How do you keep employee engagement metrics relevant and meaningful over time?

To keep your employee engagement metrics relevant and meaningful over time, you should do the following, for example if you take engagement survey 1) First year you could measure your score 2) second year you compare yourself with other pillars 3) you compare with peer companies and competitors 4) so when your organisation achieves defined metrics, you go deeper and stronger 5) But you need to achieve them consistently, you check the trend and make it more relavant 6) There is no use of measuring something that you know can be achieved

Start small and start with what is truly needed. A survey or assessment can be a great place and kicking things off with a quick meeting can help the full team understand the why - how - what of the effort. When we get the baseline info we can couple that with a few feedback sessions and focused interviews to determine what’s needed. Gameplan. Than plan it out - communicating progress and next steps consistently.

Yes - alignment is key. I will add that Engagement surveys should measure both qualitative and quantitative activities. If the right strategic goals are in place both qualitative and quantitative metrics can be realized. I would also encourage executive education and buy-in of these metrics, knowing they are willing to respond to the results of the survey by taking action. If not, survey activities could result in a negative impact in engagement.

Communicating for impact is key. Otherwise, it's just pretty words. By making a direct link between communication deliverables to business or program goals, both the communication strategy and the business focus can benefit. People often mistake data for insights and information for communication. The expert communicator knows the difference.

I agree that it is important that you review whether the metrics you are using to measure engagement are indeed a true representation of employee engagement. That being said, it is important to be able to understand how you are doing over time, and if you change methodologies frequently, it will be difficult to compare current results to previous results. Finally, organizations should be forward thinking when establishing their employee engagement measurement strategy, and judicious when updating it, otherwise your measuring mechanism may lose credibility with employees (the worst possible outcome).

Engagement is like any other relationship in that ebbs and flows should be expected, attended to and openly addressed. Great leaders connect the dots between engagement dynamics and both internal and external factors impacting the company.

Keep it simple (you choose the S word here) KISS. If the metrics don’t apply and only a certain set of metrics/results are shared the trust will crumble quickly. We like dashboards and ongoing comms to the team. Remember we started this effort with a kickoff session - be sure to set some goals and take time to appreciate and celebrate success. Highlighting key wins and areas is also huge.

This step of communicating your metrics is also a great opportunity to recognize and celebrate your stakeholders. By highlighting both quantitive data points (e.g., engagement or sentiment) and qualitative (e.g., quotes), you can help reinforce how valuable the launch, program update, etc. that your stakeholders created was for their audience.

I go back and forth on this one. Starting off with benchmarking what similar sized orgs and orgs in your industry is great. Think about measuring your progress for 6-9 months to see some trends before you compare those results to others. It’s not one size fits all and after all, our people matter most and each is unique team to team and across all industries!

Building a continuous improvement mindset into your leadership culture and engagement measurement is also important. There may come a point where your overall engagement is so high that setting a target for an increase to the overall number may be unrealistic. If you find yourself in this enviable position, consider going down a layer and setting targets on improving specific drivers of engagement. Also engage your teams in discussions on what needs to be done to maintain high levels of engagement.

Just like we do with all processes, continuous improvement and a growth mindset is paramount with employee engagement. This is where the external benchmarking and local SHRM and HR meetups and groups can be especially valuable. Nobody has all the answers so feel free to share where you are and what’s holding you back from hitting your targets. We love talking about these stories on our podcast too! Reach out if you want to share your story and help the larger community keep growing.

Employee Engagement is a defunct metric. Think about it for a moment and you'll agree. Gallup just announced that global employee engagement is stuck at 21%. In the US it's stuck at 32% and falling. Why? Because Employee Engagement is a symptom, rather than the problem. What we should be measuring is Employee Empowerment. Want to know more? Ask me directly - [email protected]

Of course all of the suggestions and comments are important and relevant. One thing I would add that impacts the entire engagement process is the level of support and interest from the executive team. If engagement is just a number for the executives then the employees will feel that. And more importantly if new policies or procedures are enacted as a result of employee feedback, but those policies (within reason) don't apply to the executive team then employees will see that. Engagement should be a COMPANY initiative not an organizational level initiative.