Use an Employee Engagement Index to Monitor Engagement

Do you compute an employee engagement index?

Every year or so you measure employee engagement.

1. You survey all employees to determine the Level of Engagement—using a handful of questions. Level of Engagement items tend to measure the condition of engagement (the presence of cognitive, emotional and physical energy) and the outcomes of engagement like intending to stay with the company (retention), advocacy, and putting forth extra effort to make the organization successful.
2. Then, you concentrate on the Drivers of Engagement—a more extensive list of questions. Items typically are in the categories of Fit, Trust, Caring, Communication, Achievement, and Ownership. You may also include items on the pre-engagement Threshold Motivators—Pay and Benefits.

Some clients ask if they can have an engagement score to use as a barometer to compare employee engagement over the years. If the same survey questions are asked, year-after-year, then some formula or metric could  give you a sense as to whether employee engagement is going up or down.

So what number or percent do you use?

Options for computing an Employee Engagement Index

There are several options for computing an Employee Engagement Index. Here are a few:

Employee Engagement Index: Option 1

One way to calculate an employee engagement index is to compute three numbers: the percent engaged, the percent responsive to engagement, and the percent disengaged. These numbers can be computed this way:

• Engaged: percent who give top two box responses to all Level of Engagement questions (all positive responses with no neutral or negative responses)
• Responsive to Engagement (Passive): percent of employees who give top three box responses to all Level of Engagement questions (includes at least one neutral response but no negative responses)
• Disengaged: percent of employees who give at least one bottom two box response to the Level of Engagement questions (includes at least one negative response)

Employee Engagement Index: Option 2

Another option for creating an employee engagement index is to compute a mean percent favorable score for each section of the survey and monitor changes in those scores, year-by-year. This method generates a number of scores to monitor. This works best if the company is targeting a particular area—like Fit, Trust, Caring, Communication, Achievement or Ownership—and wants to monitor if the changes they have made since the last survey are having an impact.

Calculate scores for all sections—not just one or two sections—because any changes in one area will typically have an impact on other areas. Also, monitor the key driver questions to see if targeted items have changed.

There are many ways to compute an employee engagement index. Be sure to use a method that will help your organization improve engagement and not a number or set of numbers that do not drive positive change.

Contact Sheila

Do you have any questions? Use the form below to contact Sheila about conducting your employee engagement survey.