When we say, "employee engagement", what do you think of? If you answered "a survey", you're not alone... but is a survey really the best way to dive engagement in your organization? We don't think so.

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How to actually improve
engagement, not just pester your
people with another survey.
#7 in the series: How to build a high-performing organization in the 21st century.

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We have an experiment
for you.

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When we say
“employee engagement”
What do you think of?

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If you answered “a survey”,
you’re not alone…
most people
think of
“engagement” as
an annual
survey, and
nothing more.

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So why don’t we realize it
really sucks when it
happens at work?What the heck?

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How in the world does a
survey actually drive
engagement??
We’ll give you a
hint. It doesn’t.

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To actually improve
engagement, first remember
that instead of that annual
survey, your engagement
activities should be…

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1) Part of your everyday.
It’s silly to think that something that occurs just annually has any effect on the hearts and minds of
your people the other 364 days of the year. Your engagement activities need to be something you
do all the time, not measure every once in a while.
Tip: Avoid an engagement program with a laundry list of initiatives that all get inadequate attention. Pick a very
short list, set priorities, and execute one or two at a time. Ensure very visible impact. That focus will pay dividends.
Try making it second nature to your
leaders to think about engagement
when making business decisions.
Make it part of your culture to always
ask, “are our employees doing work
they enjoy? Do they feel valued and
heard?”

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2) Connected to your desired
business outcomes.
This might surprise you a little, but we don’t think on-site dry cleaning and free foosball are
particularly good drivers of engagement. Why? Because they have nothing to do with connecting
the hearts and minds of your people to the great meaning – and organizational goals – of your
business.
Tip: Think of your engagement activities as a lever to improve business outcomes. Through your data gathering you
can diagnose challenges with your performance model, make improvements to your systems, and measure progress.
Frequently share where your
organization is headed, why it
matters, and the part your team
plays in getting you there.
Because once you’ve connected
to your team’s hearts and minds,
real business results will follow.

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3) Responsive.
Tip: When it comes to listening, take advantage of the “always on” nature of the world today. Leverage social media,
phones, and tablets. Listen to sound bites often — and only occasionally collect extensive survey information.
make those things a reality. Taking
actions on their insight is likely to make
the business better, and their jobs
easier. Talk about an engagement win-
win!
We like what Henry David Thoreau once
wrote: “The greatest compliment that
was ever paid me was when one asked
me what I thought, and attended to my
answer”.
One of the best ways to drive engagement is through authentic communication between leaders
and employees. You can implement cool perks until the cows come home, but if your people still
feel like they’re unheard and undervalued, none of that will matter.
Listen to your people when and where they are talking. Participate in discussions. Ask the hard
questions. Discover the things that really matter to your people – and then

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Of course, we’re not
telling you that you
should never measure
engagement.

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Measurement allows you to
assess if you’re putting your
people investments in the
right place.
As long as you remember that you don’t get
engagement solely by measuring it!

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Just think of it as part of a cycle.:
Step 2: Decide how
you’re going to
measure it.
Step 4: Analyze
what you hear.
Step 5: Do
something
about it.
Step 7: If it worked,
decide if you want to do
more. If it didn’t, what
should you do instead?
Step 6: Find out
if it worked by
measuring
again.
Step 1: Figure out what
you need to know.
Step 3: Listen to your people
to gather data – when and
where they are talking
Measure, learn, act,
measure, learn, act…
repeat.

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Got it? Let’s review.
Shameless plug: We have a new solution to help organizations do all this. It’s called ACTIVEngagement™.You
should check it out even if you’re an engagement rock star. It’s cool stuff.
1) Yearly surveys don’t drive engagement, they measure it.
2) The act of measuring itself does nothing to actually create engagement.
3) But measuring, if done properly, can help you define what activities will
create better engagement, and improve your business systems as a
whole.
4) Remember your beautiful cycle: measure, learn, act, measure, learn, act,
repeat.
Your people will thank you.

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your people = your success.
PeopleFirm is a consulting firm dedicated to achieving the
ultimate win-win: inspired people driving inspired performance.
We focus on effective tools, measurable outcomes, real results,
and getting your people out of their seats and engaged in your
company’s growth.
www.peoplefirm.com
thanks for reading.