Last week I shared a post on “How to Calculate an Employee Net Promoter Score”. This can be an effective metric to gauge what the employees really think of the organization they are working for. It reflects how they feel about their organization by determining how likely they would be to recommend the organization to a friend, another colleague or business professional they know.  If the score is low, it would suggest their work experience is less than satisfactory and it may be time to act to understand employee concerns and what corrective actions are required. A low score could be due to one or several reasons but how would you know what the issues are?

If we approach this from a logical standpoint an organization would need some vehicle or method to collect feedback on employee’s thoughts, right? This could be employee surveys (but they don’t really identify personal and unique employee needs and desires due to confidentiality and privacy concerns), town halls, manager conversations and discussions with employees, etc. AON Hewitt just reported a research statistic that might interest you

“40% of employers measure employee engagement less than once a year.”

How often are you collecting employee feedback? How often are you measuring your engagement metrics? The workplace is always changing, and engagement levels are very dynamic; shifting with restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, new management, downsizing, client loss, costs control, rules and regulations, new roles and responsibilities, communication challenges, etc. Ensure that you have strong mechanisms in place to regularly and accurately get a pulse on how the employees feel, no different than the importance of getting regular feedback from clients and customers.

Step One– Identify the metrics you will use to measure engagement levels!

Step Two– Solicit and procure feedback from employees on engagement levels on two levels: Personal needs and goals and on a broader scale across the organization! Once you have feedback you should be able to identify sore points or concerns employees might have about their roles and work responsibilities, their manager, the organizational culture and its rules and regulations, etc. and what they would like to see improved.

Step Three-The next step should be centered on how to make improvements:

What actions and steps can we take to make improvements? Here are a few examples:

  1. If your survey uncovers the fact employees don’t feel appreciated or recognized for their efforts and contributions would it make sense to have managers and the organization take time to say thanks and acknowledge employees for their great work
  2. If employees are bored and frustrated or don’t find their work meaningful how could you enable and empower them to make their work experience more rewarding and who could understand their goals and desires and support them in making changes and improvements? Could the manager play a role to help the employee alter their work role to make it more enjoyable while still meeting organizational needs and goals?

And finally

Step Four-How will you make it happen?

Who is responsible to make it happen?  Here is a recent article post that can help you plan who in the company can take the actions necessary to improve less than desired engagement metrics such as Net Promoter Score “Who is Responsible for Employee Engagement?”. As well, organizations should consider who is in the best position to positively influence the issues identified from the employee feedback?

Remember collecting employee feedback through surveys is not a solution, only a start towards determining what needs to be done and by who! Ensure you follow all four steps to achieve engagement success!

Light a Fire Inside Employees Instead of Trying to Light a Fire Underneath Them!

Would you like to improve engagement levels at your company? Contact us now for further support to achieve your employee engagement goals! Phone 519-656-1066 or email info@engaged2perform.ca