Chapter 9 Review How can you measure employee engagement levels over time?

Measuring employee engagement levels Measuring employee engagement levels Define the results you want to achieve Define the results you want to achieve To take action to achieve the results you want To take action to achieve the results you want Considering how you will measure progress Considering how you will measure progress Measuring progress at defined intervals Measuring progress at defined intervals To analyze the results and make improvements To analyze the results and make improvements Objects

 Many companies today have some form of employee satisfaction survey.  While these are very beneficial, high satisfaction ratings do not necessarily convert to higher engagement as it is possible for an employee to be satisfied but not necessarily engaged.  Therefore, we will focus on how to measure both satisfaction and engagement and our framework for managing continuous improvement can again be a useful guide here in terms of how to do so. 1. Measuring employee engagement levels

 You have something more sold to work with when it comes to measuring employee engagement.  These are just suggestions of course and you might have different outcomes in mind.  Whatever you decide, you should limit the number you see to measure. ☞ There are twelve drivers of engagement. An example of how you might do this is shown below. 2. Define the results you want to achieve

FactorWhat outcomes do you want? Leadership □ Employees have a positive impression of leadership at the hotel. □ Employees feel valued and respected by their leaders. Culture □ Employees feel that the hotel shows general care and concern for their welfare. □ Employees feel proud about working at the hotel. Composition □ Employees 'fit' with the culture of the hotel and work well with their colleagues. □ Employees respect diversity amongst those they work with and feel respected by others. Clarity □ Employees understand what the hotel is trying to achieve and how they can contribute to that. □ Employees fully understand their job description and what is expected of them in terms of their performance. Competence □ Employees receive regular training and coaching which helps them to do the job more effectively. □ Employees feel that they are growing and developing in their jobs. Cooperation □ Employees feel that they get to work with different people in their department. □ Employees feel that teamwork is strong between departments at the hotel. Control □ Employees feel that everyone in their team works to a high standard and that the workload is shared. □ Employees feel empowered at work and that they can use their own initiative. Communication □ Employees feel that there is open, two-way communication at the hotel. □ Employees receive regular constructive feedback on their performance. Challenge □ Employees feel a sense of challenge in their jobs. □ Employees feel that they can make suggestions about improving things at the hotel. Conflict □ Employees feel that they can voice their opinions in a constructive manner on issues which concern them. □ Employees feel that the atmosphere at work is positive and that conflict is managed effectively.

 It is clear that if you don’t actually take action within the twelve factors to enhance employee engagement then seeking to measure improvements will not be necessary, as you won’t see any.  Therefore it is important that you have an overall engagement strategy and from that you identify priority actions each year across the twelve factors and include them in your annual plan. 3. Take action to achieve the results you want

 Measuring employee engagement can occur at a number of levels moving from informal to more formal approaches.  The degree of complexity you will adopt will depend upon the resources available to you but monitoring employee engagement does not have to be a costly exercise. 4. Consider how you will measure progress

1) Apply informal measurements Informally, you can get a sense of how engaged your employees are through your regular interactions and discussions with them. You might even see evidence of it when you bring them together in groups at briefings or meetings. More formally, individual engagement levels can be determined during employee appraisals and they are an important tool in this regard.

2) Develop an employee engagement survey Developing and implementing an employee engagement survey requires a fair degree of planning to get it right. The key to any good survey is getting the questions right. Your engagement survey must incorporate questions which are designed to test the outcomes you have defined for each of the twelve factors but also, and this is critical, to determine whether those outcomes are leading to greater engagement by your employees.

 Example: In terms of survey design, you could take the outcomes defined above for the twelve factors and translate them into a series of statements to be rated by employees which would give and indicator as to whether they were satisfied at work. Then by adding an additional statement for each factor you can determine whether this was translation into higher levels of engagement. FactorQuestionsQutcomes Leadership I believe that leadership at the hotel is effective. I feel valued and respected by my leaders at work. Statisfaction They way I am led at work increases my willingness to give my all in my jobEngagement

3) Use hard measures In addition to the overall rating you get from the engagement survey, you can again use your employee turnover ratio as an indicator of how satisfied and engaged your employees are. If turnover at your hotel, or within an individual department, is higher than the norm then this would indicate that there are problems that warrant investigation.

4) Do you have the necessary systems in place? once you have decided how you will measure employee engagement level, you then need to make sure that you have the systems in place to produce the information you need. In order to put low cost and get effectiveness, option to consider is to use an online survey platform, such as that provided by surveymonkey.com.

 Informal measurement of employee engagement levels should naturally be ongoing, but you must also decide upon the frequency for producing the more formal measures.  A monthly, quarterly, annual basis, depending upon the size of operation. 5. Measure progress at defined intervals

Based on the overall result from the employee engagement survey, you will know in general terms whether employee engagement is improving or not and over time you should see an upward trend in the overall scores you get. Through this feedback you can then pinpoint specific areas of improvement which you can work on in the following period. The fact that you both listen to and act upon their feedback will in itself demonstrate that you value their input, which in turn enhances engagement. 6. Analyze the results and make improvements