Although the concept has been widely embraced by HR for well over a decade, employee engagement remains ill-defined for many people. Is it employee satisfaction or something more? What exactly is employee engagement, and how can we measure and promote it?
At Perceptyx, we know that engagement is a virtuous circle. Engagement yields higher performance, leading to success, which builds higher engagement. The question is, how do we get that engine spinning in a positive direction? Our primary goal at Perceptyx is to kick-start the virtuous circle for our client companies, where engagement yields higher performance and ultimately leads to success.
Perceptyx has very specific measures of engagement that examine employees’ psychological state and behavioural attributes. We have found that by assessing responses to the following four indicators of engagement, we can determine individual employees’ level of engagement at any given time:
- Intrinsic motivation
- Intent to stay
- Referral behaviour
- Pride in organisation
It’s important to note that these are outcome measures. To understand why employees are engaged or not, we gather data about employees’ perceptions of the different aspects of employee experience. Analyses of employee perceptions allows us to identify barriers to engagement.
While Perceptyx defines engagement as a psychological state that can be measured through employee behaviour, we are ultimately more interested in identifying and removing barriers to engagement. When those are eliminated, the anticipation of success yields willingness to apply discretionary effort on the job.
Research has consistently established connections between engagement, performance, and success. Because the recipe for achieving engagement is not the same for every company, engagement is a unique competitive advantage. It requires a longer-term focus and insight about the specific employee population. How we influence it and improve it requires deep understanding on a case-by-case basis.
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