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How to Measure Employee Engagement: 7 Best Ways

Updated October 30, 2023

Measuring employee engagement is not an easy task, but with the right methods and guidelines, it sure is possible to do so. This is why we prepared this detailed guide - to help you successfully measure the employee engagement levels in your company so you can have a better insight into how committed your employees are to your company and its values.

We’ll share the best ways to measure employee engagement so that you can come up with an impactful engagement strategy to help improve employee engagement. But before we do that, we’ll explain what employee engagement is and why it should be measured regularly.

Without further ado, let’s get to it!

What Is Employee Engagement?

what-is-employee-engagement

Defining employee engagement is hard, but it’s far from impossible. In fact, there are various definitions regarding the concept of employee engagement, and here are four that best explain the concept:

  1. Employee engagement is the strength of the mental and emotional connection employees feel toward their places of work. Quantum Workplace

  2. Engaged employees as those who are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace. Gallup

  3. Engagement is employees' willingness and ability to contribute to company success. Wills Towers Watson

  4. Employee engagement is "the level of an employee's psychological investment in their organization." Aon Hewitt

In essence, employee engagement is a very significant concept when it comes to understanding and describing the relationship between a company and its employees.

Highly engaged employees are those who are fully enthusiastic about their work, take initiative, have a positive attitude toward the company they work for, and understand and respect its values. They take action to boost the company’s reputation further and are capable of showing high levels of employee loyalty.

Finally, not only does employee engagement impact notions such as employee turnover rates, productivity, and performance - it’s also a key factor to customer satisfaction, confirming a company's authority in the industry, as well as the overall stakeholder value.

Turnover rates, specifically, are a concern. More employees are leaving their companies at higher reates. If you're not measuring that and thinking of ways to reduce it, your business could suffer productivity issues and deadweight costs. If you want to start measuiring your turnover, try this new turover calculator tool we created for teams like yours.

Employee Engagement Statistics

You can’t always rely on statistics when you make business decisions, as each corporate context is unique, but you can’t neglect them either. In other words, you can’t neglect the implications certain stats have for companies because, most of the time, they tend to suggest where the majority of people are.

So, when it comes to employee engagement statistics, here’s what you as an employer need to know at this point:

  • 34% of the US workforce say they feel engaged in their workplace, while 53% of US workers aren’t;

  • global employee engagement statistics report that just 15% of employees across the world are truly engaged in their work;

  • 47% of employees actively looking for a job claim they’d prefer working for a company with an already established and thriving company culture;

  • according to the 2020 employee engagement statistics, 1 in every 3 employees quit their job due to boredom;

  • companies that have a high level of employee engagement are said to be much more profitable by a factor of 21%;

  • US employers allegedly lose more than $5,000 each time an employee leaves their company - on the whole, disengaged US employees are said to cost their employers $450 to $500 billion every year;

  • companies with high employee engagement stats also have a 50% higher customer loyalty than those with poor employee engagement.

Why Measure Employee Engagement?

why-measure-employee-engagement

Now that you know what employee engagement is, it’s not hard to understand why you need to measure employee engagement metrics. After all, how can you know where your company stands if you don’t have any data or information to support your general impressions?

There are many reasons why employee engagement should be measured. If we know that satisfied employees are more likely to:

  • refer a friend or an acquaintance at your company;

  • stay in your company long-term;

  • be satisfied with their job position;

  • have consistently positive performance reviews;

  • help their peers;

  • and enjoy what they do…

…then you know that measuring engagement will show you where individual employees stand. Companies that measure engagement and understand its implications also have:

  • better customer service;

  • higher sales;

  • higher levels of employee retention;

  • better services/products, to name a few.

What’s more, measuring engagement allows you to notice trends over some time (for instance, employees acting more disengaged and distracted before a team-building event which will enable you to solve problems before they worsen. You get to take the level of trust in your company to the next level, too.

All in all, measuring employee engagement levels enables companies to get insights into how a highly engaged employee looks, behaves, acts, and thinks. That said, measuring employee engagement is just the initial step. Next, you need to communicate the results with your workers, discuss them further with your HR team, and finally act on them accordingly.

How To Measure Employee Engagement?

how-to-measure-employee-engagement

Knowing you need to measure the engagement levels in your company is the first step to addressing employee engagement. However, a much more important decision is opting for the right methods and tools to get you there.

There are many such methods out there, but we bring you the very best ones.

Let’s begin with the first one.

1) Pulse Surveys

Pulse surveys are brief and regular employee engagement surveys sent to employees on an ongoing basis. The idea is to choose survey questions tailored to your company’s goals, priorities, and overall needs.

The purpose behind carrying out such surveys is to learn more about employees’ opinions on job-related roles and various corporate topics, explore communication and interpersonal relationships, as well as gain insights into the overall work dynamic and office atmosphere. In essence, you get to see whether your employees are engaged or not.

Although they’re much shorter than annual engagement surveys, pulse surveys are very effective in promoting action, preventing issues from progressing further (which helps employers react faster), and exploring the overall employee experience within a certain period of time. And being able to ask the same questions over some time allows you to compare answers and evaluate your employees’ feedback to see what has or hasn’t changed.

To be able to successfully gather data and come up with proper action, you need easy-to-read reports, such as the ones we offer. Each completed survey using our tool generates a report which shows you a clear breakdown of all comments and questions.

Pulse Survey Questions

To get a general idea of what a pulse survey looks like, just take a look at some of the following questions taken from our 51 Most Effective Pulse Survey Questions [2024 Edition] article:

  • Would you say you receive useful employee feedback on a regular basis for the work you do?

  • On a scale of 1-10 (1 being the lowest, and 10 the highest), how excited are you about your job?

  • On a scale of 1-10 (1 being the lowest, and 10 the highest), how productive are your work days?

  • How likely are you to get bored with your current work routine in the foreseeable future? (1) Not likely; (2) Somewhat likely; (3) Very likely;

  • How likely are you to give up on a task/project upon encountering the first obstacle? (1) Not likely; (2) Somewhat likely; (3) Very likely;

  • I can implement everything I learned from training/coaching/mentoring sessions right away in my work. (1) Strongly disagree; (2) Disagree; (3) Neither agree nor disagree; (4) Agree; (5) Strongly agree

  • I think this company employs workers with high qualifications and relevant work experience. (1) Strongly disagree; (2) Disagree; (3) Neither agree nor disagree; (4) Agree; (5) Strongly agree

  • Are there any out-of-office activities you would like to participate in together with your peers?

Finally, apart from pulse surveys, you may consider including annual engagement surveys, employee satisfaction surveys, employee experience surveys, and others, depending on your needs.

2) One-On-One Meetings

One-on-one meetings are regular check-ins between two people in the company (usually an employer and an employee). That said, there can be one-on-one meetings between two employees, too.

There are a plethora of reasons why employers have one-on-one meetings with their employees. Here are the most common ones:

  • giving feedback (or asking for one);

  • resolving issues;

  • keeping each other in the loop;

  • discussing projects, opinions, problems, and ongoing tasks;

  • coaching.

Types of Meetings

In general, such meetings may be formal or informal. Formal meetings include processes such as recruitment and onboarding, as well as training sessions, performance reviews, and even meetings organized by senior leaders.

Informal meetings, on the other hand, refer to casual coaching sessions, mentoring, career development discussions, giving feedback, talking in times of personal crises, and so on.

Both formal and informal gatherings have their significance, although they may be executed differently. What matters the most is that these meetings should be a more frequent occurrence than, let’s say, just once a year.

And many wonder - how frequently should these meetings take place? How often should employers meet with their employees? And of course, how long are these meetings supposed to last?

According to some studies, the average manager allegedly spends 30 minutes every 3 weeks with each of their employees.

However, those employees who got little to no one-on-one time with their manager are much more likely to be disengaged, while those who get twice the number of one-on-ones are up to 67% less likely to be disengaged.

Even without such statistics or research, one thing’s clear - consistent meetings help build trust and allow employees to benefit from engaging in an ongoing interaction with their superior. Being able to express their thoughts, share concerns, and discuss ongoing business matters boosts the engagement, productivity, motivation, and retention levels in a company.

Finally, no one can tell you how many one-on-one meetings you’re supposed to schedule with your employees. You should consider the size of your company along with the exact number of employees, as well as the rest of your responsibilities. Don’t forget to also consider your workers’ schedules, project deadlines, and ongoing matters.

3) Small Group Discussions

Small group discussions are a great suggestion for employers who wish to see firsthand how engaged their workers are. You get to ask everything you wish to and you get to observe your workers’ behaviors, comments, overall approach to what’s being discussed.

And while you can’t hold such meetings or discussions on a daily basis, you can hold them frequently enough so that you get insight into the employee engagement situation in your company.

You can have discussions/meetings for many reasons. For instance, there could be a focus group in your company dealing with a specific product/service launch. Such gatherings can tell a lot about how your employees work, how they behave, what they think, and how they collaborate.

The Many Aspects of Employer and Employee Discussions

First and foremost, you need to let your workers know about the topic of discussion or what the meeting will be about (that way you also get to see which workers came prepared - they might bring notes, come with questions, or simply share their views on the spot). So, if you’re discussing how to advertise your latest product, make sure everyone is notified and on board with it.

During the meeting, notice how your employees behave. In other words, does anyone seem a bit absent-minded? Is there someone who’s absent, yet they promised to attend the discussion? What about the employee who seems more interested in their phone rather than what’s being discussed?

That said, don’t forget to be a role model for your employees by being engaged in the discussion yourself.

Online vs. In-Person Discussions

These small group discussions can take place both online and in person. For instance, you may hold regular weekly/biweekly meetings where you’ll raise issues, discuss ongoing matters, and focus on what’s been going on in the company. You might even have a focus group, as we suggested above, where workers gather to discuss a particular product launch. Employees should feel welcome to initiate other discussions as well.

When it comes to remote communication, however, things can be much more spontaneous. Each employee can write a comment, give feedback, or reply to a question whenever they find it convenient to do so. How active and involved they are in the discussion will be an indicator of how really engaged they are.

4) Stay/Exit Interviews

Stay interviews

Stay interviews are interviews between a manager/HR leader and an employee. The purpose of these interviews is to inform employers about what keeps employees working for a company, and what aspects may need some improvement.

These interviews are also very useful in noticing problems in your company as it allows you to find a way to solve them before it’s too late. After all, you can’t solve problems for the employee leaving the company during an exit interview (but more about exit interviews in a moment).

The results that stay interviews provide employers with can be some of the most useful information you can gather about your company, as well as how your workers perceive it. You get to come up with improvement strategies and ideas for how to retain your loyal and hard-working employees, as well as identify certain issues workers might be dealing with.

Stay interviews are much better than longer satisfaction surveys or annual engagement surveys, as they’re a two-way conversation that immediately makes them more personalized and interactive. What’s more, they deal with your employees’ current concerns and job satisfaction, and not with how they used to feel over the past year (as usually is the case with annual engagement surveys, for instance).

That said, it’s worth noting that you can reap the benefits of stay interviews only if your company has high levels of trust, encourages open communication, and allows its employees to express their views, worries, and ideas in a free manner. Otherwise, such interviews can be a waste of time and won’t provide you with any relevant information.

Stay Interviews Questions

You can start the stay interview in many ways, but more often than not it’s advisable to openly let the employee know you’d like to discuss some of the reasons why they’re working for your company. Let them know you’d like to learn what would make them even more satisfied - in other words, how can you make this an even better place for them?

When it comes to the actual questions you may ask, here’s a list to get you started:

  • What do you look forward to when you come to work each day?

  • What do you like most or least about working here?

  • What keeps you working here?

  • If you could change something about your job, what would that be?

  • What would make your job more satisfying?

  • How do you like to be recognized?

  • What talents are not being used in your current role?

  • What would you like to learn here?

  • What motivates (or demotivates) you?

  • What can I do to best support you?

  • What can I do more of or less of as your manager?

  • What might tempt you to leave?

You can wrap the interview session by saying something along the lines of “I really appreciate talking to you today. Your insights are very helpful, and I’m grateful that you shared your thoughts so openly.”

Exit Interviews

Exit interviews provide your company with the chance to receive honest feedback from someone who’s leaving your workplace. This can help you gain information which you can use to prevent more employees from leaving in the future.

To make sure exit interviews are a success, you need to allow workers to freely talk about things that bother them while working for you. You can’t expect a terminating employee to speak frankly about something they weren’t allowed to discuss while working for your company. It’s very similar to the concept of stay interviews. It’s all about making sure there’s honest communication and proper interaction among everyone employed in the company.

Finally, don’t forget that if you decide to conduct stay/exit interviews, you need to make positive changes afterward. In other words, if you learn that several of your employees are leaving your company because of the bad treatment they received from their manager, you can’t leave things as they are. You risk losing more employees, and with that you put your whole company in danger. Plus, it’s not just about not losing employees or endangering your company. It’s about making sure the rest of your workers are happy and satisfied with the way they’re being treated at their workplace.

All in all, neglecting your employees’ feedback can only lead to uncomfortable situations and frustration. Addressing their suggestions/concerns, on the other hand, means you’re committed to making positive changes, and that’s something everyone in the office will notice.

Exit Interviews Questions

Exit interviews are very insightful when it comes to learning what works in your company and what doesn’t.

By asking some of these questions, you get to find out:

  • What factors contributed to your decision to resign?

  • What might have been done to prevent you from leaving?

  • What makes your new job more attractive than your present job?

  • How did you learn about the job opening for the new position you have accepted?

  • Would you consider returning to this company if a position was available in the future?

  • Were the duties and demands of this job described accurately during the interview process?

  • Were you given training to perform the job? How would you assess the quality of that training? What are some of the areas for improvement?

  • What improvements do you suggest to make this job better, more challenging, and/or more interesting?

  • What kind of feedback did you receive from your supervisor and how frequently?

  • How would you describe the management style of the organization overall?

  • What do you like most about working here?

  • What do you like the least about working here?

Whatever happens throughout the exit interview, the interviewer needs to wrap up the session in a civilized and professional manner, and thank the exiting employee for stepping forward and communicating their thoughts in an open way.

5) Drivers Analysis

Driver analysis denotes a statistical method used to evaluate the relationship between distinct variables.

Let’s imagine you wish to boost the employee engagement levels in your company. To do so, first you need to measure the current engagement levels. So how to go about it?

Well, having a general understanding of how your workers feel is great and truly useful, but it doesn’t show you everything you need to know, like the specific factors which actually contribute to the engagement. So focusing just on the general engagement simply won’t do it.

Now, to understand what’s driving the engagement in your company, you need to ask more questions, such as: “Do you have the space to develop skills relevant to your current position?”, or “Does teamwork motivate you enough?”, and so on.

Using a driver analysis is meant to show you which of these factors contributes to the engagement the most. By identifying the engagement “drivers”, you get to improve the employee engagement levels in your office in a much more targeted and effective manner.

For instance, let’s say you discover that teamwork is one of your top “drivers” - this means that the people who respond positively to that question (“Does teamwork motivate you enough?”) are the ones who are also probably the most engaged.

Of course, teamwork is just one option. Here are other such “drivers” you need to be on the lookout for:

  • career growth;

  • a sense of purpose;

  • belonging

  • leadership skills;

  • empowerment;

  • hard work;

  • devotion;

  • loyalty;

  • meaningful relationships among peers, and so on.

Keep in mind that while identifying the “drivers” is very significant, these are by no means permanent results. Put simply, the “drivers” change over time, which means that the things that keep employees engaged change also.

Drivers also vary from company to company and are also affected by changes in the company’s culture, management, or some external factors.

Opting for a high-quality digital platform for your employees can help you observe all these changes, explore ongoing trends, and trace employees’ perspectives. More importantly, having access to the detailed reports afterward is what will help you take action to improve the engagement levels in your company.

6) Track Productivity Metrics

When it comes to how to measure employee engagement, it’s worth mentioning that this concept is closely linked to tracking your employees’ productivity metrics.

First and foremost, productivity is regarded as the act of doing things both quickly and efficiently. In essence, a productive worker is a worker who manages to finish more tasks in a set period, without that affecting the overall quality of the end result. Put simply, productivity refers both to the quality and quantity of the work that’s being handled, and it’s up to you to determine what criteria and productivity measures should be used within your own company.

For instance, productivity for a medical worker means one thing, while productivity for a construction worker is a completely different thing. And even if you’re dealing with the same industry, such as analyzing medical workers’ productivity in the same hospital, you’ll realize that productivity will differ from person to person, depending on their position and job description.

This further reinforces the complexity that comes with measuring productivity. That’s why employees should be very flexible when it comes to dealing with productivity as well as the methods that help measure it.

Benefits of Measuring Productivity

Here’s why you should focus on measuring your workers’ productivity.

  • You (and your team) get to see what areas need improvement, as well as identify what areas and tasks are doing just fine as they are. This allows you to set realistic goals and have realistic expectations.

  • Productivity metrics can help you understand your team better along with their needs.

Measuring productivity boosts employee engagement over time, too.

  • You also get to see who’s truly doing the work, and who isn’t. This is great for planning performance reviews. For instance, there could be that one employee who always seems to be taking a break, sipping coffee, or smoking a cigarette, and you may be under the impression that they’re doing very little. However, once you measure their productivity it may turn out that they’re very well organized, and that simply taking frequent breaks doesn’t impede their performance and productivity at all. But without doing such analysis and tracking productivity metrics, you just wouldn’t know for sure.

  • Productivity is closely linked with the act of providing feedback, so it opens discussions that need to be held and allows for both parties to state their views. What’s more, it allows for discussions based on data and detailed analysis - not on personal judgments or prejudice.

  • Measuring productivity allows you to engage in strategic planning. In other words, you’re much more capable of deciding what actions to take, what decisions to take, what collaborations to accept, and so on, as you’re aware of what can be done and achieved in a specific period of time. There’s an opportunity for proper allocation of labor as well.

  • You can introduce proper time management guidelines in the company based on the results you receive.

Calculating an Employee’s Productivity

So, how do employers/managers/HR teams measure a worker’s productivity? Here are some tips and guidelines we consider are worth applying:

  1. Decide on the output you’re measuring (it’s usually something like “jobs completed” or “finished tasks”).

  2. Choose a period of time to measure. It could be a workday, a week, or for longer tasks, it may even include a whole month.

  3. Measure the amount of output over the period you’ve chosen for each worker. In order to get an average sample, you need to gather enough data.

  4. Next, focus on getting an input figure. This is the number of hours (or another time unit, depending on what you’ve chosen to measure) your worker has spent on production.

  5. Then, divide the output by the input so that you can arrive at a per-hour-figure (or some other time period depending on what you’re measuring). Here’s an example: 20 units per week.

Assign a value. This allows you to measure the cost-benefit ratio.

7) eNPS

eNPS, or Employee Net Promoter Score, is a very effective scoring system that helps companies track and measure employee engagement levels in their workplace.

The eNPS shows you how employees feel about your company just by answering a single question: “How likely are you to recommend us as a place to work to your family and friends?

In essence, the eNPS denotes the difference between your happiest workers and the least happy ones.

A lot of employers wonder how they’re supposed to “use” this question when they plan to measure employee engagement. One of the easiest ways is to use your preferred survey software to create a recurring ENPS survey using the question.

Employees should answer the question on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 0 being the least likely to recommend the company, and 10 being the most likely).

Promoters, Passives, and Detractors

Whenever eNPS is concerned, you need to take into account promoters, passives, and detractors. To get credible results and be able to read them properly, you need to consider these three factors.

Workers who give 9 or 10 to the question are referred to as promoters. These are the workers who are most likely to advocate for your company.

Those who choose between 0 and 6 and known as detractors. These employees are people who are the most likely to say bad things about the company they work for.

Finally, passives are the employees who give 7s or 8s. The final eNPS calculation doesn’t really take their scores into account, as you will see in the formula below. They’re just part of the overall number of employees.

Now, here’s the formula you need to calculate the eNPS in the right way:

eNPS formula = % of promoters minus % of detractors‍

Let’s see how this would work in practice. Take a look at the following example: imagine you have a company with 200 workers. 160 of them are promoters (which is 80%), 10 are passives (5%), and 30 of those workers are detractors (15%). The eNPS of your company is +65 (80-15).

Benefits of Using eNPS

Why should an employer opt for the eNPS survey? Well, here are some benefits that eNPS provides employers with:

  • It’s simple to use it;

  • It’s a very easy metric to calculate;

  • It’s user-friendly (meaning you won’t struggle to introduce it in the office, as workers don’t need any specific training to engage in it);

  • eNPS is said to have a much higher participation rate than other surveys.

If you end up with positive ratings, identify the reasons why your workers approve of your company, love it, and enjoy working for it. Then, keep on enhancing those aspects they appreciate.

However, if the ratings are quite negative, identify the areas that are in need of improvement. If you simply ignore the negative feedback and neglect what your employees have to say, you’ll create greater diversity and dissatisfaction in your workplace.

That said, keep in mind that the eNPS is just a starting point when it comes to finding ways how to measure employee engagement. Put simply, you can’t treat the eNPS survey as a standalone assessment - you need to take into account other factors, surveys, and criteria as well.

Tips When Measuring Employee Engagement

tips-when-measuring-employee-engagement

So far, we gave you seven ways to measure employee engagement in your company.

In this section, we’d like to support this whole process of measuring engagement with several tips to help you even further.

1. Determine engagement outcomes

Why are you conducting this specific employee engagement analysis? What type of feedback and opinions do you expect to receive? What is it that the employee engagement results will help improve when it comes to the employee experience - is it retention, productivity, or motivation within your company?

2. Find out what matters to your employees

Don’t just focus on the engagement survey in May, the pulse survey from July, or the eNPS score from August. Don’t just rely on the feedback you received when an employee had personal problems. In other words, while each piece of research has its own place, don’t forget to look at the bigger picture.

Focus on your employees as a whole - not just on their survey results, formal opinions, or general feedback. Every now and then, it’s useful to observe the overall atmosphere in the workplace, and monitor behaviors such as:

  • teamwork;

  • career progress;

  • mutual respect;

  • communication;

  • value and appreciation;

  • confidence;

  • trust in the coworkers, and so on.

There are certain behaviors that can’t always be measured or put on paper. Yet, sometimes those are the ones employers need in order to see whether they’re dealing with highly engaged employees or not.

3. Talk to your HR team

A lot of employers seem to forget they have an HR team at their disposal when things go south. And while wanting to resolve corporate issues by yourself sounds great, sometimes you need to count on your HR team to assist you.

Your HR team should know your company and understand what works for your employees and what doesn’t. They’re supposed to come up with feasible ideas and relevant suggestions for your workplace.

As we said, you don’t need to wait for things to hit the fan in order to consult your HR team. You can go to them for survey results, upcoming HR events, ongoing employee behavior, and so on.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most commonly used tool to measure employee engagement?

Employers use a wide range of tools to measure the employee engagement levels in their companies.

That said, one of the most commonly used tools is definitely an employee survey. And they usually come hand in hand with online platforms workers use in a corporate setting, as most surveys nowadays are done online. Plus, it’s much easier for employees to fill them out anonymously if they’re using an online platform which increases participation rates and enables more honest responses from workers.

What is a KPI for employee engagement?

KPI, an employee engagement key performance indicator, is a very useful tool that measures engagement and analyzes how well a company meets its goals.

Companies apply KPI across a wide range of sectors and situations because that’s just how useful KPI has proven to be.

KPI comes in two kinds: high-level and low-level. The former refers to the overall performance of the company, whereas the latter denotes more particular processes specific to a department (such as the marketing department) or an employee.

Here are some employee engagement KPIs:

  • eNPS (employee net promoter score), which we already discussed in greater detail;

  • employee retention;

  • absenteeism;

  • client happiness;

  • use of vacation days;

  • return of investment;

  • profitability;

  • diversity rate;

  • cost per hire;

  • cost of training per employee;

  • internal promotion rate;

  • Employee happiness or employee satisfaction index (ESI);

  • production;

  • retirement rate, and so on.

What can I do if my employees feel disengaged?

Disengaged employees tend to express their behavior in a wide range of ways. They usually feel no real connection to their job, and just do the bare minimum of what’s required of them. They may refuse to collaborate with others, or if they do, they tend to passively contribute to the cause. Put simply, disengaged workers are self-centered rather than team-oriented.

Next, disengaged workers have high absenteeism rates, negative opinions and pessimistic outlook, and focus on monetary worth more as opposed to being passionate about what they do.

If you notice some of these behaviors in any of your employees, you can bet you’re dealing with a disengaged worker.

Now, what should you do if you deal with a disengaged worker? Here are some suggestions and tips you can take into account and apply them accordingly.

1. Address the problem early on

Don’t wait for things to get out of control or for your workers to become even more disengaged to the point of no return. After all, you’re risking this behavior to affect your overall business.

Pinpointing poor performance and unprofessional behavior may help “awake” your “dormant” worker. In other words, you need to let your employee know you aren’t satisfied with their current performance or productivity and discuss the reasons behind their disengagement.

2. Understand the reason behind disengaged behavior

Workers aren’t disengaged without a reason, there’s always something going on under the surface. And it’s up to you to discover it. It could be that they think their ideas aren’t relevant, or simply never acted upon; their peers don’t seem to show any interest in collaborating with them; their relationship with their superior has slowly started deteriorating; they have problems at home, and so on. There’s a plethora of reasons when it comes to why there’s a disengaged employee in your office.

Finally, consider including your HR team in the situation. They’ll know how to approach this in a professional way, and they can see what might work well in your company.

3. Ask questions and give feedback

Whenever there’s an issue with an employee, it’s important to establish proper communication. So, make sure to ask questions frequently, take notes if necessary, and provide your worker with ongoing feedback.

See how they feel, what their current problems are, and what makes them procrastinate or simply not eager to finish their tasks.

4. Look for possible solutions

Analyzing what your employees have to say about why they feel disengaged is only the beginning. In other words, once you identify the problem, you need to search for possible solutions.

So, if a worker feels like they don’t belong in the workplace, their team doesn’t quite accept their ideas, and they don’t feel like they have a good relationship with their peers - what can you do as an employer? It’s up to you to not only discuss matters with the employee faced with this issue, but the rest of your workers, too, and take on the role of a mediator.

5. Take action

Finally, don’t forget to take action! Make sure you not only come up with a list of methods and suggestions to engage your employees more, but implement them in the right way, too.

Final Words

Francis Hesselbein said that “dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world.”

And we say that if you follow our suggestions and apply them accordingly, you’ll have highly engaged employees capable of not only competing in a highly competitive world, but reaching the top first (whatever that means in your industry) as well.

Finally, there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to how to measure employee engagement. But combining the methods that would work well for your company and your workers will definitely get you there.

Do you want to learn more about managing and improving team engagement in your remote organization? Check out these blogs next:

Heather Harper

Article by

Heather Harper

Heather Harper has a Masters in Occupational Psychological from the University of Manchester. She currently works as an editorial writer specialising in organizational psychology - helping teams work better together.

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