You Collected Employee Engagement Data... Now What?

Capturing employee engagement data is essential to knowing how satisfied and motivated your team is at work. Motivated employees are more likely to perform better at their job, so checking in with your employees regularly via surveys will ensure you’re able to address issues as they arise and maintain an engaged workforce.

Evaluating employee engagement results starts with surveys and data collection, but it doesn’t stop there. According to a Gallup poll, only about 32% of employees in the US are engaged, which goes to show just how much organizations are struggling to measure and improve employee engagement.

If you’ve recently collected engagement data from your employees — either via a third party or through a form you created yourself — you may be wondering what to do next. You’ve got all this valuable data — but what do you do with it?

Find the Story in the Data

To get real value from the data that you’ve collected, you have to dig through it and discover where you need to make changes. You need to locate both the strengths and weaknesses within your business.

First, make a point of looking for patterns. Are there areas in which your organization scored low across the board? This is an obvious place to start. Identifying failings that are affecting employee happiness is key to moving the needle.

Next, dissect the data. When creating employee engagement surveys, bear in mind that the questions you ask and the way you ask them will affect how easily you can draw conclusions from the data. At an absolute minimum, you need to be able to segment the data by department.

This will facilitate your ability to find patterns by department. Not all teams work the same, and not all teams have the same concerns. Data creates stories at both an individual and a team level, so be sure to consider both.

Create a Plan and Discuss

Once you’ve identified patterns and drawn conclusions, it’s time to talk to individuals one-on-one. Communication is at the heart of all successful businesses.

But all too often, surveys go out, surveys come back, and then they’re forgotten. Some managers never act on the data, even though it’s right at their fingertips. Not only is this a lost opportunity for making positive changes to the business, but it can leave employees feeling as if their voices aren’t being heard — or worse, ignored.

Avoid this by taking the time to sit down with every employee that’s taken part and discuss what’s keeping them engaged at work, and what (if anything) is holding them back. Give your employees structure, help them plan for the future, and act on what they tell you so you don’t lose their trust.

Highlight Goals and Values

In order for team members to be happy at work, they need to know what makes a successful employee. Managers must be able to communicate this effectively in order to empower their team to give their work their all.

Here are some ideas in order to do so:

● Recognize team members for the excellent work that they do
● Make sure that all your employees have the tools they need to do their job to the best of their ability
● Clearly communicate what is expected of each employee within their role
● Encourage ongoing development within their roles and the organization as a whole

Encourage Communication

Employees feeling left out or uninformed could be a huge barrier to engagement. This is something that you’ll be able to uncover through your data and that you should work on resolving.

If your communication channels aren’t working effectively, consider how you can enhance them.
For example, a company newsletter can be a great way to make sure that everyone is informed of important company updates and information and that nothing slips through the cracks.

For more day-to-day communication among teams, email can be inefficient and overwhelming, so more informal channels like messaging apps may be a good alternative. All team workflows are different so be sure to take this into account and implement the best tools for your organization.

When collecting employee engagement data, remember that crafting a questionnaire and gathering the data is only the first step – it’s what happens afterwards that will make a positive difference to your team. Make sure to give the data the attention it deserves to identify areas of improvement and take action as soon as possible to engage your team at work.