Employee Engagement: Rely on Action, Not Just Insights

When our CEO, Luke Fisher, spoke at the UKG Aspire Conference, 80% of the attendees agreed with this statement on ‘insights to action’:

“The employee engagement market is over-indexed on measurement and lacks effective ways to drive action across the organisation. That’s why we are pioneering insights to action as a driver of business success, especially for those measuring employee engagement.”

In Great Place to Work UK’s report on the 2024 Best Workplaces, culture is the common denominator between the organisations in the top spots. But how do they take action to create the right kind of company culture?

Measuring Employee Engagement is Only the Beginning

Insight is part of it – you need to know what’s working and where employees are becoming disengaged. However, measuring employee engagement with survey analysis is only one-half of the equation. Creating a truly great place to work is also about how you’re able to take those insights and turn them into tangible actions that shape the culture your employees see. That’s why businesses need an employee engagement survey action plan.

Are you struggling to take action after getting the results of your employee engagement survey? Keep reading for our expert insight on transforming your workplace culture.

The Best Workplaces are Creating a Sense of Belonging

The idea that culture is as important to employee engagement as pay and benefits is hardly a bold suggestion anymore. McKinsey outlined it back in 2021 in a report on attrition and attraction – pay, benefits and perks are still front of mind, but employees also want to feel valued by their organisations, to have their contributions genuinely seen by their managers, and to have meaningful interactions in the workplace.

But the Great Place to Work report doesn’t just point out that belonging and culture are important to employees, it also illustrates why. “Employees who don’t feel like a part of the team, who don’t experience this sense of belonging, will never feel able to bring their full, authentic selves to work,” says Seema Shah, Director of Consulting at Great Place to Work UK.

As for those who do? Well, they’re 3 times more likely to describe their workplace as fun, 5 times more likely to stay there long-term, and 6 times more likely to look forward to coming to work. And when asked whether they feel free to be themselves at work, 91% of employees at Best Workplaces say they do.

So how are they creating that sense of belonging for employees? Well, partly it’s about trying to inspire an emotional connection to work rather than a rational one – is an employee applauded for showing up as themselves? And are their contributions recognised even when they fall outside their standard KPIs?

The Best Workplaces Reward Impact with Opportunity

Team members don’t want their job to feel like a simple transaction where time spent is turned into money earned. They want to know that the impact they make will be met with greater trust, autonomy and opportunity to grow within the organisation. After all, engaged employees create real business impact.

One employee at Cisco, which ranked no. 1 for Super Large companies in the Best Workplaces report, explained how Cisco put this impact-for-opportunity mentality into practice:

“I have always had the freedom to do projects outside of my remit to grow my skills and my network which is important to do in a big place like Cisco … My boss has always encouraged me to take on different projects and responsibilities, even if it meant that at times I have had a bit less time for him.

“If you work hard and produce high-quality results, you get rewarded very well for it. The benefits, and the way Cisco looks after you and cares for your well-being, are remarkable. I love Cisco and hope to stay here for the rest of my career.”

Why Insights Need Action to Be Effective

1. We don’t always know how to take action

The challenge with turning insight into action is that today’s employee engagement market skews heavily towards the measurement side of the issue. And as we saw when 80% of attendees agreed with us at the recent UKG conference, people know it.

It’s hardly a surprise – everyone wants data these days. But tools that focus too much on gathering metrics without offering practical ways to act on them are like having a destination but no map. The objectives of measuring employee engagement might be clear, but without ways to take action, it’s easy to run into the same problems time and again. Your employee survey results are only one piece of the puzzle.

To help you take action after your engagement scores, we have developed a strategy that combines insights from pulse surveys with effective recognition and engagement strategies. Measuring employee engagement is only the first step.

2. Employee feedback is lagging behind

If the first HR hears about an issue that began in February is through a survey in December, you’re already too late to make a change when it’s most needed. Don’t ignore valuable insights. What might have been an easy intervention at the time has had a chance to become a baked-in problem.

Having a fast feedback loop doesn’t necessarily mean surveys every week to make sure nothing is missed. But it does mean having tools that enable HR leaders and managers to see the impact of their engagement campaigns in real-time rather than in a year. Or a space where everyone on your team can make their voices heard informally as well as through formal surveys.

Unfortunately, many employee engagement survey providers don’t provide adequate action plans or implementation software. That’s where Mo can help.

After completing your data analysis, our experts help you understand areas of improvement. We will then improve your employee engagement through recognition strategies that boost job satisfaction through effective cultural change.

3. Employee contributions are going unseen

Then there’s the issue of invisible work. Often metrics only measure a thin sliver of what an employee contributes day to day, and as a result so much of their work becomes invisible.

When it comes to employee recognition, the problem with invisible work should be clear. How can you recognise and reward what you can’t see? If the only visibility managers have of their employees is through KPIs, many of their vital contributions to the organisation and the team end up like trees falling in the woods with no one around to hear them.

One way to remedy this is with employee recognition tools that put more power in the hands of employees and people leaders to spotlight those daily special moments that aren’t always caught in the metrics. When more people can spotlight the wins they see around them, less work will end up slipping into the shadows.

Mo is a culture and engagement platform that uses data insights to drive real improvement in engagement scores while reducing staff turnover. We strategically help people teams create great places to work through continuous, positive action.

If you’re looking for ways to take action on measuring employee engagement, learn more about how to shift the dial at the manager level and transform insights into action. Oh, and while you’re here, take a look at one of our case studies to see how we’ve helped other company cultures thrive.