What is the One Question We Should Be Asking To Measure Employee Engagement
Jacob Morgan
5x Best-Selling Author, Futurist, & Keynote Speaker. Founder of Future Of Work Leaders (Global CHRO Community). Focused on Leadership, The Future of Work, & Employee Experience
We are obsessed with Employee Engagement in our companies today, but we give employees surveys to fill out with 50-100 questions on them. There has got to be an easier and more direct way to find out if our employees are engaged at work.
Have you ever had to fill out an employee engagement survey that was 50 to 100 questions long? I think most people these days have. Organizations are obsessed with measuring employee engagement and they feel that in order to get a true picture of how they are doing they have to ask hundreds of questions once or twice a year. But does this really give an accurate picture of engagement
In a marriage you and your spouse have a good idea of whether or not the relationship is healthy. You could ask your spouse directly, “are you happy with our relationshipâ€, and they would be able to answer you immediately. You wouldn’t have to give them a form with 50 questions to get that answer.
In the same way, employees know if they are engaged at work and enjoy their job and if you ask them they can give you a yes or no answer on the spot. We need to come up with a way to simplify the process. Our challenge is we have to find the one question that we should be asking employees to find out if they are happy, engaged, passionate and feel like they belong. What do you think that one question should be?
Let me know what you think, comment below to share your thoughts! You can subscribe to the YouTube channel for more videos.
Jacob Morgan is a best-selling author, speaker, and futurist. His new book, The Employee Experience Advantage (Wiley) analyzes over 250 global organizations to understand how to create a place where people genuinely want to show up to work. Subscribe to his newsletter, visit TheFutureOrganization, or become a member of the new Facebook Community The Future If…and join the discussion.
Organisational Strategy | Workforce Development | Digital Capability
4yGreat discussion! I believe it's not just WHAT the question is but HOW we ask it. For me the real question is whether someone feels they've been able to contribute and make a positive difference through their work. Completely agree with comments below that most surveys are geared to reporting over actual improvement. We put weight on both question design AND the the follow-up process encouraging teams to have honest follow-up discussions. I'd be keen to talk and share experiences with others in this area.
'Value Dreamer' | 'Human' to 'Resource' Philosophy | 'The Wispering Sculpture'
4yThe surveys results vs the actual feelings mostly will be different. The real engagement can be seen during the crisis face by the organisation. How many of them stand strong to overcome the crisis. That count is the actual engagement score of the company.
🧠Psychologist • 👨🎓 Educational Developer • 👨🔬 Scientific Communicator | Don't stop learning, keep on growing! #NoBullshit
7yGreat thougths. Statistically speaking, just one good question could explain the vast majority of the variance, so indeed it wouldn't be necessary to create (way too) long and boring surveys ;)
CEO | Facilitator | Executive Coach | Keynote Speaker | Co-Founder AF Drinks
7yI couldn't agree with you more Jacob Morgan. Surveys are so incredibly superficial and reveal far too little about what is truly going on in the minds of employees - how they feel and the questions they have in their minds but dare not say. Surveys seem to be designed to produce graphs rather than insights. How about simply starting a conversation with employees - allow them to tell their story and really listen.
Managing Director, Employee Experience, International geography at WTW
7yIt depends on purpose of asking, what the feedback is for, who will receive it, and who will respond. And whether you want to understand why they answer that one question that way. Can your doctor tell you everything you need to know with one metric? I don't think so.