Catherine Mattice says there are many different ways of assessing employee engagement, and asking different questions can result in widely differing results.
How do you define engagement?
My friend (and client service guru), Jeff Toister and I were nerding out on employee engagement the other day, and he pointed out that there are so many definitions we could all go insane.
For example, Gallup, creator of the infamous Q12 Engagement Survey, defines engagement as “being involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to work and the workplace”.
One of my favourite books, Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work, defines it as “the extent to which one is committed, dedicated, and loyal to one’s organisation, supervisor, work, and colleagues.”
Jeff defines engagement as “the extent to which an employee is deliberately contributing to organisational success”.
Makes sense since the whole point of engagement is maximising discretionary effort.
With each passing second your workforce makes a choice to give 100 per cent of its effort, or 20 per cent, or three per cent.
The more engaged, the more often they’ll give closer to 100 per cent.
Recently, we did a survey for an organisation which has been using the Gallup Q12 for the last few years and receiving average scores of 4.8 out of five.
It called us in to assess the culture due to some accusations of gender discrimination, and we asked our own engagement questions.
Factor analysis (a statistical process that correlates variables) of our survey responses showed that, at least in this group, engagement was defined as efficacy, fit, and inspiration.
In other words, this group needs to feel that its goals must be a fit for its work teams, as well as an inspiration, in order for it to be engaged.
Interestingly, our survey showed an average score of 3.7, a full scale-point lower than Gallup. On a five-point scale that’s a big deal.
Why would our scores be so different if we’re surveying the same group on the same topic?
Perhaps the group is high on enthusiasm and commitment but lower on efficacy, fit and inspiration.
These are, after all, two different constructs.
It might also be timing.
Often managers pump up their efforts to build engagement when they know the survey is coming, especially if they’re rewarded for a high score.
This may be the case when Gallup’s survey comes out; meanwhile my survey was on the heels of some ugly accusations.
What’s my point here? (Actually it was actually Jeff’s point).
Engagement has many different definitions.
It would be a mistake to engage in engagement-building efforts without first stopping to identify and define what engagement specifically means in your own organisation.
Your definition will guide your goals, your initiatives, and what you measure.
*Catherine Mattice is a consultant and trainer who assists organisations develop action plans to build positive corporate cultures. She can be contacted at www.civilitypartners.com.
This article first appeared on Catherine’s blogsite.
