Most doctor visits often include the routine practice of taking a patient’s pulse at the onset of a medical appointment. Whether the business performance of that physician practice is profitable or not, taking one’s pulse is fairly standard. Understanding the “vital” signs of their patients’ is a relevant piece of information that a physician needs in order to thoroughly understand the operating system and to recommend effective diagnosis and treatment of a patient.
While many organizations have realized significant slumps in business and lower morale, one vital sign that is critical to understanding is how their People Portfolio is directly impacting the overall business performance via an employee engagement survey. Taking the pulse on employee engagement when the economy is down helps organizations and leaders more honestly understand what would make their employees feel more connected to the organization. Having a well thought-out business strategy may be helpful in preparing for growth, but face risk of derailment if concentrations of disengagement are high. What ratio (pulse) of engaged to disengaged employees exist currently? And why?
Before plunging into any survey, it’s critical for business leaders and HR to first define engagement. Many vendors and employers have different definitions which may not apply to every organization. Ensure engagement surveys are measuring the elements that identify employees’ tendencies to exert discretionary effort for the benefit of the organization and the extent to which they feel personally connected. Those are the tendencies that encourage employees to go above and beyond and deliver outstanding performance results and improves business productivity. Engagement should not to be confused with Employee Satisfaction, which mainly measures pay and benefits – elements that a company has control over, or Employee Opinion Surveys that provides feedback on how an organization is doing on broad initiatives that leaders identify as important. Although, value exists in both of those surveys, Employee Engagement provides opportunity to understand the employee’s daily work and culture, the probability of wanting to stay with the company and speak highly of them and how it all affects productivity.
Feedback received from an Employee Engagement Survey provides business leaders with key insights that measure states of mind, enabling pro-active decision making and will aid in making changes employees can see. However, before taking the pulse on Employee Engagement, organizations will need to ask themselves, “What is the intent of what you’ll do with the results?”
Business leaders that find consensus on the above question and are committed to act will begin to favorably improve their organization’s return on shareholder and workforce value.
