Employee Engagement Strategies

About Employee Engagement Strategies

Successful organizations are built with exceptional teams. The performance and ultimate success of any team is based on the commitment that each member brings to their work. Employees are not just workers; they are individual, valued members of the organization that deserve to feel that their contributions are meaningful. This is where employee engagement theory comes into play.

Employee engagement is a direct outcome of a positive employee experience. It is more than just how employees feel about your organization; it takes into consideration how they interact with it. When employees feel like they are contributing to the company, and that their contributions are recognized, they are more likely to take measures to advocate for the company. Businesses that want their employees to work harder, become brand advocates, and ultimately, stay with the company in the long run, should consider implementing an employee engagement strategy plan.

While employee engagement has been a buzzword since the early 1990s, the way it has been achieved has varied widely depending on the company and the particular goals of the organization. Some types of employee engagement strategies have been conflated with employee satisfaction. Here’s the difference. Employee satisfaction has commonly been understood to indicate a general perception of whether or not employees are happy with their work. Employee engagement, on the other hand, is directly connected to organizational performance. It is the difference between a passive and active employee-organization relationship.

Here at Perceptyx, we know that the best way to improve employee engagement is to first understand the positive drivers of engaged employee behaviors -- what your company is already doing right -- so that you can implement the right strategies to boost those behaviors across your entire workforce. Perceptyx is an employee listening and people analytics platform that helps businesses identify the barriers that are keeping employees from feeling engaged so that they can implement actions to remove those barriers and improve the overall performance of their company.

What Is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement is not the same as employee satisfaction. If this is true, you are probably wondering: what is employee engagement? Simply put, employee engagement is a measurement of two key areas in the employee-organization relationship. The first is emotional. Employees that feel proud of their company and have a sense of accomplishment in their work have a high level of employee engagement. The second is behavioral. Engaged employees are willing to do more, and go above and beyond, even when no one is looking. In other words, it measures the actions that employees take as a result of their emotional attachment to the organization. Examples of employee engagement actions could be anything from advocating for the organization to recruiting new colleagues to join, to staying with the company themselves for many years.

The specific drivers of employee engagement will vary, but organizations that are committed to making changes in the employee experience and their work environment will see lasting improvements in engagement.  To understand the unique drivers and barriers to engagement, companies can use survey solutions and people analytics software like Perceptyx's to identify the best strategies, monitor changes in employee sentiment over time,  and gain an edge over the competition.

Employee Engagement Framework

An employee engagement framework will look different for every company. Because individual employees and the structure of companies are unique, an employee engagement plan has to be created from scratch for each business and its needs. Companies that have a high level of employee engagement have a better view of the future of the organization as well as a greater connection to their individual employees than businesses that have low engagement levels. In order to get high engagement levels, these companies had to develop specific strategies that work best for their employees.

While a comprehensive employee engagement framework cannot be universally applicable, there are certain strategies that exist in a employee engagement toolkit that can be used as a foundation for creating the right plan for your business. One of the most effective approaches is continuous listening. Businesses that measure employee engagement with a platform like Perceptyx can get a clearer picture of where their employee engagement strategies are already working and where they need to be improved. By listening to employees, and acting on their feedback, businesses can demonstrate that they care about their employees and are committed to acting in their best interest.

It is beneficial to take a look at employee engagement strategy examples. While there is no universal framework that can be used to improve employee engagement, examples can provide perspective and inspiration. Business leaders need to understand the interrelationship between employee needs and business outcomes. Employee engagement metrics provide the insights that can lead to immediate actions.  For example, one item within the Perceptyx Engagement Index asks employees to rate the following statement: “I intend to keep working for the company for at least the next 12 months.” This is a direct, solid measure, useful for predicting not only intent, but actual attrition potential. By monitoring responses across multiple census and point-in-time surveys, you can form a more effective strategy for maintaining high levels of engagement. 

Employee Engagement Ideas

When looking at employee engagement strategies, 2022 revealed a major shift in the perspectives of both organizations and employees regarding remote work. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses to move to fully-remote work. Although many employees continue to enjoy this change due to greater flexibility and more opportunities to practice good work-life balance, data shows that company leaders are concerned about the impacts to corporate culture, or are afraid that their employees are not as engaged as when they were in the office. This change to remote work has meant that businesses have had to rethink certain areas of their employee engagement strategy. Perceptyx research has revealed that hybrid workers, those that work partly from home and partly at the office, have the highest levels of employee engagement. How hybrid or remote worker employee engagement levels are raised is based on many of the same strategies that traditional office-based employees benefit from.

Whether employees work in the office, at home, or both, there are best practices for employee engagement that are common for all environments. For example, it's important to make sure employees feel valued, wherever they work. Recognition is mentioned time and time again as a priority for employees.  Be sure to celebrate successes and other personal milestones in private as well as more public departmental meetings or Slack channels. This is especially important for remote workers and conveys that their hard work is not going unnoticed. 

The best strategies and ideas for improving employee engagement are rooted in company culture. It is through these strategies that employees that work remotely can still have high engagement levels. The Perceptyx platform makes it easy for businesses to analyze their employee engagement levels and connect with their team members so that they can set their employees and business up for success.

How to Measure Employee Engagement

The first step in your employee engagement strategy should be to measure the current state of employee engagement at your organization. The Perceptyx Employee Engagement Index is comprised of 4 key measures:

- Intent to stay
- Referral behavior
- Pride in the organization
- Intrinsic motivation

These four indicators are measured by asking employees to rate their agreement or disagreement with these types of statements:

“I intend to stay with the company for the next 12 months.”

“I would recommend the company to others as a great place to work.”

“I am proud to work for the company.”

“My work gives me a feeling of personal accomplishment.”

Employee engagement measures are most useful when viewed in the larger context of your overall employee experience. Because employee engagement is just one outcome of a positive employee experience, their relationship is highly symbiotic.

Employee responses to these statements allow us to determine current levels of engagement – but that’s all they can tell us. The difference between employee engagement and employee experience is that engagement measures provide us with the what, but not the why. Elements of the employee experience are the why of whether or not employees are engaged – and to find out what those specific elements are, we have to dig deeper. We have to ask employees to share their perceptions about the entire range of their experiences in the organization to determine what’s working and where there may be barriers to engagement.

The Perceptyx People Insights Platform measures employee engagement through survey responses and then collects, analyzes, and organizes the data to provide businesses with detailed information on employee engagement across their company. By asking employees to rate factors such as their relationship with their manager, their optimism about future growth opportunities, access to resources needed to do their work,  or the state of cooperation across departments, organizations can get a better idea of the specific barriers that employees face, and then work to remove them to improve engagement.

With employee engagement metrics, organizations can develop a deep understanding of their employees and develop plans to improve their engagement levels. Perceptyx collects employee engagement data and provides suggestions for strategies that managers and leaders can use. Thanks to Perceptyx, implementing a continuous listening program to understand employee engagement and identify the actions necessary to maintain or improve it, is possible.