What is employee engagement? The ultimate guide
Explore the basics of employee engagement, how to measure it, and how to improve engagement over time.
Employee engagement is a vital business metric that every company should track. When employees are engaged, your company will experience higher employee productivity rates, enhanced employee retention, and increased profits.
It’s no wonder that SurveyMonkey research shows that 53% of HR pros are increasing their focus on the employee experience vs. the bottom line. In this article, we’ll explore what employee engagement means, strategies for improving it, methods of measuring it, and the key metrics you need to track.
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement is the level of commitment and enthusiasm a staff member has for their job. High employee engagement rates show employees care about their role and want to do a great job.
Employee productivity, retention, and overall profits increase as employee engagement increases.
What employee engagement is not
Some businesses mistake employee satisfaction, well-being, or general happiness for engagement. However, these are not indicators of someone's investment in the success of their teams, organizations, or the overall business.
Employee engagement is not:
- Employee happiness: A happy employee doesn’t always engage with their work.
- Job satisfaction: Generally, job satisfaction refers to satisfaction with factors like pay, workload, resources, and perception of management.
- Employee well-being: Employee well-being is a person’s physical, emotional, and economic health.
Often used interchangeably, these terms do have significant differences.
Employee engagement vs. employee disengagement
Engaged and disengaged employees act differently, have different work ethic levels, and contribute on distinct levels to your company.
Different levels of employee engagement will result in:
- Varied belief in company vision: Engaged employees believe in your vision, while disengaged employees feel no connection to your core purpose.
- Willingness to work: Engaged employees will meet goals and exceed expectations, while disengaged employees do the bare minimum.
- Communication styles: Engaged employees are passionate about their work and optimistic, while disengaged employees rarely communicate.
Related reading: Employee disengagement: what it is and how to stop it
Benefits of employee engagement
Enhancing employee engagement is one of the most effective ways of supercharging your business. From productivity enhancements to better customer service, there are numerous reasons for trying to engage your employees.
Here are the main benefits of employee engagement:
- Improved team performance: When a team is entirely of motivated, engaged employees, each individual is likely to be more engaged in their role, resulting in higher team performance. Engaged employees working together will produce excellent results and outcomes, far better than teams that are not engaged.
- Increased productivity: Highly engaged employees feel invested in their jobs and performance. These employees will work harder, complete tasks faster, and display higher productivity rates.
- Improved workplace morale: When your workers engage with their job roles, they bring more positivity and enthusiasm. Better attitudes can help boost workplace morale and create a lovely workplace for everyone.
- Higher retention and lower turnover: Employee engagement and retention are directly linked. Engaged employees are much more likely to stay with your company, helping you to create a stronger, more dedicated workforce.
- Decreased absenteeism: Your engaged employees are less likely to miss work days; when they’re present, they are fully immersed in their work. Disengaged employees are more likely to call in sick and are less productive.
- Improved customer service: Engaged employees provide better customer service, resulting in customer loyalty and retention. Employees who care about the customer experience will go out of their way to ensure it’s positive.
- Increased profits: When your employees work harder, they finish work faster, enabling your teams to do more. With higher productivity and more efficiency comes better profits for your bottom line.
Employee engagement has an endless number of benefits. Cultivating an atmosphere that incentivizes and promotes engagement is a strong factor in a company's success.
What makes employees engaged?
Engaging employees requires improving their experience. Various factors contribute to this, including management. SurveyMonkey research indicates that about 47% of employees say their manager significantly influences their experience.
However, there are several other factors that you should take into account:
- Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction comes down to matching the right skills to the right role and supporting an employee with adequate feedback and rewards.
- Personal engagement: Employees' needs and concerns extend far beyond the office. Personal engagement looks after the whole employee.
- Growth opportunities: Do your employees see their future at your company? An engaged employee needs a path to walk and a clear and captivating destination.
- Team dynamics: Groups can potentially produce more value than the sum of their parts. A team dynamic fostering a sense of belonging, safety, and exploration is engaging.
- Purpose alignment: Your company needs an articulated purpose and employees who feel energized to pursue that purpose. Can they see where they fit into greater successes?
Understanding employee engagement ideas, strategies, and metrics related to these drivers is essential for tracking and improving employee engagement.
How to measure employee engagement
Measuring employee engagement rates allows your business to track and improve engagement over time. Monitor key metrics and gather data through surveys to streamline the process.
There are several different ways you can measure employee engagement:
- Employee engagement surveys: An employee engagement survey offers insight into factors like an employee’s perception of leadership, emotional commitment to work, pride in their company, and more. Use these surveys to create quantifiable data to draw upon.
- Pulse survey: A pulse survey is a brief survey conducted regularly to assess employee engagement. Administer an employee pulse survey frequently, typically containing 15 questions or fewer. Focused surveys throughout the employee life cycle provide valuable data to create effective strategies for enhancing and sustaining engagement levels.
- Employee life cycle surveys: Businesses can use employee lifecycle surveys at various points during a worker’s tenure with the company.
- Recruitment surveys: Recruitment surveys evaluate your application, recruitment, and interview process. They help determine how effective your recruitment process is and whether you are actively producing engaged employees.
- Onboarding surveys: These surveys examine your company’s onboarding process for new hires. They help enhance your process and ensure that every employee hits the ground running.
- Training surveys: Training surveys review the effectiveness of your training programs. They are great for determining whether your employees feel they have access to high-quality training programs.
- 360-degree employee reviews: 360-degree employee reviews allow employees to participate anonymously in peer, manager, and self-assessment reviews. They help measure employee relationships and identify complex figures in your organization.
- Exit surveys: Exit surveys gather feedback on management, staff, roles, and team dynamics. They can help identify ways to improve the employee experience for remaining employees. You can also pair these with stay interviews.
- Performance reviews: Companies can use performance review surveys to measure employee progress. These help companies recognize employees’ hard work.
- 1:1 meetings: Managers can host 1:1 meetings with employees to help check in and see how they’re doing. According to SurveyMonkey research, 35% of HR pros consider collecting and responding to employee feedback as a leading method of creating a winning employee experience.
- Employee engagement software helps employees communicate with managers and peers, receive recognition and rewards, and give feedback. Tracking engagement with this software can streamline the employee experience.
Related reading: Employee engagement surveys best practices
Best employee engagement metrics
Measuring relevant key performance indicators allows HR teams to understand better employee engagement and how it varies in the workplace.
Here are the most important KPIs to monitor when tracking employee engagement:
- Turnover rates: High turnover rates correlate to low employee engagement, as dissatisfied employees are more likely to leave their jobs. Reducing turnover rates is an effective strategy for enhancing employee engagement.
- Retention rates: High employee retention rates show that your employees are satisfied and not actively looking to quit. Low retention may signal issues with engagement, workplace culture, or leadership.
- Employee absenteeism rate: High employee absenteeism rates suggest low levels of engagement and commitment. Tracking absenteeism is essential to gaining insight into employee morale, identifying issues, and implementing measures to improve attendance and productivity.
- Employee productivity: Tracking workplace productivity can help companies better understand employee engagement. You can track employee productivity by setting goals, using self-reporting surveys, and measuring progress over time.
These metrics are a handful that you can use to understand employee engagement in the workplace better.
Related reading: HR quick start guide
Three employee engagement strategies
Companies that want to enhance employee engagement should use one or several strategies.
Here are some practical strategies you can employ to improve employee engagement:
- Improve communication: Sharing information helps employees understand business decisions and their impact on workplace culture and individuals. Listening to employees makes them feel valued; provide communication avenues like one-on-one meetings, open office hours, and forums for anonymous suggestions.
- Build an employee recognition program: An employee recognition program highlights exceptional work and shows that you value contributions, helping your company stand out. Offering rewards like extra time off and bonuses for top performers can boost motivation and engagement.
- Invest in leadership development: A recent SurveyMonkey study suggests that 55% of HR leaders believe employee training is the most critical investment in improving employee experience. A leadership development program will create healthier workplace dynamics, force new growth pathways for top employees, and create long-term goals for workers across your business.
Given the importance of employee engagement, implementing as many strategies as possible is always a good idea.
Top employee engagement ideas
You can implement small changes that can have significant impacts on employee engagement.
Here are a few different employee engagement ideas you could start offering today:
- Growth opportunities: Another way to increase employee engagement at work is to provide growth opportunities for every employee. By empowering employees with learning opportunities, you can craft a roadmap for them to follow in your organization. Empowering your employees increases motivation and creativity, trust in the company, and employee retention.
- Promote a healthy work-life balance: Nothing keeps employees engaged like ensuring they have time to rest. Lead by example by reminding people to take time off, avoid work when not on the clock, and get enough rest.
- Compensation bonuses: One of the best ways to enhance work engagement is to offer financial rewards for hard workers. Creating bonus schemes where people are paid for going above and beyond will help support your best performers.
Related reading: The first step to launching your employee engagement program
Fun employee engagement activities
Employee engagement doesn’t always have to be large-scale. On the contrary, you can make small changes and introduce fun in-office activities to help boost engagement.
- Work events: Host optional work events that can help to build rapport between team members. Pub quizzes or trivia nights are usually a good place to begin.
- Seasonal trips: If you have it in the budget, taking entire teams for team-building workshops can be a fun way to break from the regular schedule while making stronger team connections. If your team feels friendly with one another, they’re more likely to feel supported and happier while at work.