It is only by finding out what employees think and feel about their jobs that you can improve levels of workplace engagement. In the main, a lack of engagement in the workplace means that employees only feel that it is necessary to go through the motions of their work. Often, they won’t put any effort or pride into what they’re doing.
Equally, a lack of employee engagement will tend to see people becoming stressed because they’re either bored or frustrated with a lack of resolution with problems among colleagues or managers. As such, workplaces without sufficient levels of employee engagement tend to be less productive, procedurally inefficient and more prone to high incidences of staff turnover.
In other words, employers who tolerate low levels of employee engagement are affecting their profitability. In the worst cases, employees who are insufficiently engaged could lose your company important customers through a lack of diligence. As such, improving employee engagement might not just be about running your business better but saving it from long-term financial harm.
Therefore, gaining information about how engaged – or otherwise – employees are will be the first step into making your organisation a more engaging one. According to WorkBuzz, an online platform that handles employee feedback surveys for numerous companies in the UK, simply asking workers what they think about their job helps them to engage more and feel better valued.
That said, asking questions isn’t enough on its own to get the strategic data you need to make the right business decisions – you have to ask the right sorts of questions, too.
What should you be finding out from employee surveys with respect to engagement in the workplace? Read on to find out.
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Employee Satisfaction
To begin with, you need to ask workers what they think about their job. Do so in a way such that they can give feedback anonymously. Few employees will tell you straight out that they’re fed up with their job and only do the bare minimum to get by. Job satisfaction is high when workers are engaged so this is a key metric for understanding how much work you have to do as an employer to improve it.
Employee Wellbeing
Asking employees how stressed they are, how safe they feel in their job and what they think they can do about it is crucial. Mental and physical well-being in the workplace is essential for a productive organisation to succeed.
If people are unchallenged in their jobs, then they will often feel stressed and less engaged. Likewise, too much work can lead to anxiety and even burnout. Understanding employee wellbeing better will help you to assess where changes need to be made.
Employee Reward and Recognition
Some people work in environments where they’re not stressed and feel satisfied with the effort they put into their day’s work but think their employer doesn’t value this sufficiently. If so, their pay, holiday entitlement, pension contributions and even internal recognition awards might all come into play. Ask your workforce if they think they’re adequately recognised and rewarded for the work they do.
Workplace Blockages
Where there are procedural or operational problems, workers can become incredibly frustrated. When they’ve identified problems and reported them to managers and nothing seems to change, it can point to a poor workplace culture or management structure.
A workplace feedback survey focussing on employee engagement is the ideal time for senior managers to listen to what frontline workers think and to understand if there are any identifiable trends in this area.
Employee Retention
Your current staff turnover rate will be a good indicator of how engaged workers are in your company. However, this will only show you who has decided to go and in what numbers.
It won’t inform you of all the people you employ who are currently considering leaving or actively seeking employment elsewhere. This information will let you plan for any potential large scale recruitment and retention costs you may have coming down the line.
Career Pathways
By asking your workforce whether they see their job as just that – a job – or a potential career, you will be able to work out how engaged people are in your business for the longer term. Simply put, more engaged employees tend to see multiple routes to career advancement within an organisation.
Less engaged staff tend to view themselves as constantly passed over for promotion, on the other hand. Understand how your organisation is perceived, even if this is not truly the case, so you can take measures that will make career advancement pathways become more apparent to workers.
