This question coupled with statistical validation that it is strongly associated with your engagement outcome is inevitable (we promise!). You should ask the question because it gives you the data needed to convince management to invest in improving culture and showing employees how their work (and the work of the company) has a positive impact.
Statistics show that employees who understand the company goals and how their contribution matters are naturally more engaged. Interestingly, employees don’t readily understand this themselves and often don’t believe it’s important to recite strategic priorities.
Personal growth is an important driver of employee engagement. If we’re not getting better, we’re getting worse. It’s understandable if you don’t want to ask this for line functions, but typically knowledge workers feed on environments where they face new challenges and acquire new skills.
We used to say: “We don’t quit jobs, we quit our bosses.” Employee engagement research shows this actually isn’t the most critical driver, but it’s still important. Important: We’re not rating the managers, which can get contentious. We’re asking employees about their relationships with the managers. The survey is about employee engagement and should focus on the employee’s perspectives.
We all want to feel appreciated. This can affect employee engagement over the long run. Many times, employees are put in a system that doesn’t promote recognition or appreciation. Maybe the manager is oblivious. Maybe the organization doesn’t provide the tools.
Conduct a root cause analysis on any failed initiative and “communication” will always come up as one of the reasons for failure. We’re not evaluating leadership as communicators (as opposed to leaders) because they’ll be more open to the feedback and its more actionable. Remember, your leaders are people too.
Again, rather than putting the focus on leaders themselves, we’re asking how much the organization feels they’re moving in the right direction. It’s an important gut check.
The workplace is getting more and more distributed. Oftentimes, out of sight means out of mind and locations struggle to collaborate. This has an adverse effect on employee engagement because it leads to fiefdoms, communication gaps, and inconsistent messages that all hurt employee engagement.
Similar to Question #9, you want to assess how well employees are working together across departments.
Scary question, we know. But in light of what we know about employee engagement, if employees can’t answer this with a 4 or a 5, it’s hard to see them being highly engaged.