EE impact on business results

[Michael Miener]

Is anyone involved in "linkage" research, i.e. correlating EE scores with EBIT or net profits?
my current problem is I cannot find much about which time period can/should actually be compared in a longitudinal study.

Given these data pairs:

FY07 EBIT --> EE survey results in April 2008, followed by action plans etc.
and
FY08 EBIT --> EE survey results in April 2009

Higher EBIT in FY08 correlates with higher engagement scores in 2009, for selected business units.

Is it a valid approach to compare a full year's financial performance with an engagement "snapshot" collected over just 10 days four months after FY closure? There might be not one "correct" way to set up this sort of linkage or impact research, but I wonder if some of you might want to share their best practices here.
Thanks
Michael

[Brad Shuck]

Michael, thanks for the post. I have some thoughts about this and am happy to share some resources that could assist you. Feel free to e-mail me directly at [e-mail] or connect on LinkedIn. I have some additional questions for you and I think the methodology you chose is a really important decision. Additionally, once you choose your method that you stick with the same method throughout the study.

It is nice to see that you are finding some preliminary results that suggest EE is linked with profits. Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes (2002) popularized this method, and there may be insights we can glean from their method as well as some others that have come after them. One of the main challenges with getting real time data is that an EE score is a lag measure rather than a lead measure - at least in how most people measure it (i.e., behaviorally), so I have some questions about how you measured and defined the concept that may help answer how you link your data.

As for your question about the validity of the measure, on the surface, I do not see anything statistically wrong with taking a profit score (EBIT or net profits, which is essentially the balance of the year in a snap shot) and connecting a measure of engagement. As long as you state what you are doing and are consistent in your reporting, you should be fine. The question then becomes, how do you drill down to the individual unit and employee level to make meaning of your results?

I look forward to hearing from you!
Regards!
Brad