Employee Engagement – How Do You Measure It?

Employee engagement, according to Gallup, has not improved much since 2006. Now it is 2016. If nothing has really changed then how do you measure it to make progress in your organization?

Recently Survey Monkey teamed with TMBC a global provider of strengths-based performance measurement tools. After years of global workforce analysis, TMBC has developed what they call The Engagement Pulse Instrument.

What the Engagement Pulse Instrument Is

The news that I am most excited to share with you is that it is available now on Survey Monkey for you to run your own team engagement assessment if you have an account. Unlike the TIGERS Team Survey that measures team behavior based on the six TIGERS principles – trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success – for the purpose of leadership and team training and development, the GEI drills down into team engagement issues.

The GEI is derived from TMBC’s Engagement Pulse, developed through decades of workplace research. From that research, 8 items emerged as most predictive of engagement:

1. I am really enthusiastic about the mission of the company. (Purpose)
2. At work, I clearly understand what is expected of me. (Purpose)
3. In my team, I am surrounded by people who share my values. (Excellence)
4. I have the chance to use my strengths every day at work. (Excellence)
5. My teammates have my back. (Support)
6. I know I will be recognized for excellent work. (Support)
7. I have great confidence in my company’s future. (Future)
8. In my work I am always challenged to grow. (Future)

Now you can see your own GEI from right within your SurveyMonkey account in Analyze.

The odd-numbered items measure aspects of the workplace that are communal — the “We” of the workplace. The even-numbered items measure aspects of the workplace that are individual — the “Me” of the workplace. Manned with this information leaders can create the right work climate where each employee feels understood, challenged and developed as unique human beings.

Here are some more findings from the TMBC Global Study

• I have the chance to use my strengths every day at work demonstrates the greatest power in explaining engagement in every country in the study.
• The most powerful human need at work remains the same: help me discover my strengths, and help me use them a lot.  This finding teams well with Gallup’s strength finder assessment.
• In the United States, China and Germany the next most powerful predictor of Full Engagement is item 1: I am really enthusiastic about the mission of the company. In the US, the best way to build an effective team is to tie each person’s unique strengths to a universal purpose in which everyone can find shared meaning.
• In the UK and India, item 3 is the next strongest predictor of a fully engaged team: In my team, I am surrounded by people who share my values. This suggests that a sense of grand purpose is less powerful and less relevant than the sense that my teammates all value what I value.
• France, Canada, Brazil and Argentina display a different pattern. The next block laid upon the foundation in these countries is item 5: My teammates have my back. In these countries a fully engaged team has the quality of a tight-knit group of teammates who must stick together, protecting one another from external threat.
• Australian teams display another pattern altogether. In Australia, the most powerful next building block is item 7: I have great confidence in my company’s future. Here, team members appear to be demanding of their leaders: “Tell me why we will win.”

What This Means

What this means is that team interdependence is critical to employee engagement along with empathy, trust, risk resolution, genuineness and success. If you remember, TIGERS defines success as achieving goals plus the personal satisfaction and recognition that comes from the effort.

According to TMBC, the Global Study will be performed every year from here on. Their hope is that ongoing research will yield an increasingly precise understanding of global engagement and what leaders can do to modify engagement based on human need.

Copyright TIGERS Success Series, Inc. by Dianne Crampton

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