The Engagement Score is in all it’s simplicity a number between 0 and 100, which tells you how engaged your employees are. This can be measured on a single employee, on departments or groups – and for the entire company.
But before we get into the technicalities, we’ll start off with the basics. We have written about what engagement means at the work place before, but this time we’re doing a deep dive into the definition of this central term: engagement.
What is engagement?
An organisation with a high degree of employee engagement is expected to be more succesful than a similar organisation with a low degree of employee engagement – quote obviously, we might add.
An ‘engaged employee’ is defined as a person who is dedicated and enthusiastic about their work. An employee who takes positive action to further the organisation’s reputation and interests. An engaged employee has a positive attitude towards the company and its values. In contrast, an unengaged employee is defined as an employee who only does the bare minimum, or even worse, someone who is actively damaging the company’s work and reputation.
So employee engagement is something that tells you something about the employee’s both physical and mental relation to their work place, and how they act in regards to their work.
What drives engagement?
An engaged employee is created from several different parameters. We have outlined the most important of them here:
Personal resources:
If an employee has a positive perception of their own abilities, this allows them to be more engaged with the company.
The importance of the work:
An employee’s attitude towards the importance of the work and the company itself contributes more to the overall loyalty of the employee than all other factors combined (wow).
Expectations:
If the company’s expectations for the employee and the basic information and/or necessary tools are not clear or available, this will generate negative emotions for the employee, who will focus more on surviving than helping the company thrive.
If employees feel that their manager supports them and pays attention to how they do their job, they will be more engaged.
Feedback and dialogue:
Feedback for the employees about their work is important for the employee’s relation to their workplace. If an employee feels that their supervisor is supportive and takes an interest in how they’re doing, they’ll be 67% more engaged.
Relationship with management and colleagues:
Nothing can create unengaged employees like bad relations in the work place. Employee engagement is often directly correlated with the relationship to their closest manager and colleagues.
Effective internal communication:
A solid understanding of what is happening in the company, where it’s headed, and how new procedures affect the employee is essential for creating engaged employees.
The Engagement Score on Academy: One algorithm to rule them all
The Engagement Score is measured using an algorithm which looks at all activity on Academy and sums it all up into one neat number.
- How long the user is online
- How often the user logs in
- How quickly the news posts are read after being posted
- How may news posts are read
- How many certifications are completed – and how successfully
- How often certifications are repeated
- How the users interacts with colleagues
- How much the user uses the forums
- How many achievements have been earned
All activity on the Academy system is registered, and most of it is fed into the engagement algorithm. We love data, and we measure everything – surely you’ve read our article on the delightful data?
So what does this mean for employee engagement?
The higher the employee engagement is in your company, the more the employees will seek information, repeat training courses and educate themselves, and the more they will help their colleagues and share knowledge. All this is monitored by the Engagement Score.
How often an employee logs in to read up on new information, how well the employee scores on a certification on products and company values, and how likely the employee is to help their colleagues all says something about that employee’s attitude, motivation and potential.
An employee with an Engagement Score of 13 probably isn’t ready for a promotion, where as an employee with a score of 88 is confident, engaged and knowledgable.
A low engagement score does not mean that an employee does not want his job. A low score can mean many things that need a manager's attention.
What can you use the Engagement Score for?
Knowing how employees are acting and how they use their time surely says something about their engagement. It’s easy enough to uphold appearances when the manager is looking, but is the motivation and passion to ‘take positive action to further the organisations reputation and interests’ there when the manager isn’t around?
The Engagement Score is quick indicator for how well an employee or department is doing, and can be used as a good jumping off point for a status meeting or visit.
Here it’s important to note that a low score isn’t always synonymous with an employee not wanting to do their job. A low score can mean many things, for example that the employee needs more challenges, or is having problems at the work place. Something which the manager needs to be aware of, and which can be addressed for the benefit of everyone.
Especially in workplaces with a high employee turnover it’s important to be proactive and get ahead of problems – and here the Engagement Score is a great tool to ‘catch’ unengaged employees early and change course before they leave the company or letting them go becomes necessary.
The Engagement Score as a management tool
We recommend using the Engagement Score as a tool when talking about motivation and possibilities in the work place.
The company can set a goal – for example that all employees should have an Engagement Score of over 50, and then have a chat with the employees below this number. This can also be done for entire departments, where the manager of each department is responsible for ensuring that employee engagement is increased.
Managers can check their employee’s score on the system on a weekly or monthly basis, and incorporate a routine to ensure that drops in engagement is noticed in time and a solid overview is maintained. This also ensures anchoring and seriousness in the company, creates a focus on training and a good information-flow, which again ensures employees with a high level of knowledge, confidence and job satisfaction.
A good manager keeps employees sharp and motivated, and this can be rewarded with a cash bonus triggered by a high engagement score.
Bring out the carrot
But if a boost is needed, there’s nothing wrong with working with a further incentive. This could mean launching a competition where the department with the highest Engagement Score can win a prize – maybe a cash bonus for a staff party or cake for the department.
In some cases the Engagement Score has been used to reward the employees with a high level of engagement with a bonus or salary increase. A good manager makes sure that their employees are focused and motivated (using Academy, of course), and this can be rewarded with a cash bonus for a high Engagement Score – for example one between 80 and 100.
Where can it go wrong?
One error many companies seem to make when trying to increase employee engagement is not following through.
A lot of energy is spent gathering data, analysing results and comparing numbers. But the action is missing. Simply measuring your heart rate doesn’t make it go up or down.
This is why it’s extremely important that the Engagement Score is used to make a difference. To help employees who need more challenges or help, and to reward those who score high – and in general, to make sure a high level of engagement is maintained all around.
A real life example
The Engagement Score is an effective tool for identifying strong or weak areas, or people who deserve a pat on the back. In the late FONA stores (R.I.P.), the Engagement Score could predict which stores would surpass their target of index 100 with 93% accuracy.
The Engagement Score on Academy and the engagement out on the floor go hand in hand. A department with a high level of engagement on Academy will also perform better in real life than a department with a low score – and this makes it possible to react in time and get back on track where the engagement is waning.
A department with a high level of engagement on Academy will also perform better in real life than a department with a low score
What can Academy do, when it comes to employee engagement?
The Engagement Score is just one of the tools your company has access to on Academy. You can also use the system to increase employee engagement, as mentioned above.
You can reward employees for their efforts with points, achievements and badges. Academy automatically celebrates the most engaged employees with Ambassador status or prizes, and in this way the company is recognising both the employee’s skills and personal resources.
Academy also provides survey modules for employee satisfaction and heaps of statistics (amongst them, the Engagement Score) in a neat tool box. To sum it up, Academy has everything you need to ensure a solid foundation for feedback and a close dialogue with your employees.
Features on Academy that increase employee engagement:
- Engagement Score
- Points
- Achievements
- Badges
- Awards
- Ambassadorship
- Surveys for e.g. employee satisfaction
With Academy – and the social elements and the community, you can create on the system – you can create a happy workplace with close relations, which increases loyalty and engagement. Academy ensures that information reaches all employees, and that everyone is certified and confident in their jobs. And that is the corner stone of a healthy company bursting with employee engagement.
