Translating Engagement Survey Data into Action

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Translating Engagement Survey Data into Action
Engage2Excel recently sat down with Dr. Jack
Wiley, renowned author, consultant, scientist and
professor, who has spent over three decades
conducting surveys of millions of employees for
leading global brands. We talked about the need
for a more comprehensive understanding of how
employee engagement drives enterprise success,
and how core HR strategies and methodologies play
a fundamental role in nurturing and translating
engagement into business results. Highlights from
the interview appear below.
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Q. What evidence exists to support the
correlation between employee engagement and
business performance?
A. That question has been asked and answered. The
academic literature, featuring numerous studies
published in peer-reviewed journals, conclusively
establishes the relationship between employee
engagement and organizational success. Levels of
engagement correlate directly with critical
components of bottom-line business performance,
including sales, profitability, customer loyalty
and shareholder return. Part of the challenge
associated with driving employee engagement to
higher levels stems from the fact that a precise
definition of the concept remains elusive. Also
inconsistent are the differing perceptionsoften
advanced by competing practitionersabout what
drives employee engagement and how to measure it.
However, despite these varying points of view,
the scientific research definitively identifies
four key drivers in a pragmatic and proven
formula for creating an engaged workforce in any
organization.
Organizations that invest in practices that
produce high levels of employee engagement enjoy
significantly higher levels of success as
measured by the satisfaction of their customers,
the earnings they deliver to shareholders, and
return on assets.
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Q. What role does HR play in proactively enabling
and effectively measuring the engagement that is
essential for enterprise success?
Only 32 of the US workforce is engaged at work.
In plain English, that means that only one-third
of active employees care about what they are
doing.
A. First and foremost, I believe HR professionals
must be well informed in terms of what the
organizational science literature tells us about
how to support, reinforce and foster engagement
via the four key drivers of employee engagment.
Since the HR organization is typically
responsible for facilitating the measurement
process for employee engagement, it must be well
versed about these essential components in order
to differentiate and effectively evaluate the
various survey instruments offered by different
providers. HR practitioners must ensure that the
known predictors and outcomes of engagement are
embedded and accurately measured in the
assessment solutions they select and deploy. If
HRs primary strategic objective is to create a
more engaged workforce, the survey content must
reflect the validated pillars of employee
engagement.
First, senior leaders must inspire trust and
confidence in employees by consistently
establishing, communicating and supporting the
achievement of organizational objectives.
Employees must have confidence in their leaders
and trust that the walk matches the talk.
Second, managers must demonstrate respect and
show appreciation for valuable employee
contributions to team and company success,
finding it intrinsically meaningful, challenging
and satisfying. Energized employees are more
likely to fully immerse themselves in their roles
and exert discretionary effort, going the extra
mile to accomplish their goals. Job fit is a
critical element of this driver. Lastly,
employees must perceive viable career
development, growth and learning opportunities
within the organization in order to feel
motivated to actively participate in an engaged
workforce.
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Four key drivers for creating an engaged
workforce 1. Senior leaders must inspire trust
and confidence. 2. Managers must recognize
employees for their contributions. 3. Employees
must enjoy and believe in the work they do. 4.
Employees must perceive viable opportunities for
career growth.
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with engageability within the organizations
culture. An engaged workforce empowers the
company to attract and retain the top talent
required to improve business performance.
Since most organizations rely on external
resources for surveys, not only is it incumbent
upon HR to ensure alignment with the established
indicators of engagement we just discussed it
also makes sense to customize the outsourced
model to include topics that directly relate to
executing the organizations business strategy.
In addition, engagement metrics should be managed
on par with other business performance metrics.
Timely reporting of results will compel managers
to act on engagement data with the same urgency
with which they respond to other performance
measurements. HR can enable engagement during the
recruitment process by selecting candidates who
possess not only the right knowledge, skills and
experience for specific roles but also attributes
and characteristics associated
Q. How can HR leaders leverage engagement surveys
to improve fundamental practices such as
performance management?
A. At the end of the day, line of business
managers are responsible for strengthening
employee engagement. However, HR can facilitate
and support the process. First, HR professionals
can select or design engagement models that
precisely align with organizational success.
Then, they can help managers identify survey
topics for follow-up action-taking that are most
relevant to success in their business units.
Following the survey, HR can assist leaders in
developing and prioritizing tailored action plans
designed to have the highest impact in their
areas of responsibility.
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A critical element of subsequent surveys involves
tracking management and senior leadership
follow-up on results. Did they communicate and
discuss survey data with employees? Did they
implement any specific actions based on survey
feedback? The quality of post-survey action
plans, which can be used as a performance metric,
reveals a lot about whether or not an
organization will achieve measurable behavior
change and sustained improvement.
When companies focus exclusively on measuring
engagement rather than on improving engagement,
they often fail to make necessary changes.
Creating a culture of engagement requires more
than completing an annual employee survey and
then leaving managers on their own, hoping they
will learn something from the survey results that
will change their daily behavior.
Q. As you reflect on the arc of your work
experience over the past several decades, do you
think an organizations ability to
understand, manage and enhance engagement is more
relevant now than ever before?
A. Absolutely. The dynamic global economy,
shifting workforce demographics and advanced
technologies have made it increasingly
challenging for organizations to keep pace with
innovation and achieve a competitive advantage in
the marketplace. Companies are forced to do more
with less, striving to maximize the return on
their talent investment. Employee engagement is a
potent differentiator.
Savvy organizations recognize and reward managers
who are doing an exceptional job of building
engaged teams and achieving positive outcomes.
These best practices should be deployed across
organizations. Another way to leverage
recognitionone of the four key drivers of
employee engagementis through continuous
informal feedback and positive reinforcement that
is tied directly to real-time accomplishments.
Immediate acknowledgment of a job well done often
has more impact than a traditional annual
performance review in todays agile work
environment.
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Higher levels of engagement come from employees
who work for a compassionate leaderone who is
authentic, present, has a sense of dignity, holds
others accountable, leads with integrity and
shows empathy.
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Contact us
Are you interested in learning more about how
Engage2Excel can help recognize and reward your
employees to improve bottom-line business
results? Please complete the form below to help
us better understand how we can assist you. You
can also contact us via telephone at
1.800.688.3024
Engage2Excel, Inc.149 Crawford Road
Statesville, NC 28625
http//www.engage2excel.com/programs/engagement-su
rveys/
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