*The 14 Psychological Drivers That Dictate Employee Engagement*
Workday Staff Writer
In the shifting world of work, employee engagement data and its interpretation is essential. A recent Workday report found that 27% of employees had engagement scores that suggested they were at risk of attrition. For companies to attract new talent and retain high-performing employees, understanding the importance of engagement and its drivers is critical.
Data consistently shows that companies with higher employee engagement outperform competitors where engagement is lower. When comparing businesses in the top quartile of employee engagement with the bottom quartile, a recent study from Gallup reported:
An 81% difference in employee absences
An 18% difference in turnover for high-turnover organizations
A 43% difference in turnover for low-turnover organizations
By understanding the drivers behind engagement, not only can businesses turn the tide on turnover and absences, they can also create a positive, unified company culture. That’s why the first step to improving engagement is measuring it.
Since employee engagement is a complex field of study, there are different schools of thought on how to measure it. At Workday, we use our intelligent listening survey platform, Workday Peakon Employee Voice, that measures employee sentiment across multiple topics. Those topics include autonomy, growth, reward, environment, and so on, as well as a measure of engagement as a critical outcome.
Questions are answered on a scale of 0 to 10. That way, businesses can either measure engagement as a mean score out of 10 (to one decimal place), or use the eNPS scoring system. Scores out of 10 are well understood across different cultures, enabling stronger benchmarking.
As with any business outcomes, employee engagement is best understood when it’s measured regularly with pulse surveys. While annual employee surveys may give you insights into shifts in employee sentiment year-on-year, employee engagement often shifts quicker. That’s why your technology needs to be equally reactive.
To truly understand your survey insights, you need to grasp the drivers behind it. Creating actionable insights from your employee engagement survey involves collecting information on the related causal factors. We refer to these as the 14 drivers of employee engagement.
Based on a long history of validated academic research, these 14 drivers shape our core question set, comprising 45 survey questions. Whatever method you use to measure employee engagement, these drivers should form the basis of any employee engagement survey.
Accomplishment—ensuring each employee is making regular progress
Autonomy—recognizing autonomy as a fundamental human need
Environment—creating a positive in-person, remote, or hybrid workplace environment
Freedom of opinion—promoting psychological safety in the workplace
Goal setting—keeping employees engaged at work with clear, autonomous goals
Growth—creating a culture of learning and development
Management support—building manager relationships based on empathy
Meaningful work—providing purpose, challenge, and respect in the workplace
Organizational fit—understanding the value of shared goals and aspirations
Peer relationships—developing strong team relationships and a sense of belonging
Recognition—understanding why recognition is more than an occasional “thank you”
Reward—acknowledging the importance of employee compensation for performance
Strategy—inspiring your employees with inclusive and decisive communication
Workload—keeping workloads manageable and avoiding burnout
Where some surveys ask every question simultaneously, the latest research suggests taking a more targeted approach. By regularly sending different questions to different employees, you develop an up-to-date view of overall employee sentiment. In doing so you promote greater personalization, avoid survey burnout, and retain top talent.
By only measuring output and efficiency, we miss the most important aspect: an employee’s emotional connection to the workplace. Whether looking at an employee’s job satisfaction, their working environment, or their belief in the company’s mission statement, a well-informed employee engagement program is fundamental to understanding the relationship between your company and your employees.
Read the full article “What Is Employee Engagement? 14 Drivers for Success” on the Workday blog.
