Nowadays it is common to hear the words "engagement", "motivation", "loyalty" among managers, HR you can hear the words "engagement", "motivation", "loyalty". Companies want to influence the behavior of their employees.
Employee behavior is influenced by 3 factors:
1. Motivation - the direction of people's behavior and the factors that influence it.
2. Loyalty - associating oneself with the company and participating in its life.
3. Engagement - a situation in which people are connected to their work and the company and are motivated to achieve a high level of their performance.
It is the involvement against the background of these three factors that maximally influences how a person works, with what efficiency, what result he shows for his company;
Involvement consists of several elements:
- When employees are loyal to their job and the company, and motivated to achieve high levels of performance.
- Engagement = loyalty + active actions. When a person is engaged in their company, they are both motivated to achieve high levels of performance, loyal, and take some action. As opposed to motivation: a person can be motivated but not show the results that the company needs. A person can be loyal and still work "without working hard".
And engagement is also about being proactive.
Many companies are looking to measure and improve the engagement of their employees.
3 aspects of engagement:
- Intellectual engagement - constantly thinking about the work and how to do it better.
- Emotional engagement - taking pleasure in doing the work itself.
- Social engagement - actively discussing improvements at work with other colleagues.
There are 2 types of engagement:
1. Engagement - Love for what you do.
2. Involvement in the organization (company) -association of oneself with the company.
When a person loves what he or she does, but doesn't even love his or her organization, sometimes it can bring good results. And if teamwork is needed, this option may not bring positive results.
We will be looking at engagement that leads to business results.
What is the theory of engagement based on?
There are several theories of engagement:
- Based on the theory of social exchange. When a company does something for its employees, employees are willing to do something for the company.
- People reciprocate the company's actions.
- It is always a two-way relationship between the company and the employee.
The most popular ways to measure engagement in the world:
- Gallup's engagement questionnaire has 12 questions
- AON Hewitt - 24 questions
- HAY - a database of 200 questions, you can select suggested questions to create your own survey. Usually 20 questions or more are included in a survey.
- EY - 36 questions in three areas.
- Mercer - 47 questions.
I want to draw your attention to the Gallup questionnaire, it is the shortest and, according to my observations, "inspired" by this questionnaire, other companies supplement it with their own questions.
Let me tell you a little bit of the history of how the 12 questions came about. Originally, when Gallup became interested in engagement research, over 30 years ago, their questionnaire consisted of over 100 questions. They did a big study and concluded that only 35 questions had a correlation with business performance. Therefore, they kept 35 questions. Analyzing further the results of the behavioral surveys, it was observed that very often there are situations where while answering one question, a person gives the same answer to another question. Therefore, we left 12 questions in four directions, which give a complete picture. You know from our practice, the fewer questions we ask an employee, the higher the involvement of employees in completing the surveys, and the higher the probability of getting highly accurate answers;
To date, the company Gallup s questionnaire s public.
Gallup provides training on how to interpret the results, provides advice on what work to do after receiving the results. Provides statistics on your country, industry, where you work, average value.
Example report engagement Gallup report Gallup
The baseline report reflects:
- level of engagement in your company on a five-point scale,
- average score for all 12 questions,
- evaluation of your performance against the range you have chosen (countries, industries),
- ratio of how many are involved and not involved, and how many are actively not involved.
There's a more detailed report.
The following is an example of a report for a single unit
Example of a MERCER engagement report
According to research Gallup, 30% of people in the world are truly engaged.
Those people who are engaged perform much better results:
↑ 10% customer satisfaction,
↑ 22% profitability,
↑ 21% productivity,
↓ 25% fluidity,
↓ 48% of accidents,
↓ 28% of thefts,
↓ 37% absenteeism,
↓ 41% defects.
These results come from a comparison: the company Gallup conducts a questionnaire across divisions, then takes the 25% of divisions that have the best engagement results and looks at the business results and compares them to the rest.
Thus the investment made in increasing engagement is always justified.
If a company only works on increasing engagement, it can get a situation where people are too engaged while burning out a lot.
So I recommend balancing engagement with a concern for well-being.
Questionnaire Gallup Q12.
- I know what is expected of me at work.
- I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
- At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
- In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
- My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
- There is someone at work who encourages my development.
- At work, my opinions seem to count.
- The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
- My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
- I have a best friend at work.
- In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
- This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.
To save the questionnaire to yourself, click Link and click Create a copy.
Analyzing the results of the engagement assessment
In engagement questionnaires, the most commonly used scale is the Likert scale:
How's the company doing after the survey?
- The average response on a five-point scale is calculated,
- comments are analyzed,
- work is planned on those issues with low scores.
In the example, the low results I included in the work plan are highlighted in red:
Recommendations on how to handle each question of the Gallup Q12 survey that I got from Gallup itself, and added information for you on how to improve the score
Do you know exactly what results are expected of you at work?
- What it measures: Knowing what is expected is more than just a job description. It's a detailed understanding of how what one person is expected to do fits in with what others do, and how that changes depending on circumstances.
- Why We Ask: Even in jobs with a high degree of role clarity, employees still struggle to rate this item an "A." Research by Gallup shows that this most basic element of interaction predicts future turnover, customer interactions, safety incidents, and performance.
- Business benefit: A significant gain on this item alone is often correlated with a 5-10% increase in productivity. When done right, this item defines operational success.
- How to improve: Start setting goals, such as by OKR.
Do you have all the materials and equipment needed to do a quality job?
- What it measures: This element helps managers understand the needs of their employees in relation to the outcomes they are trying to achieve. It helps employees get the resources they need to achieve the outcomes. Sometimes they are referring to the availability of information rather than specific things.
- Why we ask: Less than one in three people strongly agree that they have everything they need to do their job right. This is the best indicator of stress at work.
- Business benefit: Has a high correlation with employee turnover as well as customer satisfaction.
- How to improve: provide the necessary resources and information.
Do you have the opportunity every day in your workplace to do what you do best?
- What it measures: To get the most out of your team, you must maximize your employees' ability to build on their strengths. It is important that everyone understands their strengths and weaknesses so that they can build on them or develop them for success.
- Why Ask: The most helpful thing a manager can do for an employee is to give them a role that allows them to excel by utilizing their natural talents.
- Business benefit: This element provides a unique depth that no other element can boast. It is critical that managers put their employees in the right roles. Those in the top quartile of the Gallup database make 10% to 15% more profit.
- How to improve: assess employee talents and compare to their roles.
Have you received praise or an award for a job well done in the last week?
- What it measures: Encouraging behaviors that lead to results. Great managers create a positive environment and recognition that doesn't just come from the manager, but from many different directions.
- Why We Ask: Twenty percent (20%) of employees in organizations feel that they are completely unrecognized. Positive reinforcement is essential for motivation at work. It is extremely low in the corporate world.
- Business benefit: A major study, found that increasing achievement recognition from 33% to 50% in a company led to a 2% improvement in NPS score and a 6.5% increase in productivity. People in the top quartile are 2.5 times more likely to say they are satisfied with their compensation. Those in the bottom quartile are 2 times more likely to leave the organization within a year.
- How to improve: implement an achievement recognition program, High Five!
Does your boss or any of your coworkers care about you as a person?
- What it measures: This engagement is about setting everyone up for success.
- Why we ask: Emotions are important. People bring not just a pair of hands to work, but their whole selves, and that includes the part that needs to be taken care of.
- Business benefit: A productive workplace is one where people feel safe - safe enough to experiment, challenge, share information, and support each other. Those in the bottom quartile have a 37% higher turnover rate.
- How to improve: Run a 1:1 in a company and/or role People Partner. You can also hire a psychologist.
Is there a staff member who encourages your professional development?
- What it measures: Development does not mean advancement. This article focuses on optimizing individual contribution to the team by emotionally supporting the individual's growth needs. Development is the process of understanding the unique needs of employees and finding roles, positions, and projects that meet those needs.
- Why ask: It is difficult, if not impossible, to make progress on the other 11 items if there is no development. Only 1% of people without support for their development can achieve real engagement with the other 11 items.
- Business benefit: The development of others leads to a significant impact on the other 11 items. In particular, this item contributes to employee retention.
- How to improve: Ensure that every employee receives professional training at least once a year.
Are your professional opinions considered by colleagues and management?
- What it measures: It is largely about the employee's sense of ownership. Employees who score high on this element feel that they have access to communication channels at various levels of the organization. Their managers work to maintain these channels.
- Why Ask: Employees want to feel valued. They don't function well when team members feel they are insignificant or irrelevant. Employees who feel that their opinions matter demonstrate a strong psychological responsibility to promote ideas within the organization.
- Business benefit: This item builds employee confidence and increases respect for their organization.
- How to improve: Work to improve teamwork: cross-functional teams, town hall meetings, team building, interest-based activities.
Do you feel that your company's mission/purpose helps you realize the importance of your work?
- What it measures: Employees want to believe in what their employers are doing. This item measures the extent to which this is the case. It seeks to maximize individual and group contribution by appealing to the employee's values.
- Why Ask: When employees agree with this point, the connection between their personal mission and their company makes them want to do more.
- Business benefit: Work teams built around the mission have 15-30% lower turnover rates and 30%-50% fewer accidents. They also show profitability that is 5-15% higher than their workplace counterparts.
- How to improve: run culture management and actively communicate it.
Are your colleagues committed to high standards of work quality?
- What it measures: This element measures the extent to which an employee feels that his or her team is committed to quality work. this element involves high awareness of work standards and team member performance.
- Why we ask: Only one in three employees strongly agree with this statement. Measurement is very sensitive to the presence or absence of "wimps." Once a team is freed from less effective employees, the percentage of engaged people increases significantly to over 50%.
- Business benefit: High scores on this item can be correlated with improvements in almost all metrics studied by Gallup. In particular, this item showed a strong correlation with team performance with customers and safety.
- How to improve: make transparent goals and results for all employees, fire ineffective ones
Do you have a best friend at work?
- What it measures: This element aims to optimize team contribution by improving the quality of relationships between employees in the workplace. This in turn leads to increased trust and emotional loyalty.
- Why Ask: This item is highly predictive of productivity. Helping people build bridges rather than walls at work increases productivity. If employees strongly disagree with this item, they are lonely and isolated at work. As the employee spends more time at work, work can become a channel for meeting the social demands of life rather than a one-dimensional activity. Friends are more likely to help each other, to work harder for each other. Stronger alliances in the workplace affect individual levels of employee well-being, happiness, and engagement.
- Business benefit: Workgroups that receive excellent scores on this element have, on average, 20% fewer accidents and 5-10% better NPS customers.
- How to improve: organize informal shared leisure activities, selection by values and similarity of motivation.
Why exactly is the best "friend" (comments from Gallup)
- Something about an employee's deep sense of belonging to the people on their team drives them to do positive things for the business that they wouldn't otherwise do.
- Research has found very different social ties among employees in high-performing teams.
- Standard survey questions about trust do not appear to measure trust.
- This formulation best distinguishes fairly supportive friendships that are superficial and unlikely to withstand adversity;
- Just asking people if they have friends is not enough, most people prefer to think they like them or don't want to admit to isolation. Gallup has tested almost every variation of this question, and the word "best" distinguishes average workgroups from high-performing workgroups.
Has anyone at work discussed your progress with you in the last six months?
- What it measures: This item measures how important an employee is to their business. It seeks to analyze how he or she understands what they do, how their work is perceived, and where their work is leading. Feedback predicts performance. High scoring teams establish structured feedback processes for their team members, including clearly defined goals and achievement levels.
- Why Ask: When both the manager, or mentor, and the employee identify a task in which the employee truly excels, they can work together to create a development plan that supports the individual's full learning potential. This will allow the employee to make their greatest contribution to the organization. Business benefit: Business units in the top quartile of this metric are 10-15% more productive than those in the bottom quartile.
- How to improve: Start a performance appraisal and employee development process.
Have you had the opportunity to learn new things and grow professionally in the last year?
- What it measures: The need to learn and grow is a natural human instinct. This element measures the extent to which an employee feels that they have been given the opportunity to do so.
- Why We Ask: For many people, this is the difference between a "career" and a "job."
- Business benefit: Employees who have the opportunity to learn and grow on the job are twice as likely to say they will spend their career with the company. Employees who score highest on this element produce more innovative ideas, maintain excellent customer relationships, and are more profitable. Scores in the top quartile on this measure were up 9% for customers and 10% for revenue.
- How to improve: give new tasks to an employee every year (10-30%).
How the approach to engagement is changing in companies:
And what level of engagement is your company at:
- Engagement 1.0,
- Engagement 2.0,
- Engagement 3.0?
You can take a course on measuring engagement and improving it in your company by Online "Employee Engagement"