What changes we have seen happening in the economic realm! With an economy based on capital, we are moving at a rapid pace to a knowledge economy. No more large capital investments, a company simply develops software that requires little upfront capital expenses. The largest expense? Labor. What kind of labor? Highly skilled and expertise-based. This makes it important to create an environment where people want to work. This is exactly what the leading companies in the market are currently focusing on.
What is employee engagement?
Before we dive into what these companies do, it is important to understand what is employee engagement. This is a phenomenon that refers to how engaged employees are with their work. The objective is to have a highly engaged workforce. There are many reasons to do so, such as:
- Increased productivity
- More creativity
- Increased employee satisfaction
- Lower employee turnover
- Less sick leave
As you can imagine from these points, there’s a lot at stake. Not only does it help employees become more productive, but it also helps companies attract new employees. In an age where everything is about skills and expertise, this makes it of utmost importance for companies.
How can we measure it?
There are many ways to look at employee engagement. Similar to other fields in academic research, there is both qualitative and quantitative research that can be conducted. Qualitative employee engagement is as easy as a conversation between a team lead and a member. What are their challenges? What makes them happy at work? How do they feel about the company’s direction? This can all indicate how engaged they are. Any challenges that pop up? Team leads can work to mitigate them to create a better working environment, resulting in a higher engagement.
Quantitative tools for larger groups of people
Gathering data on a larger scale is more difficult when retrieved through interviews. Let alone the privacy of a team member. A good approach is the use of surveys. These can be sent across the enterprise and filled in anonymously. The questions can range from the company’s vision and mission to personal questions. The data can prove to be very useful to set up an engagement initiative in the organization.
Analytics, reporting, and expertise-based recommendations
It does not stop at collecting data. There are handy tools that make it possible to create reports and dashboards that can be analyzed. Based on these insights, organizations can start to take action. Many companies are offering high-tech tooling that can be used to measure employee engagement. Not only do these tools provide templates, reporting, and dashboards, they also offer their expertise. For example, they can recommend actions to take when a specific behavior is showing in the organization. Their tooling can also help to track the progress of the engagement once started. Do the actions help? Can we detect progress? This makes it possible to stay on track towards increased employee engagement.
