Is your business fully optimised for success, or could you do more to create the kind of working environment that engages employees and boosts their wellbeing?
Even if you think you have addressed the concerns of a modern working environment, like creating a compassionate workplace, for instance, there is always more you can do to ensure that employees enjoy their work and are fully committed to the company's business goals.
If you wondered why employees should be concerned with company goals, the answer is simple - your business will flourish if your workers have a stake in the business model and have some agency to affect outcomes. It's clear from numerous studies and research that this is the case.
The question is, what is the best way to make employees care about their company and their job roles, pushing them to work at a higher level. The answer is simple; it's employee engagement software.
The best employee engagement methods just became more sophisticated and accessible than ever before. Not only can this software be bought conveniently from dedicated sellers with accessible support services, but it's easier than ever to integrate into your business and to see actionable results right away.
What Is An Employee Engagement Survey?
All businesses require routine assessments to measure the success of their current processes and to help make changes that align with company goals and industry standards. One such assessment is an employee engagement report that measures the attitude and productivity of employees.
The best employee engagement software is not only an assessment of how your workers feel about the company and its management; it is also an indication as to how well the business is operating and where its strengths and weaknesses lie. These assessments can be carried out over a three or four-month cycle.
The benefits of employee engagement software cannot be understated. Not only does it give company management an opportunity to understand the feeling of its staff, but it provides opportunities to optimise the company for growth and create some benchmark comparisons.
Nowadays, competition is high in most industries, and companies need to find any competitive advantage where possible. It's natural to think about productivity in this regard, which is why engagement software is so useful as it can help to increase productivity in new ways.
Reasons To Conduct Employee Engagement Surveys
To measure engagement with the business
Operating a successful business requires attention to detail and routine analytical assessments since business productivity is closely linked to staff members' attitudes and engagement. If staff members are underperforming, that affects revenues, your bottom line, and even staff motivation.
Employee engagement software can be one of the best ways to gauge the performance of employees on a regular basis. Using the STAR Workplace Program, a series of survey questions are created for staff based on an earlier interview with the company leadership. These results are then presented following the survey.
To give employees a voice
If you think an employee engagement tool is all about improving engagement and productivity in the business, you'd be correct - but it's equally about giving employees a voice and helping them to feel more engaged with the company. After all, an invested workforce is a more productive workforce.
When employees feel as though there is nothing at stake for them, they are less likely to perform at a high level. On the other hand, if your employees can see they are valuable to the work carried out at the management level, they will work harder and smarter for the greater benefit of the business.
To find out where you need to grow
A business that isn't growing is stagnating, which means it has lost its imperatives and probably its competitive advantages as well. However, if a business is growing too fast or without the proper sales and marketing infrastructure, there's a chance the growth attempts will backfire.
Employee engagement software can help your business grow by identifying areas in the business where employee experience slows growth. While it might take some careful planning to achieve growth in these areas, you can at least begin to think about how to take your business forward.
For benchmark comparisons
Benchmarking data refers to the practice of gathering data from your business for the purposes of later comparisons. This means that the analytical data you accumulate from your survey may not be immediately relevant to business operations, but it can be used for industry comparisons and insights.
This benchmark data is usually compiled through employee engagement software. The data on employee performance can then be matched with the performances of other leading companies in the industry. This practice also helps your business to identify any issues you may have in your setup.
To improve engagement
Following an employee engagement software audit, the business can quickly start to improve staff engagement levels by identifying areas of strength and weakness within the business. For example, you can find out whether employees are happy at the company and if they have any issues with leadership
When the survey is complete, you can make immediate changes to the way the company operates to increase engagement levels and improve on some of the weaker areas in your organisation. First, you will identify the key areas for change, then you can develop an action plan and allocate the appropriate resources.
What Makes A Great Employee Engagement Survey?
It's anonymous
Without anonymity, your employee engagement software will be less effective. Most people naturally feel more able to be open and honest about their employee experience with the company if they know they are not going to be judged for their comments later.
You want your employees to speak openly and honestly in the survey so that you can make changes that make a real difference to the success of the business. However, while it might be useful in some ways to know where comments come from, without anonymity you cannot guarantee honest and straightforward feedback.
It's specific
The questions chosen for your employee engagement report are important - vague questions might encourage the same kind of answers. Instead, the questions need to be more specific and can also be directed at certain areas of the business with focused goals.
Instead of asking a question such as "is your team any good?" or "do you like your team?", it might be better to ask something like "does your team help you with your work?". Although the latter question encourages a yes or no response, it is more pointed and can be followed up with a probing statement.
It gathers useful data
There's no limit to the quantity and quality of data that can be acquired through an employee engagement report, which is probably why they are so popular with companies worldwide. By tweaking questions here and there, businesses can always adjust data collection to fit their goals.
This type of data is always useful as it can be utilised to make the company more efficient and the employees more satisfied. Furthermore, the data gathering process can be fully optimised to suit the individual company requirements at a particular time, improving growth and productivity.
It gives opportunities for honest employee feedback
If you operate a business in a traditional setting or through an online platform, you will know that employees get frustrated with processes that are less efficient than they could be or policies that need to be updated or changed. Unfortunately, though, employees don't always have the chance to speak up.
An anonymous employee engagement report is the perfect opportunity for your employees to honestly give their views on the company processes. This improves employee morale because they know they have an outlet and opportunity for change, and it also helps you to streamline your workplace practices.
Ways To Improve Employee Engagement
Communication is the number one way to improve your employee engagement. Of course, nowadays there are lots of different forms of communication, but no matter which forms you use, it's important that your communication is clear as well as regular. Make sure your workers know they have regular check-in times and can always contact you.
The compassionate workplace is a new buzzword in the world of employee engagement, and it is no surprise as to why. A tired, disgruntled, and overworked workforce will be less productive than one that is content and well-organised. If you can promote wellbeing values in your workplace, it's a win-win situation that will see your productivity increase as well as staff happiness.
You can carry out as many employee engagement surveys as you like, but it won't make much difference if your employees don't feel as if they are being heard. That is why you need to act on your surveys and ensure your employees know you are taking their comments seriously. Additionally, you can further enhance employee engagement by offering them plenty of opportunities to contact you.
Motivation is also a critical factor, not only to your business model but also to your employees. You need your workers to be invested in the company if they are to produce the highest standard of work for you, and one way to do this is to share your organisation's purpose with them.
Try to show them the real impact of their work, so they feel connected to the processes and appreciated by the company.
Why Use Employee Engagement Software For Your Surveys?
One reason is confidentiality. When you use the traditional paper form for employee engagement software, you run the risk of them lacking anonymity or becoming mixed up. In addition, paper sources are harder to store and usually less secure, even with cybersecurity threats. Nowadays, it is far more secure to collect and store data digitally, which can then be protected and used responsibly.
Another reason that companies use employee engagement software is to identify weaknesses using analytical data. Those weaknesses can then be addressed to foster a more efficient and productive business. While this can be accomplished using traditional surveys, it is much faster and simpler to use engagement software and benefit from the pre-programmed analytics that it provides.
Employee experience software also improves the onboarding process for employees. By giving them a series of questions that help them feel like a valued member of the team, the business can also be provided with some valuable employee feedback at the same time. Even though new employees don't have much experience with the company yet, they do have a new perspective that can be a bonus to the business.
The main benefit of using software for your surveys is the convenience brought to the process overall. The software is so easy to integrate into a working environment, and doesn't interfere with the day-to-day running of the business. You will find that regularly offering your staff surveys will improve their wellbeing, encouraging employee retention and decreasing employee turnover rates.
Why Choose STAR Workplace As Your Employee Engagement Platform?
Employee satisfaction is important for measuring the success of your employee engagement, but it is only the tip of the iceberg.
According to research from MIT Sloan Business School, this satisfaction only accounts for 25% of employee engagement. The rest is made up of employee alignment, employee commitment, employee loyalty, and employee performance. STAR methodology takes these other drivers into account as well.
The STAR Workplace Program is also successful because it uses a strategic action model that identifies the weakness in the area between business activity and strategy, meaning that improvements can be made efficiently that will lead to improved productivity and sustainability.
Nowadays, it's vital to strike a balance between growth and sustainability, and the STAR system is the best route to success.
Employee alignment is another key area the STAR system works to address. For some reason, a lot of big businesses worldwide tend to neglect their HR policy even though they have policies in place for almost everything else.
Arguably though, HR policy is the most important factor as workers need to be paid efficiently, and businesses need streamlined processes. This is where the STAR system can really help.
Another branch of the STAR methodology is the Whitepapers that are regularly published with research-backed data on emerging industry trends. It's very important for businesses to keep pace with these emerging trends in order to benefit from their profitability - this might be the application of new knowledge or technology.
Proven methodology
Companies looking to invest in an effective employee engagement platform don't want to waste their time with sub-standard products that fail to deliver. However, they need to know that the software or system they are investing in is tried and tested and will not need replacing. The STAR methodology has been proven both practically in the field and in research.
To produce the innovative STAR methodology, in-depth research was carried out into the four key areas of employee engagement. Notably, these key areas - those of employee alignment, employee commitment, employee engagement, and employee function - were addressed individually to create a system for employee engagement solutions like no other.
Actionable results
There are two parts to the STAR methodology that help optimise and grow your business. One of them is the Strategic Action Model that brings together alignment, commitment, loyalty, and performance in one place for an overview. It then provides a detailed outline of the findings of the research so that your business can take action in key areas to achieve its short and long term goals.
Without actionable results, you won't be able to improve employee engagement. Data about how your employees feel or how your business is getting on, won't be the kind of data that can transform the productivity engine of your business and drive it forward. For this, you need specific and practical results so you can make efficient changes right away.
Continued support
So what happens after the survey has been carried out and the results delivered to your management? When you invest in our STAR methodology, you aren't left to your own devices; there is always support available at any time. On the website, you can find four ways to contact the STAR team with any issues or questions you have about the survey or its results.
The STAR team will always be available to take on your questions and concerns, replying to you promptly. Whether you have an issue with one of the results, or a question about the process or methodology, you will receive a friendly and professional after-service that seeks to resolve issues quickly.
FAQs
How can engagement surveys help my business grow?
Employee engagement software takes different forms; some of them are issued as paper questionnaires that are then assessed, while others take the form of smart software solutions with additional features. Naturally, there is a shift towards the latter methodology today, as more companies value the efficiency of data processing.
Employee engagement software measures staff contentment and commitment levels and identifies weaknesses in the business model. Additionally, the survey provides the company with up-to-date information on their processes that can be compared with another company culture in a process called benchmarking. STAR software gives you actionable results that can transform your business.
How do I get employees to complete an engagement survey?
If you have an employee engagement platform organised, it's important that your employees know exactly when and how to fill it out. A survey is an important part of your business growth strategy that requires investment, so it shouldn't be an afterthought. One good way to engage employees in the process is to make an announcement about it in a meeting when everyone is there.
But that's not the only way you can ask your company to complete an engagement report. Sending an email round detailing some information about the survey and then allocating some time for your employees to fill it out is a tried and tested method.
Many people don't take surveys seriously - announcing them formally to your team, and treating it as an important strategy for business growth is a great way to ensure a high completion rate.
Is employee survey software worth it?
Put it this way, how important is it that your business can address your employees' concerns, track their feedback, and use the data to outcompete other businesses?
In reality, an employee engagement platform is just as important to your business as cybersecurity software or a managed service provider. It can streamline your business and help it grow.
In addition to this, employee engagement software is both affordable and useful. This software can provide your business with data on employee engagement and loyalty in alignment with the company's business model and goals.
If you want your business to flourish long term, this data is invaluable, allowing you to implement immediate changes as needed.
Will better engagement improve employee performance?
The short answer is yes! Studies show that employee engagement with a company has a direct effect on the success of the business. Employees need to feel invested in the company culture and on the same team to reach peak performance levels, and this simply doesn't happen if there is a gap between the work they do and the results they see. It also helps employee retention and employee turnover.
With the best employee engagement software, you can increase employee engagement and employee recognition. When employees are asked what they think about how the business is operated, it gives them agency in the business and makes them feel respected.
The effect is a more engaged and committed workforce willing to go the extra mile. This can be further reinforced with employee feedback.
About the author
Sean Murray is Partner at HR Headquarters, specialising in Outsourced HR and Business Improvement for the SME sector. He is a leader in the areas of Human Resources strategy, DiSC personality profiling, Emotional Intelligence and Business Benchmarking to improve organisational capability.