Dennis Lodge
Before we get started, we should cover why employee engagement survey analysis is key for your business. Did you know that a staggering majority of employees are not engaged in their work?
In fact, according to one study, only 20 percent of employees worldwide are actually engaged in their work.
That means that the vast majority of people are just going through the motions day after day, without any real passion or enthusiasm for what they do. Why is this such a huge problem? Well, employee engagement is critical for any organization.
After all, it’s the employees who do the actual work and make things happen. If they’re not engaged and motivated, then the organization is going to suffer.
How can you get your employees more engaged?
One way is to conduct an employee engagement survey. But once you’ve collected all that data, what do you do with it?
This guide will teach you everything you need to know about analyzing employee engagement survey data so that you can take action and improve your workforce’s engagement levels.
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement has become a popular topic of discussion among businesses in recent years. But what is employee engagement, and why is it so important?
Employee engagement can be defined as a measure of how motivated, involved, and committed employees are to their work and their employer. Achieving high levels of employee engagement is essential for businesses to succeed for several reasons. Here are the most notable reasons:
Engaged employees are more productive
Studies have shown that engaged employees take less time off, and generally speaking, engaged workers are also more likely to stay with their company, which saves on the costs of recruiting and training new employees.
While it’s impossible to put a price tag on employee engagement, it’s clear that it offers businesses a wide range of benefits. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that so many companies are looking for ways to increase engagement levels among their workforce.
Engaged employees are more productive
A study by Gallup found that companies with engaged employees saw a 21% increase in profitability. In today’s competitive business landscape, companies that can create a culture of employee engagement will be the ones that thrive.
The study found that engaged employees are more likely to stay with their company, and they’re also more likely to go above and beyond for customers. As a result, organizations with engaged employees enjoy higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
In addition, engaged employees are more productive and have lower levels of absenteeism. Just like opting for resume help to increase your odds of landing a job, all of these factors add up to a significant competitive advantage for companies that can create a culture of employee engagement.
How to design an employee engagement survey
Optimizing your employee engagement survey analysis, you need to think carefully about its design.
There are a few key things you can do to ensure that your survey is successful. You’ll want to find a top-of-the-line survey maker to make sure you have all the tools and features you need to create an employee engagement survey.
The most important thing is to make sure that your survey covers all of the key areas that you want to measure. Here are the steps for designing an effective employee engagement survey:
Choose your topic
The first step in designing an employee engagement survey is to choose your topic. What do you want to learn from your employees? Do you want to find out about their satisfaction with their job, their level of engagement, or something else entirely?
The topic you choose will determine the type of questions you ask and the overall tone of the survey. Once you’ve decided on an issue, you can move on to the next step.
You’ll want to ask a mix of close-ended questions, which you can use to draw conclusions based on statistical analysis. Intersperse these with some open-ended questions that ask employees to expand on why they gave specific answers. This qualitative data will allow you to dig deeper into the why of it all.
Keep timing in mind
When designing an employee engagement survey, you’ll want to wait for the right time to ask employees to participate. You don’t want to administer the survey during a busy or stressful time for your employees. Not only will they struggle to prioritize the feedback, but that feedback may even be influenced because they’re under pressure.
For example, if you know that quarterly reviews are coming up, you might want to wait to administer the survey until after they’re over. In general, it’s best to conduct the employee survey when things are relatively calm at your company. That way, you’ll get more accurate results.
Set a duration and frequency
The next step is to set the duration and frequency of your survey. How long do you want the survey to be? And how often do you want to administer it?
Remember, you don’t want to overburden your employees with a long or frequent survey. A good rule of thumb is to keep the survey short (no more than 10 minutes) and administer it no more than once per quarter.
Write survey questions that provide actionable data
Once you’ve decided on your survey’s topic, timing, and frequency, it’s time to start thinking about the interactive questions you’ll ask. This is arguably the most important part of designing an effective employee engagement survey.
Your goal should be to identify questions that will provide results you can act on. In other words, you want to ask questions that will help you improve your employees’ experience at your company.
Here are a few examples of questions you might want to ask:
- How engaged are you with your work?
- Do you feel like your job is fulfilling?
- Do you feel like your skills are being utilized?
- Do you feel like you have the opportunity to grow and develop at your job?
- Do you feel like your managers’ support and value your work?
These are just a few examples of questions you might want to ask. The important thing is to choose questions that will give you the information you need to make improvements.
3 Steps for employee engagement survey analysis
Once you’ve administered your employee engagement survey, it’s time to perform some data analysis. This can seem daunting, but it’s relatively simple if you follow these steps.
Step 1: Calculate the overall score
The first step is to calculate the overall score for each question. This will give you a general idea of how your employees feel about each issue.
To calculate the overall score, simply add up the number of employees who responded positively to each question and divide by the total number of respondents.
For example, let’s say you asked the question, “Do you feel like your job is fulfilling?” and 50% of your employees said yes. This means the overall score for this question would be 50%.
Step 2: Identify themes
The next step is to look for themes in the results. This will help you identify the areas that are most important to your employees. This is possibly the most important steps of employee engagement survey analysis.
To do this, simply read through the responses and look for patterns. What are employees saying about the company? Are there common complaints? What are employees most happy with?
Identifying themes will help you focus on the areas that are most important to your employees.
Step 3: Take action
Once you’ve analyzed your survey results, it’s time to take action. This is where you’ll use the information you’ve gathered to make improvements in your company.
First, you’ll want to develop a plan of action. This should include specific steps you’ll take to improve the areas that are most important to your employees.
Then, you’ll want to implement your plan and track the results. This will help you see if your efforts are making a difference.
What to do with employee engagement survey results
The results of these surveys can be both positive and negative. However, it is important to remember that even the most personalized custom survey is only a tool to help identify problems and potential solutions.
It is not a silver bullet that will solve all of your company’s problems. So what should you do with the results of an employee engagement survey?
First, you should take the time to review the results carefully. Look for patterns and trends that may be indicative of underlying issues. Identify areas for improvement and put together an action plan for all those who would be involved in the changes.
This plan should involve key stakeholders from across the company, including team managers, employees, and HR professionals. With Shout, there are lots of ways for you to share results, from spreadsheet and PDF exports to sharing your digital report with a URL link.
Finally, you should track your progress over time to ensure that your efforts are having a positive impact on employee engagement.
One of the best early ways to improve engagement is to make sure employees know that you’re now aware of their feedback (both negative and positive) and outline some of the ways you’re going to address it.
Wrapping up
Employee engagement is a critical issue for any company, so it’s super important to take employee engagement survey analysis seriously.
By taking the time to design and administer an employee engagement survey, you can gather the information you need to make improvements in your business. Use these tips to ensure that your survey is successful.
