What can employee engagement data teach you about your goals?

As well as benchmarking, it's important to understand what really matters for people's engagement in your workplace. One approach is key driver analysis, which can be used to identify the specific aspects of employee experience that have the biggest impact on engagement. This kind of analysis can help focus your engagement strategy. It can also help you build a richer picture of the needs and preferences of key talent groups.

Employee engagement data is a goldmine for assessing the health of your organization. It provides insights into how connected employees feel to their work and the company. Analyze this data to understand areas of strength and weakness. For instance, high engagement in certain departments may indicate effective leadership or fulfilling work, while low engagement elsewhere could signal issues with workload, management, or company culture. Use this data as a baseline to set meaningful goals that address these areas.

Are your employees engaged with your goals? It's all well and good having engaged employees, but if they're all engaged with work that doesn't achieve your goals, there will be a lot of work to do to shift mindsets and realign to be successful. I always want to encourage engagement outside of the goals, but don't neglect what's important!

High engagement shows employees are motivated and committed, often indicating goals are clear, meaningful, and inspire discretionary effort. This aligns with goals to retain top talent, increase productivity, and foster a healthy culture and buy in to the mission, vision and values of the orgganization.

This is a great chance to use Evidence Based HR practices. Look at various data sources including latest engagement trends and data externally, your internal people metrics and of course employee voice and opinion. Don't forget to also use your own professional judgement as well to add some colour to the data.

Engagement data often reflects how well your company's practices align with its stated values and vision. If there’s a disconnect, employees are likely to feel disengaged. Use this data to realign your goals. For example, if your company values innovation but your data shows a lack of engagement in creative tasks, set goals to foster a more innovative work environment.

Agreed however this is entirely dependent on whether your company values and mission are well known. Iv seen many companies have values on the wall but if you asked the employees what they are or means...lots of blank faces. It's worth evaluating the impact and knowledge of your values before trying to link engagement to them as you might go down a road which switches people off

Increased engagement over time suggests the organization is making progress towards engagement and culture related goals and priorities. Trends are important. Low engagement exposes misalignment between organizational goals and employee priorities. It may indicate goals are unclear or not resonating with the workforce.

You should be able to draw a straight line between: 1) Direction, strategy & vision 2) Culture & behaviours 3) Enablers (training, skills etc) This kind of alignment is imperative to delivery of your goals - and ensuring employees are 'on the same page' too. Ensuring things like your employee engagement programme also link back to this also makes it easier to measure progress, and get actionable data from surveys that, when addressed, supports delivery of strategy and goals.

Engagement is highest when employees feel they have a voice. Use your engagement data to identify areas important to your employees and involve them in goal setting. This could mean creating focus groups to explore new initiatives or surveying employees for input on proposed changes. By involving employees in this process, you not only gain valuable insights but also foster a sense of ownership and commitment towards achieving these goals.

More than ever before, employees want and expect more of a 'voice' in organisations. We've seen at close quarters how powerful it can be to actively involve employees post engagement surveys, both to get a deep understanding of problem areas coming up, and to shape possible solutions. At a local level, involving team members in the setting of goals should be common practice. Doing so will massively increase their buy-in to achieving these things.

Leaders can diagnose issues and refocus goals. Varied engagement across departments/teams may reveal imbalances or silos that need to be addressed through better goal alignment and cross-collaboration. Employee perceptions of organizational goals differ from reality. Surveys can uncover gaps between executive goals and employee understanding. Communication and middle management play a key role. Comparing employee engagement during strategy changes spotlights how well goals are cascaded throughout the organization. Engagement is a barometer for leadership communication and vision clarity.

Set measurable goals based on your engagement data and regularly track progress. This could involve tracking changes in engagement scores, employee turnover rates, or other relevant metrics. Regularly review these metrics to understand the impact of your initiatives and adjust your strategies accordingly.

It is not only important to track and recognize the "best in class" recognizing the improvement year over year can give a larger boost and reinforce that they are on the right track!

the worst thing as leaders you could do is solicit engagement feedback, get that feedback and then do nothing or even acknowledge it. Feedback is a gift and as leaders it is imperative that we directly tie the actions and strategic pivots to the specific or aggregate feedback that the organization provided. Being transparent requires courage and it moves the leadership from the lowest level of leadership (position) towards the highest level of leadership where employees follow you because they BELIEVE in you and what you stand for.

Engagement data is not just a measure of the present but a guide for future growth. Use it to learn about the evolving needs and expectations of your workforce. For instance, a shift towards remote work might reflect in engagement data, signaling a need to set goals around flexible work policies or digital collaboration tools.

Before delving into employee engagement data, consider an insightful exercise: have leaders complete a prediction survey. This proactive step primes leaders to gauge their perception of employee engagement. Comparing predictions with survey results can be revelatory! Such juxtaposition highlights gaps in understanding or misconceptions. It opens dialogues, asking "why" and exploring root causes of discrepancies. It isn't just about uncovering mismatches; it's a potential goldmine for discovering easily addressable issues or opportunities for impactful changes. It sets the stage for a culture of continuous learning in enhancing employee engagement. The key is in the alignment of leadership perception with actual employee sentiments.

Engagement data isn't just feedback from the past. It is a great resource to chart the future goals. It doesn't just give you a sense of how employees feel, but also gaps in the internal process and offerings. It might even give insights about best practices in the industry and where you lag. Listening alone is not effective. Acting on feedback is the key to become a great place to work

Employee engagement data can be an invaluable way for leaders to assess the overall health of the organisation and, in particular, the 'direction of travel'. Asking people about their confidence in leadership, their belief in the strategic direction being taken, and their understanding of business goals can yield powerful insights. In short, if low scores are returned on any of these areas, that is likely to be a major blocker in achieving your mission, whatever that may be.

Employee engagement data serves as a compass, guiding your organization to align goals with values, involve employees in meaningful ways, and track progress effectively. Leveraging AI and LinkedIn community insights enhances data interpretation, facilitating continuous learning and adaptation to optimize engagement strategies and goal attainment.

Beyond internal insights, employee engagement data can inform broader business strategies. Engaged employees often lead to better customer service, innovation, and overall business performance. Use your engagement data to set goals that not only improve internal metrics but also enhance your competitive edge in the market. This holistic approach ensures that your goals are not just inward-focused but also aligned with the larger business landscape.

Let's look at it superficially: Employee engagement data is like a mirror reflecting your company's strategy and management style. Happy employees signal effective learning and development, streamlined processes, better customer services, and financial growth (Balance scorecard). Conversely, if employees are discontent, it's a sign that your management approach and your business strategy need reevaluation and improvement.