In Brandon Hall Group’s HCM Outlook 2021 Study, 70% of organizations rated assessing and driving employee engagement as important or extremely important. Engagement ranked second — two percentage points behind fostering an inclusive workplace — as the year’s top people priority.
Brandon Hall Group defines employee engagement as an outcome based on all the experiences an employee has with an organization. But there are many competing definitions of engagement and some organizations see the level of engagement simply as the result of their annual engagement survey.
The overwhelming majority of organizations — 84% — use engagement surveys to measure employee engagement. Exit interviews are inexplicably a distant runner-up at 59%. While you might uncover the factors that drove employees to leave during the exit interviews, you are only gaining insights after the damage is done. “Stay” interviews, which make much more sense because they occur while a worker is employed and still has skin in the game, are used by only 17% of organizations.
Top Approaches to Employee Engagement Measurement
Most organizations (40%) annually measure the engagement of experienced employees (tenure of at least one year), according to Brandon Hall Group’s Employee Engagement Benchmarking research. Another 20% use an ad hoc approach. The method that makes the most sense to us — assessing employee experiences continuously or frequently in a variety of ways to see fluctuations and trends over time and make adjustments — is used by only 12% of organizations. About 9% of organizations never measure.
Among workers employed for less than one year, an ad hoc approach to measuring engagement is most common (24% of organizations), followed by measuring only at the end of one year.
With inconsistent measurement and working with various definitions of engagement, it should not be surprising that only 15% of organizations deem their workforces as highly engaged. Meanwhile, 34% of organizations believe their workforces are only somewhat engaged or actively disengaged.
- Are we evaluating employee engagement in ways that make sense relative to our business objectives and the importance of retaining and engaging talent?
- If not, how should we change the way we assess engagement?
- What are the most reliable indicators of employee engagement?
While most employers struggle to effectively measure engagement, they have a solid grasp of the key indicators of increased engagement, according to our benchmarking data.
Most Reliable Indicators of Increased Employee Engagement*
While evaluating employee experiences and listening to employee feedback is critical, the metrics above — most of them standard business data that most organizations collect — are excellent indicators of engagement.
Sentiment about employee experiences, ideally collected and analyzed frequently, especially in the VUCA environment most employers operate in today, helps explain the “why” of engagement or disengagement. This is critical.
But since engagement is an outcome of how employees experience the organization, leveraging business metrics to evaluate engagement or how it is trending is most effective.
In today’s business climate, measuring engagement through annual surveys is insufficient. Those surveys portray a moment in time that may not be reflective of how employees experience the organization over the course of the year. Consider, for example, the levels of engagement when the coronavirus pandemic first broke out and all the highs and lows that followed. Measuring employee experience toward the end of 2020 would probably not come close to telling the true story of the preceding months. Engagement should be assessed on an ongoing basis through a variety of methods.
Employers should take a close look at experience measurement platforms, such as Qualtrics, Glint, UKG, Quantum Workplace, Workhuman and others in a fast-growing segment. They enable you to measure experience frequently — and in several ways — to provide a clearer view of employee experiences and how to improve them. Then, look at key business metrics to get the best picture of engagement.
Complimentary Download: Employee Engagement- A Business Outcome Driven by Everyday Employee Experiences (Research Summary)
Workforces are twice as likely to be somewhat engaged or actively disengaged than highly engaged, according to Brandon Hall Group’s 2020 Employee Engagement Study. Why? Organizations define engagement in many different ways and struggle to provide employees with everyday experiences that resonate with their values, interests and aspirations. The key to building engagement is delivering experiences that matter most employees. This report, a summary from Brandon Hall Group’s 2020 Employee Engagement Study, provides strategies for success.
Employee Engagement- A Business Outcome Driven by Everyday Employee Experiences
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