By Zorian |Atiim

CEOs are using management tactics like continuous performance management, ongoing feedback and Objectives and Key Results (OKR Goals) not only to improve performance, but also to keep their employees engaged at work. While improving your goal setting and management practices is sure to improve engagement, there’s no way to know for sure how great an impact you’re making if you’re not measuring employee engagement.

Deloitte and Gallup surveys indicate somewhere between 15 – 50% of the workforce is actively disengaged. That’s not just a problem for your employees, it’s also damaging to your bottom line, since Hewitt Research indicates engaged employees lead to higher performance and greater shareholder returns.

But the question remains: How do you effectively measure employee engagement? It’s not always tangible in itself, but you can analyze the following three key factors to tell you how engaged your teams are:

Goal Achievement

Determining whether teams are following through and completing the goals they’ve set provides a clear indicator of engagement. If they’re achieving objectives (like OKR goals) regularly, it shows they’re progressing well and are likely fairly engaged. If, on the other hand, their goals are consistently unmet, it’s time to find out what’s impeding their progress.

Commitment

Are you experiencing high turnover? If so, it’s likely an indicator that your teams are disengaged. Not only do engaged employees outperform their peers by 20% (HR Magazine), they’re also more likely to stay with the company. Thus, engagement strategies have the potential to reduce turnover costs and improve performance which is a win-win for your organization.

Productivity

There’s a clear link between engagement and productivity. One easy way to measure productivity is to monitor whether teams are meeting deadlines. You can do this by encouraging managers to hold weekly one-on-one meetings with their direct reports.

Engagement may be one of the “softer” measurements in your company and can thus be difficult to measure, but there are tools available to help you gauge the three factors listed above. For instance, weekly progress reports can help you assess commitment and productivity levels near-instantly by posing strategic questions to associates. Likewise, OKR goals management software can support busy managers in tracking goals progress to measure progress regularly.

What are your thoughts? What are some other ways to measure employee engagement?

If you’re a CEO, an executive, a middle-manager, or a front-line manager of any team, please take a look at how you can improve your team alignment, performance, and results through OKR goals and ongoing performance management. Here is more about Atiim OKR Pulse TM.

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