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METHODS OF MEASURING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Interviews

Individuals or groups are interviewed to obtain information relevant to employee engagement. Interviews can be conducted in person, by telephone or through webinar conferencing. The information gathered is qualitative.

Advantages

  • It is personal, and provides an opportunity to clarify questions.
  • Easier to develop than a questionnaire.
  • Interviewer can ask follow-up or clarifying questions.
  • Interviewer can observe non-verbal behavior in face-to-face interview.
  • Provides opportunity to gather information for more extensive research.

Disadvantages

  • Labor intensive and time consuming; therefore, cost can be higher.
  • The person collecting the data must have strong interviewing skills.
  • Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed.
  • Review of results is time-consuming and requires analysis skills.
  • Requires an objective facilitator to be effective
  • May draw conclusions instead of reaching a logical conclusion from facts.
  • Interviewer could be affected by his/her own biases.

Focus Groups

Small groups (7 to 15 people) work with a facilitator to provide their perceptions, suggestions or feelings about employee engagement. The facilitator assists the group with the "process", as well as with the recording of their ideas. The information gathered is qualitative.

Advantages

  • Permits access to a larger population.
  • Group composition can be controlled to ensure it is demographically representative.
  • Focused discussion.
  • Easy to get lots of information in a relatively short time frame (1-2 hours).
  • Allows the facilitator to draw upon the diverse attitudes and ideas of a group.
  • Allows access to in-depth information about the attitudes, opinions, beliefs and behavior .
  • Relatively inexpensive and flexible in terms of format, types of questions & desired outcomes.
  • Good for groups with lower literacy levels ( e.g., English as a 2nd language).
  • Spontaneous, participants not required to answer every question, able to build on one another's responses.

Disadvantages

  • Requires a skilled small-group facilitator to be effective.
  • Transcribing and collating the feedback can be time-consuming.
  • Because it requires a larger room and a group of people it can be more costly and more difficult to schedule.
  • Analyzing and interpreting the feedback requires specific skills.
  • Findings may not represent the views of larger segments of the population.
  • Qualitative data may be difficult to analyze because it is unstructured.
  • Possible conformance, censoring, conflict, conflict avoidance or other unintended outcomes of the group process could occur and would need to be addressed.
  • Interviewer could be effected by his/her own biases

Surveys

A survey contains a series of specially designed questions intended to gather relevant information from a defined group. Surveys are usually distributed by hand, through the mail or on the Internet and completed by the individual and returned. The information gathered is quantitative and qualitative.

Advantages

  • Easy to survey large numbers of individuals.
  • Relatively low cost.
  • Confidentiality is easy to ensure.
  • Relatively simple to analyze and interpret.
  • Good source of quantitative information.
  • Most user friendly and least intimidating.

Disadvantages

  • Difficult and time-consuming to develop.
  • Low response rate could invalidate the survey results.
  • Poorly worded questions could gather the wrong information.
  • Does not allow for follow-up questions.
  • May require multiple modes to be accessible to all individuals (internet access, interpreters, literacy concerns, etc.).

Observation*

Another way to collect information is to observe individuals as they interact, work and participate in their work environment using a previously designed checklist. This method involves observing individuals in their day-to-day work activities, their interactions and relationships, and their overall outlook toward their job. The information gathered may be either qualitative or quantitative.

Advantages

  • Can observe on-the-job behavior in a real work environment.
  • Provides first-hand information.
  • An observation checklist can be organized to list categories and frequency of behavior to be observed. The checklist becomes the tool used to help consistently quantify engagement .

Disadvantages

  • It is labor intensive, time consuming and can be costly.
  • Observation may affect performance.
  • The observation must be carefully planned and implemented.
  • The observer must be impartial.
  • It must be properly structured for quantitative data collection.

* This data collection method is under-utilized and most effective when an engagement checklist, based on the Model for a High-Performance Work Environment, is used.