Measuring & Maintaining Employee Engagement

The measurement challengeWhat are we actually measuring?This is why our definition is so important!

“you sort of smell it don’t you? What goes on in meetings, how people talk to each other. You get their sense of energy, engagement, commitment, belief in what the organisation stands for…” Lord Currie, Dean of Cass Business School

“you know if when you see it” David MacLeod

The SurveyUseful as a foundation for insights for actionHealth warning – it is only a small part of the jigsaw!There are a whole range of different survey tools out there, exactly what aspect of engagement these tools analyse will vary:

1. Level of engagement as a scale or percentage – allows benchmarking

2. Identification of key drivers of engagement via regression analysis

3. Pre-conditions of engagement4. Outcomes of engagement5. Attitudes

What do the different surveys out there look at?

– Towers Perrin: ‘Extent to which employees put discretionary effort into their work’

– Gallup: ‘Involvement with & enthusiasm for work’

– Hewitt: ‘Intellectually & emotional commitment to the organization’

– Sibson: Knowing what to do at work and wanting to do at work

– Hay Group: ‘stimulating employees’ enthusiasm for their work and directing it toward organizational success’

The Survey Health Warning

survey black holeaction plan

Time for a new approach?

Time for a new approach – but what does this look like?

What can we learn from positive psychology?

Champions

Leaders

Employees

The Big Picture

The Big Picture - Sustainability

Since 1970, the UK's GDP has doubled, but peoples’ satisfaction with life has hardly changed.81% of Britons believe that the Government should prioritize creating the greatest happiness, not the greatest wealth."Gross National Product measures everything, except that which makes life worthwhile." - Robert F. KennedyRises in GDP over the last thirty-five years have not resulted in increased human well-being.

National Accounts of Wellbeing - NEF

A new way of assessing societal progress. A cross-cutting and more informative approach to policy-making. More than life satisfaction. Personal and social dimensionsFeelings, functioning and psychological resources.

www.nationalaccountsofwellbeing.org

UK ONS Happiness Survey

Questions included:

•Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?

•Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are

worthwhile?

•Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?

•Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?

So What??

We don’t operate in a vacuum

What lessons can we learn from this work?

Demonstrates Governments are taking this seriously

This thinking is beginning to filter through organisations – a

focus on subjective wellbeing, taking a strength based

approach and other areas of positive psychology

What impact are you having?

Measuring impact

Why bother?3 levels;

– Process – assessment via audience perceptions– Impact – measurement of the immediate effects of the

engagement activity (useful to use the engagement curve to craft questions)

– Outcome - measurement of longer term impact of engagement activities on desired organisational outcomes

MethodologyQuantitative Qualitative

Objective To quantify data and generalize results from a sample to the population of interestTo measure the incidence of various views and opinions in a chosen sampleSometimes followed by qualitative research which is used to explore some findings further

To gain an understanding of underlying reasons and motivationsTo provide insights into the setting of a problem, generating ideas and/or hypotheses for later quantitative researchTo uncover prevalent trends in thought and opinion

Sample Usually a large number of cases representing the population of interest. Randomly selected respondents.

Usually a small number of non-representative cases. Respondents selected to fulfill a given quota.

Data collection

Questionnaires; online, telephone, face to face, experiments, secondary data

Interviews, focus groups, content analysis, conversation, observations

Using the engagement curve to measure impact

What does success look like?Critical success factor

How? Measured by

Clarity of purpose Help employees understand our vision, values, strategy and brand promise

Over 80% answer positively to:I understand……I understand why we are making these changesI understand the changes that are happening as a result of…….

Create line of sight Clarify individuals role and position

Over 80% answer positively to:I understand the I will play in achieving……I understand the changes that are happening in …….I believe this direction is right for……..

The role I play Help people understand the part they play in these changes

Over 80% answer positively to:I know how I can contribute to……I know what changes are coming upI believe I am able to contribute to the changes happening in…….

Behaviour change Drive the behaviour changes required to XXX a success

Over 70% answer positively to:I know what I need to do to make……. a success.  I think I can achieve what is expected of me to make ………… a successI see this behaviour happening around me at my levelI see these behaviours happening around me in the management community

Maintaining Engagement

Are your employee touch-points supporting or sabotaging employee engagement?

THANK YOU!

Fancy a chat?

Call Emma on 07595465515, or send your emails to info@peoplelab.co.uk.

www.peoplelab.co.uk