Lots of things have changed since the start of 2020. Not only did we see a pandemic sweeping across continents, we also needed to adopt to new ways of working as a result. Many of the largest companies in the world are now working from home. No more place to unite and feel unity, with all events being moved to an online environment. What does this do to the employee engagement of an organisation? What becomes evident is the fact that we need to rethink how we can engage employees altogether.
What works well
When looking at employee engagement in a virtual world, there are some key lessons we can observe from high performers. For example, organisations that are doing well have stand-ups on a daily basis. Checking in with your team is not only helpful in an agile way of working, but also helps to create a feeling of unity. This is at the foundation of what employee engagement is about. Besides that, having regular meetings on the state of the business can help.
Keep your employees (financially) informed
With these uncertain times, it becomes of more importance to know how the company is performing. How are we doing? What is our profit? This can already take away some of the uncertainty that employees feel in these challenging times. If the numbers are not bringing peace, consider to share initiatives that the company is putting through to increase profitability. This will help to get employees engaged about what is needed to go there, increasing their feeling of purpose.
How to measure employee engagement
Although it can feel like an abstract term, it is definitely possible to measure the engagement. There are many ways to do so, including some very helpful tools that are readily available. First and foremost, it helps to start talking to employees across all levels. How are they feeling about the changes? What do they think is going well? How can we improve as an organisation? These questions help you to create understanding and act upon the findings.
A more scientific approach is possible
Besides doing qualitative interviews, it is possible to conduct surveys to measure engagement. Of course, this also depends on the types of questions asked. Luckily there is tooling available that can help with the creation of such a survey. One of the leaders in the field is Effectory, an employee engagement company. Their surveys are being used across small and large organisations and come with handy tooling to foster the execution. Effectory not only provides the surveys, it also comes with a dashboard and analytics that can help filter information.
Follow-up on what comes out
As the company has learned from many organisations, it can provide you with tailored recommendations. This helps you to accurately increase the engagement and measure the improvements along the way. This helps you across the whole journey of increasing the engagement in the organisation.
