Measures of Engagement

[Kevin Savage]

We currently measure engagement by participating in the annual Hewitt survey; this year we will also be undertaking a mid-year mini survey. In addition to this we measure attrition and absenteeism as "engagement" items. My question is what other measures have people found to be effective in looking at the engagement issue? Our customer satisfaction scores are high but our Hewitt scores are low, we are puzzled by this apparent disconnect. Looking forward to your input!

thanks -- Kevin

[George A Guajardo]

I am not entirely familiar with Hewitt's engagement models; I should be, as we have begin to work closely with them in recent months. However, my understanding is that Hewitt's model is an a priori model. The working hypothesis is that the same variables will drive engagement, which in turn drive business outcomes.

Within this framework, I can think of a few possibilities that might explain your results. First off, it is possible that the drivers of engagement actually do not drive engagement in your organization. Hewitt's model essentially asserts a mediation between the drivers and outcomes. It is possible that your drivers work directly on the outcomes. There is nothing that says engagement has to mediate this relationship for every organization.

The other possibility is that Hewitt's engagement measure is only mildly predictive of customer service at your organization. It is possible that engagement has a more robust relationship with voluntary turnover, or other business outcomes, just not with customer satisfaction. You should consider engaging in additional statistical analysis to determine the drivers of customer satisfaction in your organization (keep in mind, customer satisfaction is only theoretically related to profit until the link is empirically established).

I hope some of this made sense =)

[Stephen Randall]

Do you have a true vision of peak performance? With such a vision, you can drive balanced, overall organizational progress via everyone focusing on increasing personal engagement/involvement, not the scorecard, productivity, or the bottom line. Involvement in the current scenario is proportional to well-being, productivity, and quality of product and service: I ~ W*P*Q. We improve engagement/involvement by trying to be continually aware of limitations to complete involvement in the work scenario, and choosing a direction of greater absorption. There seem to be countless opportunities for improving the degree to which we are absorbed. As we deal with those that are obvious to us, before long we are presented with transition points that are more subtle. Recognize that your workplace is a kind of playing field where, in a sense, you are the only player. The object of the game is to approach peak performance by driving involvement as high as you can. See whether you can reach ever higher levels of performance by getting completely into the task at hand.

Involvement can be defined in many different ways, and how you define engagement or involvement will determine what your suggestions are for improving them. Nevertheless, a high degree of involvement means a melding of objects and individuals, an effortless yet powerful flow of events, and a sense of openness pervading the entire work scenario. A low degree of involvement means that individuals and objects are strongly felt to be separate, intense effort is required to get small things done, or the work scenario has a heavy or inert feeling.

For the rest of this article, see my blog at http://stevrandal.wordpress.com
It also points to a vision of peak performance.
--Steve Randall, PhD

[Sheila Smith]

Hi Kevin, I agree with Michelle, the topic is monsterous!

I love the Hewitt model and reporting tool. I find that looking at your priority areas, low sat areas and the impact analysis by demographic splits can reveal perspectives the larger picture doesn't show. Hopefully you've found the same.

I don't know what your priority areas are, but some measures I've used for your consideration:
-New hire (<2 years) engagement and turnover. Low sat/high turnover could indicate a gap between the EVP as communicated during recruitment vs the reality of the workplace, orientation & onboarding effectiveness, etc.
-External/Internal hire ratio: Indicates the amount of career opportunities and movement within the organization
-Training $ budgeted vs used (Even better if you can measure this by linking training to employee development plans!): Companies support training, but are the direct managers creating opportunites for employees
I could go on ...

Hope this helps. Good luck! ...

Sheila Smith

[Alison Quest]

Hi Kevin

I think that when organisations decide on behalf of their employees what engagement means for them they miss a huge trick.

The Hewitts of this world have done brilliant work on the generic drivers of employee engagement - but so what? Surely what matters is what your employees are engaged by? So my view is that you need to ask them what engagement would look like for them? What's important? What's not - and how is the organisation currently doing against these messages. This process of asking (not using a survey tool) but by face to face communication is in itself very powerful and engaging. This is most definitely also measurable....and trackable. It's just not predefined that's all.

I would also try and measure the things that you want engagement to achieve. Employee engagement is a process not just something that exists in its own right. What is the business issue? What behaviour will be needed from your people to address this? Is the business issue productivity? High costs? Lack of innovation? Slow to change? Then you can start measuring whether your employee engagement work is having an impact on the things that you really need to address as a business. This is also a great way to get those that do not intuitively "get" employee engagement to get right behind it!

What do you think Kevin???

Alison

The apparent disconnect between customer satisfaction and employee engagement - they know, you don't! So....best way to find out...ask! This approach is very adult to adult (to use transactional analysis terms for one brief moment) and management is so used to dealing in the parent/child mode. IE you tell us what is wrong, we take it away into our ivory tower try and fix it. Pretty tough job! I think the best way to develop engagement is to say - we genuinely ask what is good and what is not....we talk. We give responsibility to you for fixing the many things that everyone can contribute to.

[Tom Rausch]

Hi Kevin,

I would give values measurement a try. You can measure underlying values and beliefs that drive behavior on 7 levels of consciousness. We find this adds invaluable insight to the employee engagement measures. Armed with both sets of measures, senior leaders can identify the way forward. Then, using whole-system approaches such as appreciative inquiry, the whole organization can move together towards the values that will ignite and inspire. If you are not familiar with values measurement tools, you can get an overview here: http://leadershipbeyondlimits.com/cultural_transformation_tools.htm Contact me if you have any questions or want to explore further!
Tom Rausch
Leadership Beyond Limits, LLC
Values, Vision & Purpose Guide
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomrausch
http://www.yourpurposeguide.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We help top leaders of organizations engage their employees to create sustainable success.
Learn about the latest advances in employee engagement at: www.leadershipbeyondlimits.com
“Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” Rumi

[Ric Trout, EdD, RHU, REBC]

Kevin

Here are some measures that you might desire to consider:

1. Reduced health care demand
2. Fewer workers' Comp claims
3. Fewer accident and disablity claims
4. Less employee time wasted on money problems
5. Increased contributions to employer sponsored retirement plans.

Sincerely,

Ric Trout, EdD
President/CEO
ESQ Financial Educators
913-645-0986
www.esq-financialeduators.com

[Michelle Welton]

Hi Kevin,

I'm not that surprised that the customer service scores were high even with low engagement scores. What type of industry are you in? Service, Healthcare? Someone who is dissatisfied with parts of an organization but love their job may still be disengaged to the organization while not impacting customer experience.

Communication (Front line supervisor is critical), Rewards & Recognition, Promotion Opportunities/Career Path and what has been called "locus of control" in the field of psychology. How much control do they have over their own work and career path? If there are impediments to these, it could be part of the issue.

I hope something I've said here has been helpful. Its such a monstrosity of a topic, that without knowing your particular set of issues, its hard to say.

Michelle Welton