What is employee engagement?

When discussing employee engagement, separate groups often use different terminology. For example, Gallup divides employees into one of three groups based on their level of
engagement:

• Actively engaged employees
  Passionate, loyal employees who go above and beyond expectations to help move
  the organization forward.
• Not engaged
  Employees who meet expectations in terms of work, but seldom do more than is
  required or expected of them; they have no emotional commitment to the
  organization and may be actively researching other employment opportunities.
• Actively disengaged
  Underperformers who are often negative or resentful about the company and do
  only the absolute minimum in terms of productivity and work quality.

Obviously, actively engaged employees offer a significant benefit to their organizations, not only from increased productivity, but also through proactivity and innovation in solving problems. Their enthusiasm is infectious, helps inspire other team members, and may even spread through to other departments. Actively engaged employees are brand advocates who collaborate well, share knowledge, and build positive relationships both within the company as well as with the company’s partners and customers.

It is always in the organization's best interest to inspire employee engagement wherever possible. That said, before a company begins to formulate an engagement strategy, it’s important to recognize what engagement is, and what it is not.

Employee engagement is not the same thing as employee happiness. Although engaged employees are usually also very happy in their positions, simply aiming to make employees ‘happy’ will not necessarily promote true engagement. Another way to look at the issue is this: Fun job perks such as break-room snacks and on-sight activities can help keep employees happy, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are engaged in their work.

At the same time, employee satisfaction falls too short of engagement. An employee who does the minimum to receive a paycheck may be perfectly satisfied with the arrangement. But being satisfied is not enough to ensure loyalty, and that same employee will likely be more than happy to leave the company to pursue opportunities elsewhere for even a minor increase in pay.

Employee engagement looks not only at the attitude of the employee, but at how that attitude affects their work. Actively engaged employees are emotionally committed to their company. They see their organization as an important part of who they are, and thus are much more willing to weather difficult times and put in more effort, because they take personal ownership of the organization’s success.

Although surveys and scales can offer valuable, honest insight into the enthusiasm and dedication of your workforce, for best results you will likely need to go beyond scores. A comprehensive employee engagement strategy will need to include the following areas:

• The methods by which the strategy will be communicated throughout the organization.
• The processes that will be used to identify action areas.
• The metrics that the organization will focus on when evaluating progress.
• The actions that may be taken to address and respond to the results of employee feedback.
• How the engagement strategy will be sustained.
  

As the name suggests, employee engagement metrics are quantifiable measurements that allow you to reliably evaluate and track engagement within your workforce. These metrics should be the major focus of any surveys, scales, or scoring systems you may wish to use as part of your engagement strategy.

• Work-life balance
• Employee wellbeing
• Professional development
• Employee recognition
• Employee autonomy
• Workplace culture
• Compensation
• Benefits and perks
• Employee alignment with company goals

Each of the aforementioned metrics may be gathered through anonymous surveys, but they may not tell the entire story. To create a more complete picture of employee engagement, you also need to consider issues that may not be fully addressed, such as absenteeism and employee turnover. And, because engaged employees naturally promote engaged customers, tracking customer satisfaction can help shine more light on employee engagement issues as well.

Employee engagement isn’t just a concern for HR and team leaders—it’s a vital factor in business success that is the responsibility of everyone in your company. But simply recognizing the importance of company-wide employee engagement is not enough. To ensure that you are placing the correct focus on employee engagement while also capturing and evaluating relevant engagement data, you need the right technology and tools. ServiceNow provides the solution.

The ServiceNow Now Platform® offers a single, unified location in which to improve engagement in the hybrid-work era. Automated employee workflows help free employees from mundane tasks, allowing them to focus more on the work that gets results. Multi-dimensional employee portals provide personalized communications and support and make it easy to collaborate and share information. Self-service solutions empower employees with the tools to resolve their own issues using embedded experiences across every digital channel. And HR Service Delivery takes engagement even further.

Help your workforce have the best possible experience as you work together to achieve company goals. ServiceNow employee engagement solutions give your employees the tools and support they need to become fully engaged in their work. Demo ServiceNow today, and experience employee engagement like never before.