Employee engagement, as defined by Towers Watson, “is the extent to which employees ‘go the extra mile’ and put discretionary effort into their work – contributing more of their energy, creativity and passion on the job.” In the current marketplace, employee engagement is a serious business concern and organizations are putting a focused effort on stopping the downward slide. From increasing the “fun factor” in the workplace to establishing fully integrated recognition systems, companies are trying anything and everything to increase engagement.
There are many layers of measurement that can be key indicators of engagement. Andrea Bach, director of market development at BI WORLDWIDE, a global business improvement company, has worked extensively on developing best practices metrics for employee engagement programs.
“Employee surveys are a common baseline measure. The results reveal the true state of employee satisfaction and engagement because the feedback comes directly from the employees,” Bach said. The results commonly catapult organizations into taking action to drive greater engagement.
Companies that work with BI WORLDWIDE to build a culture of recognition and engagement find that the primary focus in program development is measurement. “Our mission is to produce measurable results by driving and sustaining engagement. For every recognition platform we implement, we establish a measurement scorecard with the client to make sure we are working toward the same goal,” said Bach.
Some common metrics are activity-based, which indicate how employees respond to and embrace initiatives, such as:
What percentage of employees accessed the program?
What percentage of employees issued recognition?
What percentage of employees received recognition?
How many times are employees being recognized on a regular basis?
Both the scorecard and the activity-based metrics are strong indicators of employee engagement. Linking these two types of measurement can provide a more complete picture of the entire workplace culture.
Another, more in-depth type of measurement – the ability to actually link employee satisfaction to business metrics – can provide stunning results. Organizations can connect employee engagement to customer satisfaction and retention. According to Bach, “BI WORLDWIDE has provided research and analytics for several of our healthcare clients. With one pharmaceutical company, we were able to prove a strong correlation between employee satisfaction and the number of recognitions received. In a hospital system, we were able to prove a statistically significant correlation between recognition and a 98 percent commitment to the organization.” The analysis also revealed that 96 percent of employees would recommend the organization for patient care; in addition, the organization experienced a nearly five percent reduction in turnover.
“This is the type of measurement we are proud to produce for our clients; the results prove that the power of recognition can drive business results through engagement,” said Bach.
For more information on results-based engagement, visit BIWORLDWIDE.com.
ABOUT BI WORLDWIDE
BI WORLDWIDE is a global provider of employee engagement programs and is devoted to helping organizations translate their vision into action to improve employee engagement. Headquartered in Edina, Minnesota and with more than 25 locations in the U.S and worldwide, our mission is to produce measurable results for our clients by driving & sustaining engagement with their employees, channel partners & consumers. We are a founder of Recognition Professionals International and a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.