Organizations often find it challenging to measure employee engagement. In this context, employee engagement surveys have come to play an important role.
Many organizations do these surveys annually. However, in recent years, they have become more regular in most organizations.
Employee engagement has been largely associated with the happiness and satisfaction levels of employees at the workplace.
However, it has been observed that even when employees seem happy and content, they might not be truly engaged.
Hence, employee surveys can come in quite handy to help get inside the hearts and minds of their employees.
These surveys can help organizations measure the various factors that contribute to employee performance and retention.
It helps HR gain an understanding of how employees feel about the organization and their commitment to it.
Most people perceive engagement surveys as just another means of seeking employee feedback about the various organization policies.
However, these surveys can help organizations learn about the views and opinions of employees about the organization and culture.
Through these surveys, they can understand the employee engagement levels and how to address the gaps.
Here are the key aspects that organizations should focus on assessing through these surveys to enhance employee engagement:
1. Inter-office Communication
2. Prevalent Leadership Style
3. Effective Employee Recognition
4. Opportunities For Personal And Professional Development
5. Level Of Work-life Balance
Understanding the level and type of communication between employees themselves and the management can ensure better engagement.
An effective engagement survey can help understand if their employees are happy with the communication, both from the management as well as their peers.
Organizations can also understand employee concerns about the two-way communication with the management,
According to research conducted by Gallup, the leadership style prevalent in the organization impacts engagement quite significantly.
That is why engagement surveys should focus on understanding the leadership style existing within the organization.
They should help provide insights into how effectively leaders can convey the organization’s goals and values to employees.
In addition, they also help to learn about how to align the goals of individual employees with the organization’s goals.
Recognizing the efforts and achievements of employees in a proper and timely manner is key to driving engagement.
Employee surveys can help gain information about whether or not the employees feel duly recognized and appreciated.
Surveys should offer an understanding of the satisfaction levels of employees with the acknowledgment and appreciation that they receive.
It is advisable to conduct anonymous surveys to ensure that the information acquired is unbiased and reliable.
Employee engagement surveys should also focus on the opportunities for personal and professional development being offered to the employees.
This is one of the biggest contributing factors to keep the employees engaged and motivated.
These surveys should help organizations gain insights into where they are lacking and about what they are doing right.
Organizations can then use this to ensure effective personal and professional development of employees through various training programs.
The highly competitive and stressful professional lives of employees take a toll on their personal lives significantly.
That is why employee surveys should focus on seeking information on the work-life balance of employees.
The surveys should also provide insights into the opinions of employees concerning current strategies for improving work-life balance.
This can go a long way in helping organizations ensure better employee engagement and motivation.
Employee engagement surveys can prove to be highly effective tools for measuring and enhancing engagement levels. This can, in turn, lead to higher productivity and pave the way for sustained business growth.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of experience in the corporate world and entrepreneurship. In the past, Sagar has worked with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank, in leadership roles. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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