Much like we’ve discussed the importance of executives and busy professionals engaging in regular self assessments, the best companies engage in regular assessments of their people engagement.
To get more glimpses about this topic, I interviewed Hong Kong-based HR specialist, Dani Friggi Lu, to get her perspective and advice. With 17+ years of Human Resources experience at Deloitte, PwC, AT&T, Accenture and now as Director of her own HR Consulting Practice called “Boosting Passion,” Dani’s insights are well sought-after.
ALMA Wellness: What is a People Survey and why would HR professionals want to use one?
Dani: The employees of a company play a key role in determining its level of success, or can even be considered as its key asset. And it takes an engaged workforce, which are passionate about their job, to cultivate the clients and success a company’s look for.
Having this in mind, a People Survey (or Engagement Survey), is a very powerful HR tool used to provide a unique insight into the employees’ perspectives. As the first step to better understand or improve anything is to be capable of measuring it, People Surveys can generate actionable outcomes to enhance the workforce productivity and engagement. This, of course, if the survey is well implemented.
ALMA Wellness: Which People Surveys would you recommend?
Dani: I have worked with very reputable People Survey providers such as ISR, Kenexa, Gallup, and Great Place to Work. I think these companies provide a remarkable job within the subject by providing value far beyond the actual survey. Many of them have comprehensive databases for company benchmarking by location, industry and others. You can also generate reports by specific workgroups without compromising the confidentiality. You can get lost comparing benchmark data!
From a technical or methodological perspective, some companies use an “Engagement Index” and “Engagement-related” surveys. This means that they not only measure employee work satisfaction, motivation and cultural alignment, but they also ask specific questions to be able to track employee “emotional commitment” and “fidelity” to the company. It is a quite an interesting HR subject!
ALMA Wellness: Please explain the concept of “Engagement.”
Dani: An “engaged employee” is the one who is passionate about his/her job! This emotional commitment means he cares beyond his daily job, and works towards the company’s goals. Therefore, a company with a high employee engagement level can be expected to outperform the others.
For companies, showing reciprocal care can be a very good start to reinforce engagement levels. Some are now targeting health and wellness investments for that, flex-time and related.
Studies have suggested that engagement levels are largely influenced by company strategies and policies. An analysis of both rational and emotional forms of engagement reveals that emotional engagement is four times more valuable than rational engagement in driving employee effort.
ALMA Wellness: What recommendations do you have if HR professionals want to implement a People Survey?
Dani: It’s up to the company to choose the most appropriate tool to be used, taking into consideration their culture and values, the main objectives with implementing a People Survey, company size, budget, etc. A HR expert can certainly help the company in this task. They can also be the project coordinator to support a successful implementation, assist to analyze gaps and be a strategic advisor on the topics. But it is most important that the company be committed to appropriately use the tool.
Commitment to a People Survey means sharing the results with the workforce and leaders, engaging people in the action plans discussions and holding them accountable for it. Lots of actions can be taken with very low or no cost.
Unfortunately, I have seen companies doing surveys and simply don’t use its results to invest in any change. They also don’t give feedback to the employees, and in doing so employees lose faith in the company’s leadership, in HR, and in any future survey tool.
So if you choose to start assessing your company’s health, be sure you are willing to take actions!
Earlier in my career, I was a desk-bound employee who spent 40+ hours a week in a cubicle farm. But as a health-conscious individual who was aware of the perils of inactivity, I found a way to put in the hours but remain physically active.