Employee Engagement Survey Best Practices – 2024 Guide

Employee engagement surveys can help measure employee engagement and also assist the management to understand their stance on the current situation and extract valuable feedback. 

So, if you’re wondering what are some good employee engagement survey best practices?

This article will provide you with an all-encompassing guide to the discussion surrounding employee engagement survey best practices.

Employee Engagement Definition  

So, what is employee engagement? The term essentially boils down to a concept that is entirely based on Human Resources (HR). In other words, the concept enables officials to determine precisely ‘how’ an employee feels about their job.   

 So, who is an engaged employee?   

 An engaged employee is an individual who is dedicated to their position and firmly believes that their work is linked with their company’s growth.   

Moreover, these employees can directly affect their company’s success through their well-being and performance.

This whole process makes employee engagement an instrumental aspect of the development of the company.   

Not to mention, communication plays a crucial role in maintaining stable employee engagement and helps boost the employees’ confidence while also enabling them to gain a sense of satisfaction from their job. 

In short, employee engagement is directly proportional to an employee’s performance, productivity, and commitment to the company’s primary objectives.   

Employee Engagement Survey Best Practices

The following employee engagement survey best practices can help you create meaningful results in your bottom-line through employee well-being and satisfaction.

1. Embracing Agile Practices

Employee engagement surveys used to occur annually which often resulted in delayed actions. The new approach to employee engagement surveys involves being agile. As one of the most important employee engagement survey best practices, this approach advocates for 90-day intervals.

With this approach, you can provide prompt insights, accumulate data, and identify trends with convenience.

2. Cultivating Leadership Buy-In for Maximum Impact

Your employees need to participate in employee engagement surveys so you can implement a successful process and drive results. This begins with leadership buy-in.

Communicate with your leaders about their survey intentions, goals, as well as the benefits of employee engagement surveys. You can encourage the leadership to champion the program so you can create alignment and highlight the importance of employee feedback.

3. Engaging Employees in the Survey Process

Ensuring transparent communication is one of the most crucial employee engagement survey best practices.

You need to be clear about your survey’s aim, highlight the confidentiality, and promote it via different channels.

A well-informed and engaged workforce contributes to the richness of survey data.

4. Live Discussions and Continued Communication

Live discussions, whether in person or through video, play a crucial role in reinforcing commitment and transparency. They provide an ideal platform to discuss survey results, share the organization’s goals, and outline achievable targets for the next 90 days.

By structuring employee engagement surveys into these key sections, organizations can not only gather valuable insights but also transform feedback into actionable strategies, creating a culture of transparency and continuous improvement.

The commitment to implementing positive changes based on survey results is central to achieving sustained improvements in employee engagement over time.

What is the Difference between Employee Engagement and Employee Satisfaction?  

It is essential to be able to tell these two terms apart as they hold significantly different meanings.

For example, while employee satisfaction is solely constructed upon the happiness and contentment of an employee, employee engagement, on the other hand, is more concerned about the level of enthusiasm and emotional commitment an employee holds to their work.  

Improving employee satisfaction doesn’t necessarily surge a sudden growth in an employee’s performance per se.

Sometimes, it leads high-performing employees to believe that the conditions being met for employee satisfaction exist for average performers to escape responsibility.  

This often happens because the definition of satisfaction might vary for each employee in any sense. A good example would be employees who are satisfied after receiving paychecks after doing below-average work.    

How to Increase Employee Engagement?

1. Communication is Key   

When talking about employee engagement survey best practices, one risk that poses a liability to employers when a substantial expansion of an organization is when the staff is disconnected.

While a devoted team for internal communications can solve your weak communications issue, HR teams can also step up to manage communications between employees and help establish strategic alignment within the company.   

Some active solutions to this problem could be encouraging physical and virtual communications. For example, fliers, newsletters, or posters can help employees communicate in person.

In contrast, social media sites like Workplace by Facebook or even emails can help resolve communication issues virtually.   

2. Caring for Employee Well-being   

Research held in the UK has stated that engagement is interlinked with the well-being of an employee and the overall strategic alignment of the company.

Solutions to these may comprise mental health assistance at the workplace, encouraging a healthy lifestyle and effective communication, an employee assistance program, etc.   

3. Prioritizing Employee Feedback  

Employees thrive upon receiving proper feedback from managers as it helps to impact their degree of engagement in an office space. Therefore, frequent check-ins with managers can be quite helpful to increase employee engagement.   

Although, it is necessary to note that not all teams require the same frequency of ‘check-ins,’ and hence they should be scheduled according to the needs of a specific department.   

4. Focusing on Engaging Management   

Believe it or not, managers are incredibly accountable for the engagement of their teams. Hence, apart from checking in with employees individually, it may be beneficial to check in with the middle management now and then.  

5. Employee Recognition and Rewards   

It is no news that engaged employees will always go the extra mile to do the needful in an office space. Appreciating your employees’ efforts and caring about employees’ feelings will boost their morale and encourage them to do better in the future. 

One of the best ways you can go about with this is through recognition. Keeping track of recognitions is one of the key employee engagement survey best practices.

6. Pulse Surveys   

As the name “teases,” pulse surveys provide quick solutions that answer companys’ employee engagement-related pain points. Pulse surveys primarily consist of 10-15 questions which are reflecting the employees’ point of view.

The questions mainly focus on job satisfaction, communication and relationships towards employees, and the overall work environment. 

Pulse surveys are essential staff engagement surveys because they give voice to every staff working in an organization, hence making their feedback feel validated by their employers and they are way easier. 

What is the difference between pulse surveys and employee engagement surveys? 

Pulse surveys mainly focus on the essential assets of the company, and they are the “shortcuts” to an engagement survey. It usually takes under 5-6 minutes to complete. Thus, measuring and keeping the finger on the “pulse of the company” becomes much easier for managers and HR teams. 

Employee engagement questionnaires are always more detailed, and it takes much more time to analyze the general outcome. In addition, these surveys usually take place annually.

But let’s face it: Most employees experience their jobs on a weekly and monthly basis. So even though they might have a great experience during the whole year, the answers might change until the last minute. 

Benefits of Pulse Surveys  

Why is an employee engagement survey important? The benefits that entail properly conducted pulse surveys are uncountable.

From lifting the spirits of employees, and reducing employee turnover rate to giving them the right amount of freedom for them to be felt heard, it does it all.   

 Some of the benefits of pulse surveys include:  

1. Creating a space for collecting valuable feedback through emails without spending a single penny in the process.  
2. Provides scopes of a follow-up discussion from the issues collected from the survey.   
3. Analyzing how content your employees are with their workspace and using it as a benchmark for future surveys.  
4. Working on areas of development where the employees are less content with.  
5. It helps to detect mismanagement and poor leadership.  
6. Significantly improve communication.  
7. The quickest way to improve employee engagement.  
8. Providing proper feedback to show that their concerns have been heard and acted upon.   

Purpose of Employee Engagement  

One of the most prominent purposes behind employee engagement is to allow the employees to gain a better perspective on what the company aims to achieve.

In addition, providing them with a clear set of primary goals to work towards eliminates unnecessary confusion and provides a better scope of teamwork.   

Another essential purpose for employee engagement is to enhance productivity. This is because lesser productivity in a work environment slows the company’s growth as a whole while giving rise to toxic work culture and monotony of work for the employees.  

Looking after the well-being of employees is another purpose behind employee management since good mental and physical health means an automatic increase in mood and concentration for work.  

The more we discuss the benefits of employee engagement, the more the importance of employee engagement surveys shines through.

How to conduct employee engagement surveys?

The best way to conduct an employee engagement survey is through employee engagement survey software. Whether you are working remotely or not doesn’t make a difference here.

Using excel spreadsheets or printed-out surveys is a pain in the neck for both your employees and the environment! There are some very helpful employee pulse survey tools out there but the best pulse survey tool for Microsoft Teams has to be Teamflect!

Sending out an employee engagement survey questionnaire to your employees should be a simple process.

You shouldn’t go out of your way to do it. Teamflect offers users just that. You can conduct and analyze entire employee engagement surveys without leaving the comfort of Microsoft Teams or firing up another software.

Teamflect has tons of sample employee engagement surveys available for you to choose from and every single one of them can be customized fully.

How to Apply the Employee Engagement Survey Best Practices?  

First thing first, when you want to measure employee engagement, ask yourself, “What is important?”. This will help you measure what truly matters and avert spamming the survey with irrelevant questions.

These surveys are generally designed to measure the employees’ proficiency, competency, contentment, performance, and strategic alignment.   

However, the results of the employee engagement surveys will not have any impact unless and until they are benchmarked with other competing organizations and statistically certified.

If there is no statistical certification or benchmark to contend with, comprehending what a company aims to measure and determine the results in the process will be challenging to achieve.   

Moreover, while short employee engagement surveys are sufficient for determining whether there is adequate engagement from the employees in a company, they are not enough to reflect on why the employees are engaged or disengaged due to the absence of details.  

Therefore, a detailed employee engagement survey is much more efficient in gathering practical information related to employee engagement and developing strategies, activities, initiatives, and training programs.  

Facts suggest that for an employee engagement survey to succeed, a company should structure around 50-80 questions to cover all the relevant topics for employee engagement.

In addition, open-ended questions may also be helpful to identify potential engagement defaults in an organization.  

Employee Engagement Surveys  

Employee engagement surveys are of paramount importance when it comes to analyzing employee engagement in a company. These surveys help measure the level of enthusiasm and determination with which every employee of an office works.

In other words, the more engaged the employees are, the more beneficial it will be for the company in question, and the lesser the employee turnover rate.   

What Questions Should You Ask in Employee Engagement Surveys?

One of the most important factor that can help you drive results with surveys is asking the right questions which is among the most useful employee engagement survey best practices.

Employee engagement surveys generally consist of some basic questions surrounding the evaluation of their supervisor.

This helps identify whether the middle management is doing its job right. And they should definitely be anonymous to encourage honest responses when measuring employee engagement.  

Others include questions about teamwork, work-life balance, effective communication, behavioral fairness, an opportunity for growth, etc.    

 Employee engagement surveys should be a mix of the Likert Scale with answers ranging from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree”. Examples include:  

• I get enough time to spend with my family after office hours.  
• My employer/supervisor acknowledges my achievements.  
• I am satisfied with our health and safety policies.  

You can even include open-ended questions such as,  

• What motivates or encourages your individual workplace contribution?   
• Do you feel overwhelmed with your job responsibilities?  
• If you could change one thing in this organization, what would it be and why?  

Importance of Employee Engagement Survey Best Practices 

Employee engagement is of immense importance to the growth of an organization. Not only does it help to influence the overall performance of an employee, but it also helps with strategic alignment, gives them a sense of purpose and enables them to see if or how well they fit into the current status quo of the company.

In short, a clear sense of purpose encourages cut-edge decision-making, making work speedier and more efficient.   

It is needless to say that companies with more active personnel tend to transcend and outshine their rival companies. More so, they also benefit from a much higher and favorable EPS (earning per share).   

Sudden holdups in finances and downturns of the company are also better dealt with and recovered from with an engaged workforce.

In addition, engaged employees are far better suited to compete against other leading companies and, therefore, more likely to attract newer talents to the field.  

Managing an employee engagement survey is, without a doubt, extremely crucial to the needs of a company because engaged employees are more able to understand those needs.

However, it is perhaps important to note that an employee engagement survey is different from an employee satisfaction survey.   

Besides, it is also notable that employee engagement is no longer confined to the walls of events, activities, and games.   

Remote Working Teams  

In a pandemic-ridden world, it is now vital to be aware of organizations’ active roles in developing activities for virtual employee engagement. Some efficient ways of carrying out virtual engagement activities include virtual coffee breaks, creating newsletters, providing virtual recognition for work, etc.   

Surveys for remote teams could include a different set of questionnaires relevant to the issues one might generally face in the new normal of ‘work from home.’ This may consist of questions regarding the easy direction of work, proper communications, and clear objectives, to name a few.    

Other engagement ideas may comprise of providing a casual learning channel to share ideas and knowledge. Another great idea could be to delegate leadership roles to every employee on separate days to let them gain a fun yet learning experience while also appreciating the work done by their management.   

You can even contemplate permitting anonymous feedback options for employees who don’t feel comfortable bringing up issues in person can also be another excellent idea for the engagement of employees.  

Employee Engagement Survey Common Mistakes

In addition to implementing employee engagement survey best practices, you should also be aware of these following common mistakes of employee engagement surveys.

1. Unclear Objectives: Make sure that you include clear survey goals.

2. Poor Communication: You need to communicate your employee engagement survey’s purpose, confidentiality, and potential impact to improve participation among your employees.

3. Lengthy Surveys: Keeping surveys concise to prevent survey fatigue is one of the essential employee engagement survey best practices.

4. Anonymity Concerns: You need to guarantee anonymity to encourage honest feedback and prevent suboptimal survey results.

5. Ignoring Diversity: You should consider demographic diversity within your organization while designing your surveys to capture a broad range of employee experiences and perspectives.

6. Lack of Follow-Up: Implementing your action plans and communicating survey results to demonstrate commitment to positive change and employee engagement is one of the most crucial employee engagement survey best practices.

7. Disregarding Feedback: You need to address concerns and implement changes based on the feedback to build trust and encourage future participation among your employees.

8. Inflexible Frequency: Strike a balance when it comes to survey frequency in order to avoid overwhelming employees or gathering outdated information.

9. Incomplete Data Analysis: Thoroughly analyze your survey results to extract meaningful insights.

10. Lack of Transparency: Sharing survey results and improvements made based on employee feedback to create transparency and trust in how you conduct your surveys is one of the important employee engagement survey best practices.

Closing Words

In this article, we have guided you through the nuances of conducting employee engagement surveys by discussing best practices for employee engagement surveys.

With these employee engagement survey best practices, you can drive meaningful results within your organization.

Conducting employee engagement questionnaires and surveys should be a simple and efficient process.

The easiest way to implement them into your day-to-day operations is through automated templates you can customize.

Having these templates fully integrated into the performance management software of your choice would simply be the cherry on top of your survey sundae!

Explore Teamflect’s survey capabilities to apply employee engagement survey best practices easily!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of an employee engagement survey?

An employee engagement survey aims to measure the level of commitment and connection that employees have with their organization. It serves as a tool for leaders to gain insight into how their employees feel about the company’s culture, values, and overall work experience.

The survey’s purpose is to identify areas of strength and areas of opportunity that need improvement so that leaders can take action to increase employee engagement and ultimately improve organizational performance.

What should be included in an employee engagement survey?

An effective employee engagement survey should include questions that are relevant to the company’s mission, values, and culture.

The survey should ask questions related to employees’ satisfaction with their work environment, opportunities for growth and development, the effectiveness of leadership, and the level of communication within the organization.

What does employee engagement survey mean?

An employee engagement survey is a tool used by organizations to measure the level of connection and commitment that employees have with the company.

It typically includes a series of questions that are designed to assess employees’ satisfaction with their work environment, opportunities for growth and development, the effectiveness of leadership, and the level of communication within the organization.

Why is an employee engagement survey important?

An employee engagement survey is important because it provides leaders with valuable insights into how employees feel about their work experience.

By measuring employee engagement, leaders can identify areas of opportunity that need improvement and take action to address them. This can lead to increased employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention.