According to a Gallup poll, employee engagement has been basically flat since 2000, and the number of engaged employees in the United States sits at just 32%.
Those are pretty discouraging numbers for many companies.
To help you increase your business’ employee engagement, we’re going to look at getting the right feedback – the impact of employee engagement programs.
First, let’s define it.
The Definition of Employee Engagement
Engaged employees care about your business, and they are committed to their work. In addition, they are even enthusiastic about their jobs and enjoy coming to work.
Your level of employee engagement has a direct correlation to the outcomes of your business and your overall financial success. (tweet this)
Your engaged employees are important for your bottom line because they wholeheartedly support your company, your mission and your vision.
Bottom line, employee engagement is the emotional commitment your staff has to your company and your goals.
When your employees are engaged, they work extra hours without being asked. They clean the bathrooms even if you don’t know they’re doing it. Engaged employees let that last customer in the door even though you’re already closed.
So, how do you know if your employees are engaged? You survey them.
The Employee Engagement Survey
Have you ever conducted an employee survey? They’re quite common for employees separating from a company, but many businesses don’t take the time to survey their current employees.
We advise you to conduct an employee engagement survey. It will show you how happy, or unhappy, your employees are, how invested they feel in your company, how they feel about morale, and if they are dedicated to your goals.
Here are a few more reasons to conduct an employee engagement survey:
- Surveys give your employees a chance to voice their opinion. Surveys let your employees talk without fear of reprisal, and they get them involved in the inner workings of your company.
- Surveys measure how engaged your employees are. You want to know how your staff feels about their pay, benefits, advancement opportunities, recognition systems, training opportunities and their overall work environment.
- Surveys help you put together a strategy for improving overall employee engagement. You’ll most likely find a pattern in the survey responses so you can find ways to improve.
- You’ll learn where you need to address leadership problems, office troubles and the general feelings about the office.
- You can survey your employees several times during the year to see if you’ve improved from the first survey.
Essential Employee Engagement Survey Questions
To help you begin crafting your employee engagement survey, here are some questions you can consider asking in your first survey.
- Ask employees if they know your strategic goals. Then ask them if they understand them.
- Ask them if they know how the company is going about meeting its goals and objectives. Then, pose a question asking them what their role is.
- You want to know if your employees see a clear link between their work and your business’ goals and objectives, so ask them.
- Find out if they are proud to work at your company.
- Ask them what they like best about their work.
- Ask them what they like least about their work.
- Craft a question to find out how they feel about their team and their team leader.
- Ask them what inspires them to come to work every day.
- Find out if they understand your company’s internal processes.
- Ask them if they have enough information to get their work done each day.
Final Thoughts
Don’t underestimate the impact of employee engagement on not only performance, but your business.
The foundation of every successful business is firmly planted on the shoulders of engaged employees.
These are staff members who are dedicated to your mission, vision and goals. They are team members who’ll go above and beyond the call of duty even if no one is watching.
They are employees who are more productive, work harder and feel successful at their jobs. They enjoy coming to work each day.
Engaged employees care about the success of your business just as much as you do.
In today’s competitive work environment, isn’t it time you found out just how engaged your employees are?
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Images: Crew