Do your employee engagement survey scores really tell you how engaged and productive your workforce is? Many organizations rely heavily on these annual survey results to gauge the health and motivation levels of their teams. But emerging research shows that traditional engagement surveys are poor predictors of actual business outcomes and performance.
To truly understand what drives results, you need to look beyond simple satisfaction scores to more nuanced measures of how people think, feel and act at work. By digging deeper into the key drivers of engagement that align with your strategic priorities, you can better predict bottom-line organizational success. Here's what you need to know.
For years, the gold standard for measuring workforce engagement has been the annual employee survey. Organizations spend significant time and resources administering these assessments, analyzing the data, and making plans to address pain points.
The underlying assumption is that higher engagement scores equate to a more motivated, committed and productive workforce. Improve your scores, the thinking goes, and business results will follow.
However, a growing body of evidence suggests that most engagement surveys are not very effective at predicting actual performance. One analysis found that for every five percent increase in engagement scores, companies saw only a 0.6 percent increase in sales. Other studies show a similarly weak link between survey results and key outcomes like profitability, productivity, turnover and customer loyalty.
So why aren't engagement surveys more predictive? Experts point to a few key limitations:
Point-in-Time Data: Surveys provide a snapshot of engagement at one moment, but engagement levels naturally ebb and flow throughout the year. What matters more is the overall pattern over time.
Biased Results: How questions are phrased and who responds can skew survey data. Employees may also tell you what they think you want to hear instead of what they really feel.
Lagging Indicators: By the time you get survey results, the most pivotal problems and opportunities have often already come and gone. You're always reacting after the fact.
Limited Insights: Scores alone don't shed light on the nuances of the employee experience. You may know engagement is low in a certain area, but not the reasons why.
To be clear, engagement surveys can still serve a purpose as one data point in a broader workforce analytics strategy. But relying on them as the primary basis for major people decisions is risky.
Luckily, you have access to much richer data sources that are far more predictive of how engagement impacts the bottom line. The most insightful metrics go beyond measuring satisfaction to assessing the deeper mindsets and behaviors that drive performance.
Research has consistently shown that these factors are most strongly correlated with key business outcomes:
Turnover is costly on many levels—hiring, onboarding, training, lost productivity, etc. Measuring your employees' intent to stay can help you forecast turnover risk and take steps to retain top talent. Look at data points like:
Highly engaged employees don't just meet basic job expectations; they go above and beyond. Metrics that show to what extent your people are bringing their full energy and creativity to their work each day include:
In today's interconnected work environment, very little gets done in isolation. How well your people communicate, coordinate and support each other has a huge impact on team performance and innovation. Indicators include:
Employees who embrace challenges, learn from failures and believe in their ability to improve tend to be more engaged, agile and resilient. Ways to measure growth mindset include:
Engaged employees provide better customer experiences, which leads to higher satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. Useful metrics on customer-facing behaviors include:
To feel engaged, employees need to feel psychologically safe to speak up, fully leveraged in their strengths, and supported in their development and wellbeing. Metrics to watch include:
People who see how their work connects to a larger meaningful purpose will be more intrinsically motivated to bring their best. Indicators of purpose alignment include:
Given today's fast pace of change, an engaged workforce needs to be highly adaptable. They see change as an opportunity to learn and stretch their skills rather than a threat or burden. Signs include:
Measuring these leading indicators of engagement is only the first step. To drive meaningful improvement, you also need to:
While traditional engagement surveys have their place, progressive organizations are moving toward real-time, actionable metrics that are true leading indicators of performance.
By measuring what matters most in shaping the employee experience, you gain much clearer insight into where and how to target your engagement efforts for maximum impact. That data-driven approach is the key to creating a highly committed, agile and resilient workforce that can adapt to any challenge ahead.
Ready to move beyond survey scores? Discover the engagement metrics that truly drive performance and business results.
