Analytics on Employee Engagement: Seriously?

When I started this series on employee engagement I intended to write three posts. But, while doing my research, I found there is so much information on this topic, three posts would not be sufficient to address all the important angles.

One of the ways organizations assess employee engagement is by collecting and assessing analytics. In the following three scenarios, organizations obtain the engagement level of their employees and do different things with the results. In each scenario, the company obtains analytics about their employees’ engagement. Determine which scenario is using analytics to benefit the organization.

Company One

Company One has a solid reputation and aspires to be one of the top companies in the industry. The company’s leadership knows in order to gain entrance into that top tier of companies, they’ll have do something to separate themselves from their competitors.

They understand that having the analytics done is what will propel them into the top tier of companies. Their motive has nothing to do with improving the level of employee engagement. They are only interested in positioning the company. Since the analytics were done with a selfish motive once the company leaders obtained the information it was ignored.

Company Two

The leaders of Company Two have a different perspective of the results of the analytics they obtained. Company leaders reviewed the accompanying recommendations and realized it will take a lot of energy and effort to make the necessary changes. But, because some of the suggested changes involved putting aside their personal views and drastically altering the way they do business, company leaders decided to ignore the results and not make any of the changes.

Company Three

Before the research was conducted, the leaders from Company Three were well aware of the culture they were dealing with. They knew the company culture was “we do things the way they’ve always been done.” After reviewing their analytics, they decided the best thing to do was to implement the recommended changes.

However, just before executing their plan, they discovered the culture of the company was such that the changes could not be implemented without a great deal of internal upheaval. Although they knew the changes needed to be made to fix their problems and return to profitability, company leaders decided that trying to implement such drastic changes could destroy the company entirely.

What Should They Do? You Decide

Company One’s motivation for pursuing analytics is that it shows they care about their employees. Company Two’s initial motivation for obtaining analytics was to improve the company. But, when the rubber met the road, they were not willing to put their own opinions aside to implement the recommended changes. And the leaders from Company Three decided they were not willing to invest the time and energy to do what was ultimately best for the company.

Bottom line, the decision to engage employees or keep them engaged is always in the best interest of the company. And analytics is the best way of assessing your success or failure at doing this. But if you have analytics done on the engagement level of your employees, make sure you implement the recommended changes. Lack of implementation is why employee engagement is and will continue to be a hot topic in the business world.