken into consideration for taking action.
Employee engagement serves as a foundation of a success-driven workforce and organization. It is becoming more and more significant for organizations to take the correct steps to boost their employee engagement. Contact us right away and don’t waste any more time because you know it – employee engagement is the need of the hour if you want your organization to succeed.
Gaurav Sabharwal
CEO of JOP
Gaurav is the CEO of JOP (Joy of Performing), an OKR and high-performance enabling platform. With almost two decades of experience in building businesses, he knows what it takes to enable high performance within a team and engage them in the business. He supports organizations globally by becoming their growth partner and helping them build high-performing teams by tackling issues like lack of focus, unclear goals, unaligned teams, lack of funding, no continuous improvement framework, etc. He is a Certified OKR Coach and loves to share helpful resources and address common organizational challenges to help drive team performance. Read More