Employee engagement can mean many things and often differs in definition from company to company. For some, it means planning out-of-office events and get-togethers. Others, it’s a measure of work ethic. For many business leaders, employee engagement can be hard to quantify.

So, how do you monitor and measure employee engagement effectively?

We asked ten professionals to share their strategies for monitoring employee engagement that work best for their organizations.

Talk to your employees

While I absolutely agree with measuring and tracking employee engagement in a more formal way, managers can learn a lot by talking with key employees who can share their observations about how people are feeling.  You can’t talk to everyone because that’s not practical but there are always those people who have a sense for the pulse of the organization.  Lean on them and get some quick feedback on how things are going and if any potential problems are brewing.

Jamie Schneiderman, Career Spark

Utilize Surveys

The best way to monitor employee engagement is to get this information from the employees themselves. Consider sending out frequent surveys to employees to gauge their satisfaction level, job alignment, and future goals in the company. 

Jon Schneider, Recruiterie

Take Notes

Let your employees speak out every once in a while. Set up one-on-one interviews or focus groups to give your employees the opportunity to speak their mind and tell you if they are happy in their role or not. Take careful notes on the dialogue and follow up on what was side in these interactions to ensure that you are continuously monitoring people’s engagement with the company. 

Vanessa Molica, The Lash Professional

Don’t Ignore Exit Interviews

Sometimes monitoring the engagement of your employees might happen when they are not an employee anymore. Hold exit interviews to figure out ways you can better your company and employee engagement from someone who doesn’t have anything to lose by telling you the truth. These can be difficult conversations, but when done right, they can be powerful in making productive changes for employees to come.

Blake Murphey, American Pipeline Solutions

Survey Employees

One company I worked for sent out periodic surveys to take the pulse of the employees working there. Questions on the surveys were geared towards engagement, happiness with leadership, happiness with the company and other related aspects. Companies can utilize resources, such as surveys or forms, to quantify employee responses on aspects such as engagement.

Jessica Schocker, Recruitment Consultant

Look at Employee Retention

The most predictive gauge of employee engagement is employee retention. Employees that are committed to their work stick around and progress. Those who are disengaged don’t tend to stay where they are not challenged. If a division of the business has a higher level of turnover than the business as a whole, determine whether or not the employees in that division are having their engagement needs met.

Keith Piscitello, Simply Sophisticated Wealth Planning, LLC

Build a Winning Culture

A winning culture is critical to building morale and productivity, while giving team members a vision of where they’re going. At the heart of an organization’s culture are its shared values and norms. The best approach is to have everyone participate in generating and agreeing upon a common set of values. They simply can’t be handed down from senior management, no matter how reasonable and fair they might be. Everyone has to be part of the process. When common values and norms are identified, the workplace is propelled by the power and energy of a shared spirit and inspiring culture.  

Dr. Susan S. Kuczmarski, Kuczmarski Innovation

Feelings of Inclusion 

I think that it is important to make sure that the entire staff feels included and that their opinions matter. Once that feeling is felt by team members, many will open up and offer opinions and ideas. I don’t think that the focus is as much on measuring engagement as much as making sure that we offer an environment where each individual is seen and heard.

Deborah Bubis, CareerAve

Do Not Rely Solely on Your Instincts

Many clients I work with use Netpromoter scores to quantify both client engagement and customer engagement. But really, any valid measuring tool is fine. The big mistake is relying on your instincts rather than hard facts to gauge employee engagement.

Joni Holderman, Thrive! Resumes

Opportunities Become the Game Plan

We participate in opportunities to be recognized as a top company. By doing this we can access data that is aggregated from surveys. Our opportunities become our game plan for the following year.

Steven Brown, DP Electric Inc

Use Tools Like Office Vibe

I believe that the only way to ensure that your employees are staying engaged is to talk to them! Make sure that you are doing more than just an annual review. Meet on a monthly basis to talk to them about their wins, challenges, and what you can do to help them achieve their goals. Using tools like Office Vibe are also great ways to collect information before sitting down with your employees!

Nikitha Lokareddy, Small Business SEO