How to Measure Employee Engagement Effectively & What to Avoid

With an engaged workforce, your company can experience increased productivity, higher retention rates, and better job satisfaction overall.

But many factors influence engagement, so it can be hard to tell whether your company is succeeding or failing at engaging your employees. In other words, measuring employee engagement is difficult but essential. 

In this guide, we walk you through how to measure employee engagement effectively—including how to develop a useful measurement strategy. We also explain why measuring engagement is important and how it can benefit your company, as well as cover common pitfalls to avoid.

Why Is Measuring Employee Engagement Important? 

Measuring employee engagement offers a number of benefits that contribute to a positive work culture, increased employee satisfaction, improved performance, and greater overall business success. 

You can:

Identify areas of improvement

First and foremost, through measuring engagement levels across your company, you can determine why employees may be disengaged. For example, employees may feel like they don’t have much autonomy in their roles or that the communication between them and their managers isn’t great.

You can use these insights to make targeted improvements where they matter most.

Increase productivity and performance

Measuring engagement helps you identify strategies to foster a more engaged workforce. When your workers are engaged, they’re more productive and motivated to go above and beyond in their work. 

They’re also more driven to contribute to organizational success and more likely to contribute innovative ideas and creative solutions to problems.

Enhance employee satisfaction

Measuring engagement helps you understand the factors that contribute to employee satisfaction. For example, work-life balance and career development opportunities may need attention. 

On the flip side, by identifying these factors, you can also let go of systems and initiatives that don’t enhance the employee experience. 

Reduce turnover and retain top talent

High levels of employee engagement are associated with lower turnover rates. Measuring engagement and following the latest employee engagement trends helps you identify potential retention issues and helps you put in place initiatives to keep your top talent.

Improve communication and collaboration

Additionally, measuring engagement allows you to assess the quality of relationships within your organization. Barriers to effective communication and collaboration can then be removed. 

Enhance customer satisfaction

Satisfied and motivated employees are more likely to deliver exceptional service to customers. Measuring engagement can help you identify initiatives that will ultimately enhance the customer experience and boost satisfaction scores.

Improve trust 

When employees see that you’re actively seeking—and acting on—their opinions and feedback, it demonstrates that you value how employees feel and what they have to say. This helps create a culture of trust, inclusion, and transparency across the organization.

Share data and encourage collaboration

Employee engagement measures provide valuable data that you can share with team members across your business. Transparently sharing this data encourages collaboration, enabling them to work together toward shared goals. 

In addition, it helps workers understand the organization’s strengths and areas for improvement. This can help your organization grow a culture of transparency and continuous growth.

Monitor progress 

With consistent measurements and a clear process in place, you can monitor employee engagement over time. This provides a valuable benchmark that you can measure company initiatives against.

Additionally, measuring engagement helps you stay in tune with the needs and expectations of your workforce so you can continuously improve and adapt your strategies.

How to Develop a Suitable Measurement Strategy 

Before you begin measuring employee engagement, it’s important to develop a strategy to guide your efforts.

Keep the following best practices in mind when developing your strategy:

Start at the end

Work backwards and determine the outcomes you want to achieve through measuring employee engagement. 

Some examples of goals would be boosting productivity, improving retention rates, or increasing employee satisfaction. 

Establish clear metrics

Define clear, relevant metrics that align with your goals and provide insights into the engagement aspects you aim to measure. 

For instance, you might want to measure turnover rates, employee satisfaction, feedback on wellness and personal growth initiatives, or alignment with company values.

Ensure that the metrics you choose are either quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative metrics provide data that’s numerical and measurable, while qualitative metrics provide data that’s descriptive or subjective, capturing perceptions and opinions.

For example, employee turnover rate is a quantitative metric. Employee feedback on their relationship with their peers is a qualitative metric.

Clear employee engagement measurement methods will help you make informed decisions and enhance transparency across your company.

Create a follow-up plan

Before you collect employee feedback, be sure to communicate its purpose to them. You can send an email or group message to your staff, or share an update on your company’s newsfeed. You might even discuss it during an in-person or virtual meeting. Explain how the survey will benefit them and assure them that the company will take action based on their feedback. 

After you’ve collected feedback, analyze the results for patterns, trends, and areas of strength and weakness. 

Then, follow up with your employees. Again, you can do this through email, chat, or updates feed, or in a meeting. Share your findings clearly and use straightforward language so all employees can understand the key takeaways. 

Highlight areas of strength and improvement and outline the actions that the company will take in response to employees’ feedback.

It’s also a good idea to thank employees for offering their thoughts and opinions.

Define action items

Speaking of action items, it’s vital to translate survey results into actionable steps. 

Start by identifying key areas for improvement. You can do this by looking for patterns and trends related to certain factors. 

For example, you may see mostly low scores or negative responses to questions meant to gauge employees’ satisfaction with their work-life balance. This would highlight work-life balance as something to work on improving. 

Then, create initiatives to address problem areas. In the above example, you may offer workers more flexible work arrangements, such as a 4-day work week or the ability to set their own hours each week.

Finally, create an action plan that includes your specific initiatives, important dates, and measurable objectives. Communicate this plan to employees, so they know the steps being taken to address their concerns.

Establish accountability

When acting on survey results, it’s important to assign responsibilities to specific individuals or teams. 

For example, if one of your action items is to offer employees clearer direction during projects, you might assign department managers to create resources for their teams detailing   and goals for each of their next projects.

Hold these individuals accountable for driving engagement initiatives by regularly checking in on their progress. Send them an email or instant message—or coordinate a meeting—to chat about how things are progressing.

How to Measure Engagement

Employee surveys are the most common methods of measuring engagement, and they ask questions that gather both quantitative and qualitative data.

Below, we outline 12 key metrics you can use to measure employee engagement. Each metric includes 1 or 2 sample questions you can include in your employee surveys.

Relationship with manager

Few factors have a greater impact on employee engagement than the employee’s relationship with their manager. According to Gallup, the quality of a manager accounts for 70% of the variance in team engagement. 

A good manager improves engagement by fostering trust and respect, providing effective communication and support, and offering clear direction and guidance.

Sample question 

How satisfied are you with the level of trust and communication between you and your manager? 

• 5 – Extremely satisfied
• 4 – Satisfied 
• 3 – Neutral  
• 2 – Dissatisfied
• 1 – Extremely dissatisfied 

Relationship with peers

Strong peer relationships encourage collaboration, teamwork, and a sense of belonging—which all contribute to a positive work culture and overall employee engagement. 

You can measure peer relationships by evaluating communication and collaboration among employees.

It’s also important to measure how employees view the organization’s support for camaraderie in the workplace.

Sample question 1

To what extent do you feel supported by your colleagues in your day-to-day work and projects?

• 5 – Strongly supported
• 4 – Supported 
• 3 – Neutral  
• 2 – Unsupported
• 1 – Extremely unsupported

Sample question 2

Are you encouraged to collaborate with your colleagues to achieve common goals?

• Yes
• No

Recognition

This metric evaluates how often you acknowledge an employee’s contributions and achievements. 

Regularly recognizing and appreciating workers can improve morale, motivation, and a sense of value—helping to enhance engagement and loyalty. 

Sample question

How frequently do you feel you receive recognition or appreciation for your contributions?

• 5 – Very frequently
• 4 – Frequently
• 3 – Neutral
• 2 – Infrequently
• 1 – Very infrequently (or never)

Feedback

This metric will help you determine how well feedback is provided and received. 

Constructive feedback promotes growth, development, and improvement for both employees and management. It can also promote effective communication and can help your team members learn each other’s communication and feedback styles. 

Sample question

Are you satisfied with the frequency and quality of feedback you receive from your supervisor and colleagues?

• Yes
• No

Employee rewards

Employee rewards include the employee’s total compensation. This includes financial compensation, benefits like healthcare and retirement savings, and perks such as flexible work arrangements. 

Employees who feel fairly compensated through their rewards are more likely to feel valued and engaged. 

Sample question 1 

Do you feel you’re fairly compensated for your contributions and skills?

• Yes
• No

Sample question 2

Of the benefits the company provides employees, which do you find most valuable?

Autonomy

This metric evaluates whether employees feel free to make decisions and take ownership of their work. Employees who experience a high level of autonomy are more likely to be engaged at work and feel satisfied in their job. 

Measuring autonomy typically involves assessing the employee’s perceptions. It examines how much control they have over their work and looks at how often they can use their expertise and skills.

Sample question

To what extent do you agree with the following statement? “I regularly use my skills and expertise to make executive decisions in my role.”

Satisfaction

This metric is simple: It measures whether employees feel happy and motivated in their roles and how satisfied they are overall. 

Although engagement and employee satisfaction are different concepts, satisfied employees tend to be more engaged than those who aren’t happy in their jobs.

Sample question

How satisfied are you with your current role and responsibilities?

• 5 – Extremely satisfied
• 4 – Satisfied 
• 3 – Neutral  
• 2 – Dissatisfied
• 1 – Extremely dissatisfied 

Personal growth

Personal growth refers to the process of learning and developing new skills and knowledge, which enhances an employee’s personal and professional opportunities. 

Measuring personal growth provides insights into how employees perceive development and the availability of opportunities within the workplace.

Sample question 1

Are you satisfied with the professional development opportunities offered by the company?

• Yes
• No

Sample question 2

Do you feel encouraged to learn and develop new skills in your current role?

• Yes
• No

Alignment

Alignment measures how well the company’s mission, values, and goals overlap with employees’. 

When the organization and its workers are well-aligned, employees are more likely to be motivated to contribute to company success. Thus, engagement increases!

This metric allows you to identify any differences in values and ambitions or any gaps in alignment that might be impacting employee engagement.

Sample question

To what extent do you agree with the following statement? “The company’s mission, values, and goals align with mine.”

• 5 – Strongly agree
• 4 – Agree
• 3 – Neutral
• 2 – Disagree
• 1 – Strongly disagree

Wellness

The wellness metric measures how aware employees are of support services and resources at the company, as well as how they use them. Services and resources can include employee assistance programs, mental health resources, and other wellness initiatives.

Monitoring employee feedback on wellness can help you identify areas of stress and struggle. Poor scores on this metric can negatively impact engagement—and even lead to employee burnout. 

Sample question

Are you aware of the company’s wellness initiatives and mental health support programs? Please note whether you’ve used these resources when needed. 

• Yes [with explanation]
• No [with explanation]

Employee promotion

You can also measure employees’ engagement by evaluating how likely they are to promote your business through an employee net promoter score (eNPS). 

The eNPS provides insights into workers’ willingness to recommend your company as a place to work. It also serves as an indicator of overall engagement levels, as engaged employees are more likely to speak positively about your company with others.

Sample question

On a scale from 1 to 10—with 1 being “very unlikely” and 10 being “very likely”—how likely are you to recommend the company as a place to work?

Turnover and retention

This metric aims to identify signs of employee turnover in the workplace. Poor retention is indicated by high turnover, which is often an indicator of low employee engagement.

By identifying employee turnover risks, you can take proactive measures to retain valuable workers and improve overall engagement.

Sample question

In the last [insert time period for measurement—e.g., 6 months, 1 year, etc.], have you considered leaving the company?

• Yes
• No

Ways to Measure Employee Engagement Metrics

Now that we’ve reviewed the metrics, let’s discuss the methods commonly used to gather employee engagement data.

Annual engagement surveys

These surveys are conducted once a year and provide a comprehensive assessment of employee engagement. They typically consist of a set of standardized questions that cover various aspects of engagement and contributing factors. 

For example:

• “How satisfied are you with your job and the responsibilities and work that come with it?”
• “Do you feel your supervisors and colleagues recognize and appreciate your contributions?”
• “Are you satisfied with the benefits the company provides employees?”

Survey results help you track trends, identify areas for improvement, and benchmark employee performance. Low scores and negative responses can indicate low levels of engagement, while high scores and positive responses indicate high levels of engagement.

Pulse surveys

Employee pulse surveys are shorter and more frequent than annual surveys, though they can ask similar questions. They capture a snapshot of employee sentiment at regular intervals, such as monthly or quarterly. 

They also provide real-time feedback on specific topics or initiatives. As a result, they can help you quickly identify emerging issues or trends.

eNPS surveys

Employee net promoter score (eNPS) surveys measure how likely employees are to recommend the company to others. 

eNPS surveys typically ask a single question about willingness to recommend. Responses are used to gauge employees’ engagement level and likelihood to quit.

The question is typically phrased like this: 

On a scale from 1 to 10—with 1 being “very unlikely” and 10 being “very likely”—how likely are you to recommend working for this company to your friends, family, or professional contacts?

Based on their answers, employees are then given 1 of 3 labels:

• Promoter (responded with 9 or 10). These individuals are highly likely to recommend the company as a good place to work. Answers of 9 or 10 usually indicate high employee engagement and job satisfaction. “Promoters” are also unlikely to quit. 
• Passive (responded with 7 or 8). These workers don’t feel very positively or very negatively about your company. While “passives” are generally satisfied, they usually aren’t very engaged and may be thinking about leaving your company.
• Detractor (responded with anything from 1-6). These employees aren’t at all likely to recommend your business to others. Detractors are the least engaged employees and are most likely to quit.

Stay interviews

These interviews are conversations with current employees to understand their level of satisfaction. They can also cover factors that contribute to their engagement and anything that might lead to their eventual exit from the company. 

Stay interviews help you proactively address concerns before they become larger issues and cause employees to quit. 

They also help reinforce what your company is doing right and highlight the positive parts of the employee experience.

Exit interviews

These are conducted when employees leave the company. The goal of exit interviews is to gather feedback on ‌ reasons for departure and gain insights into the employee experience. 

They can also help you identify problems and make appropriate improvements to your operations and approaches. Addressing these underlying issues can help you reduce turnover in the future well. 

One-on-one meetings

These are regular individual meetings between employees and their managers. While not a survey in the traditional sense, they do provide an opportunity for open dialogue. One-on-one meetings also encourage feedback and personalized attention.

In this way, they help you gauge how engaged and satisfied your employees are, as well as address their concerns and provide them with support.

What to Avoid When Measuring Employee Engagement

When measuring employee engagement, it’s important to be mindful of potential pitfalls. This way, you can enhance the accuracy, depth, and effectiveness of your employee engagement measurements. 

Here are some key things to avoid:

Using only pulse surveys

While pulse surveys can provide quick snapshots of employee sentiment and engagement, they typically don’t offer a full picture. Supplement them with comprehensive surveys to gather more detailed feedback.

Relying on a sample population

Gathering feedback from a sample population, which would be a portion of your workforce, doesn’t provide reliable enough data or insights when it comes to employee engagement.

To ensure accuracy, it’s crucial to survey your company’s entire employee population. Surveying only a sample group may lead to skewed results, as it can leave out or overlook the perspectives of certain individuals or departments.

Thinking numbers are enough

Employee engagement is a complex concept that can’t be fully captured through numbers alone. Incorporate qualitative feedback, open-ended questions, and follow-up interviews to gain deeper insights into employees’ experiences, emotions, and overall engagement levels.

Prioritizing short-term satisfaction surveys

Employee satisfaction surveys tend to focus on immediate contentment rather than engagement. Instead, design engagement surveys that delve into long-term factors. These include motivation, alignment with organizational goals, and overall commitment to the company.

Thinking surveys alone are the answer

Surveys are valuable tools, but they should be complemented with other strategies. Ongoing dialogue, employee development initiatives, effective leadership practices, and a supportive work environment can all drive meaningful engagement.

Streamline the Process with Connecteam

Using dedicated employee engagement software can make gathering feedback, analyzing results, and taking action on your findings much easier.

The top option available today is Connecteam—an all-in-one work management solution with powerful employee engagement tools. 

Connecteam is perfect for creating and publishing surveys to measure employee engagement (or anything else you might want to gather feedback on). You can create one in minutes using one of Connecteam’s templates. Or, create a fully customized survey with open-ended, multiple-choice, yes/no, and rating scale questions.

Surveys can be anonymous or collect employees’ names—the choice is up to you.

You can create surveys right from your mobile device and share them with workers instantly. Connecteam will send push notifications to employees’ devices when they have a new survey to complete. To further boost completion rates, you can send automated reminders to workers as well.

Plus, you get results in real time, and Connecteam enables you to export the data for further analysis. 

There’s also no limit on the number of surveys you can create and share.

Connecteam’s other employee engagement tools include an in-app chat for individual and group messages and an updates feed to share announcements with specific groups or your entire workforce at once. 

There are also features for recognizing employees’ contributions. You can send them personalized recognition badges or shout them out in the chat or on the company feed. For those who prefer more private recognition, Connecteam enables you to send instant direct messages to employees no matter where or when you’re working.

Similarly, Connecteam has a built-in system for rewarding employees. To reward them for a job well done, send them digital tokens that they can exchange for gift cards.

Beyond these features, Connecteam offers tons of other HR and operations tools. It has a free-for-life plan for small businesses with up to 10 employees, and larger teams can use Connecteam for as little as $29 per month for up to 30 users. There’s even a 14-day free trial you can use to test the platform out. 

Get started with Connecteam for free today!

Conclusion 

Measuring employee engagement can be difficult, as it takes many factors into consideration. It involves quantitative metrics like employee turnover rates and qualitative measures like employee satisfaction. Gathering all of the relevant data and evaluating it effectively can pose a challenge. 

However, there are key methods you can use to get a strong understanding of employee engagement at your organization. It’s essential to define your strategic goals, consider the available metrics, and use a range of methods—like pulse surveys, stay interviews, and one-on-one meetings. 

You might also consider using an employee engagement platform to collect employee engagement measures quickly and easily. Our recommendation is Connecteam, which includes robust features for people management, internal communications, and operations, too.

For more information on employee engagement, dive into our guide on how to create a powerful employee engagement action plan. (It includes a free template!)

FAQs

What is the most commonly used tool to measure employee engagement?

Employee surveys are the most commonly used tool for measuring employee engagement. These include large-scale engagement surveys, which take a broad look across multiple engagement metrics, like productivity levels, job satisfaction, and overall commitment to the company. Meanwhile, employee satisfaction or pulse surveys offer a snapshot of employee sentiment on limited issues. 

The second most common tool for measuring employee engagement is employee turnover rates, as high turnover rates are a leading sign of poor employee engagement. Tracking employee turnover rates can help you identify times of low engagement and identify steps to reduce turnover.

Who is responsible for employee engagement?

HR typically drives projects aimed at measuring employee engagement. However, stakeholders like company leaders and managers are responsible for employee engagement too. They set the tone for the company and help establish and reinforce its culture. 

Of course, employees themselves are responsible for being engaged at work. But they also contribute to the engagement of other workers by sharing feedback and collaborating with their colleagues.

Ultimately, employee engagement is a collective effort—it requires commitment from all levels of the organization.