Employee engagement is the level of commitment, passion and loyalty an employee has toward their work and organisation.

The more engaged an employee is, the more effort they’ll put in. There have been a good deal of metrics developed to determine how engaged employees are. However, there are some important ones that are often overlooked. Ones that are crucial for a broader picture.

Experience

You can expect minor frustrations with compensation, but what else is going on with your employees? It’s important to know what kind of experience they are having. Because if they’re not having a good one, then they won’t be engaged. The kinds of questions to focus on include:

• Is anything in your work environment interfering with your ability to do your job?
• Do you have all the tools you need to do your job?
• Are you satisfied with the frequency and quality of the feedback you receive?
• Are you satisfied with the level of recognition you receive?

Intention

Determining intention is vital to determining how engaged an employee is. For example, do they intend to stay with the company long term? If not, they may just be coasting through. And would they recommend working at the organisation to someone else? If not, then they are probably questioning why they should work there themselves. Other questions to ask are:

• How strongly do your personal core values align with those of the organisation?
• Is your job making it easier for you to be true to your core values or harder?
• How would you rate your enthusiasm to come into work each day?

Trust

A workplace with high-trust has a company culture where employees look to their leader, have pride in what they do and enjoy working with their team. Without trust, employees will not engage and will be open to going elsewhere. Probing questions to ask here include:

• How would you rate your relationship with your leader?
• How would you rate your relationship with your fellow team members?
• Do you feel you have the support you need to do your job?
• Do you feel you have enough opportunity for growth?

Bottom Line Results

It’s easy to see how engagement can flow down to the bottom line. Highly engaged employees are more productive, they stick around. They represent the company better. They deliver more to the customer. And they provide a greater return on investment. Over time, you’ll be able to determine the engagement factors that drive business performance, so look for ways to connect the two.

Negative Metrics

There is much debate surrounding measuring negative metrics. The main argument against it is that it keeps our attention on what we don’t want. But we want our measures to show us where to improve performance. And that includes where and when you need to take action. It’s uncomfortable to zoom in on what’s not going right at your organisation. But tracking stats such as voluntary turnover rates, sick leave and absences can be enlightening.

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