Why Your Employee Engagement Scores Are Not Improving

Do You Know Why Your Employee Engagement Scores Are Not Improving?
Even though most company leaders espouse the importance and value of employee engagement, the majority of companies are not doing what it takes to meaningfully boost employee engagement scores. Sadly, 80% of employees believe that engagement surveys do not drive meaningful outcomes.  Taking annual employee engagement surveys may indicate interest in knowing how committed employees are to company success.

However, if visible and meaningful employee engagement actions are not taken, you are actually making employee engagement lower.  And lower employee engagement scores are correlated to:

• 12% lower profits
• 19% lower operating income
• 28% lower earnings per share

Understanding the root cause of employee disengagement and then taking employee engagement actions must follow each and every survey. Only then will employee engagement improve.

Key Steps to Take When Your Employee Engagement Scores Are Not Improving

1. Get Full Leadership Commitment to Act Before You Start
   For an employee engagement survey to add any value, all leaders must fully commit to transparently sharing the results and taking visible and meaningful employee engagement actions. If this level of commitment is not possible or if the company has more pressing issues, do not falsely raise employee expectations that things will change by half-heartedly rolling out an employee engagement survey.  And do not put the onus solely on HR.

   Employee engagement is not simply an “HR thing.” It is at the core of how mentally and emotionally connected employees feel toward their leaders, their teammates, their workplace, and the organization as a whole.

   We know that employees who see meaningful action after an engagement survey are 12 times more likely to be engaged the following year compared to those that do not see follow-up.

2. Create a Culture of Feedback
   We believe that it is the responsibility of people managers to create a work environment in which employees feel comfortable speaking honestly about their needs and concerns. DDI research found that companies that encourage frequent employee feedback are almost five times more likely to have high-quality leaders and a strong leadership succession pipeline.

   Besides, to truly improve employee engagement, you want to hear from every employee — from the discontented and disillusioned to the enthusiastically supportive and engaged.  Ensure that employees know that their opinions at work matter, that truth-telling holds no negative consequences, and that identified issues will be addressed.

3. Use a Proven Employee Engagement Survey Tool and Process
   Too many companies use homegrown engagement questions that do not correlate to employee advocacy, discretionary effort, or intent to stay. Ineffective questions beget unreliable data.  To gain an accurate measure of engagement, you need the proper tools and scientifically correlated engagement questions.

The Bottom Line
To effect real change, you must understand what factors influence the problem. Only then can you change enabling factors and begin to solve the problem.  Employee engagement scores will not show real improvement unless leaders are committed to change, the survey is undertaken in an atmosphere of trust in the process, and the survey tool makes sense.

To learn more about why your employee engagement scores are not improving, download The Top 10 Most Powerful Ways to Boost Employee Engagement