There’s much to be said for measuring employee engagement
Employee engagement, or sentiment, surveys are tried-and-true tools in talent leaders’ strategies to accurately assess, support, and strengthen workers’ connections to their organizations.
Links between engagement and productivity, performance, morale, well-being, and—perhaps most importantly—retention are well-documented. Those relationships make companies’ often substantial spends on engagement surveys important workforce investments.
Engagement survey data can also provide valuable insights into organizational culture, managerial effectiveness, employer branding, and progress on initiatives. It often pinpoints learning and development needs or identifies potential issues before escalation.
$3,000
to
$30,000
Average cost range for an outsourced, full-service employee engagement survey
Drive Research
Links between engagement and productivity, performance, morale, well-being, and—perhaps most importantly—retention are well-documented. Those relationships make companies’ often substantial spends on engagement surveys important workforce investments.
Engagement survey data can also provide valuable insights into organizational culture, managerial effectiveness, employer branding, and progress on initiatives. It often pinpoints learning and development needs or identifies potential issues before escalation.
$3,000
to
$30,000
Average cost range for an outsourced, full-service employee engagement survey
Drive Research
Engagement surveys have flaws, too
While companies derive undeniable benefits from engagement surveys, the instruments aren’t without their drawbacks. Chief among those, according to Walden University, are that employee engagement surveys:
- Reveal a snapshot of conditions at only a single moment in time
- May produce information overload when too much data is captured and cannot be readily analyzed and utilized
- Sometimes cause more harm than good if employees don’t see their input being taken seriously and applied to drive changes
A recent Harvard Business Review article adds that some investments in engagement surveys fail to achieve returns because of the instruments’ reliance on standardized question sets that don’t tie to meaningful key performance indicators or don’t gauge attributes that align with and support organizational needs.
In addition, so-called survey fatigue can result when employees are asked to respond to polls too often and/or to address large numbers of queries.
But with Gallup’s latest findings showing that workplace engagement in the U.S. slipped to 33% in 2023—costing businesses nationwide about $1.9 trillion in lost productivity annually—engagement surveys will likely remain an important tactic in tracking and improving employee engagement levels.
$1.9 trillion
Estimated annual amount that unengaged & actively disengaged employees cost U.S.employers
Gallup
But with Gallup’s latest findings showing that workplace engagement in the U.S. slipped to 33% in 2023—costing businesses nationwide about $1.9 trillion in lost productivity annually—engagement surveys will likely remain an important tactic in tracking and improving employee engagement levels.
$1.9 trillion
Estimated annual amount that unengaged & actively disengaged employees cost U.S.employers
Gallup
Adding the power of contextual data
In L&D, in-context surveying involves assessing employees' attitudes and perceptions about a workplace behavior while they're learning about it.
Given the limitations of engagement surveys, organizations seeking comprehensive insights into employee perceptions should supplement findings with additional data. Capturing employee data in a specific context is one way that can be done.
In learning and development (L&D), in-context surveying involves assessing employees' attitudes and perceptions about a workplace behavior while they’re learning about it. For example, if an organization’s managers are training to initiate difficult conversations with direct reports, it’s helpful to get a sense of the managers' feelings about conflict and their own abilities to handle employee defensiveness or anger—issues that often arise in a difficult conversation.
To provide in-context surveying, Atana courses embed validated engagement questions asked within the context of vicarious workplace experiences. “The data derived from learner engagement with our courses offers proof that the training is making an impact, and that is something L&D teams have long been asking for,” says Atana CEO John Hansen. “Atana's unique approach measures and predicts specific behavioral changes employees intend to adopt as a result of training, going beyond sentiment analysis.”
2 key benefits for L&D
- Having a solution that both teaches behaviors and measures behavioral intent, like the one provided by Atana, is appealing to L&D teams because they don’t have to design questions or interpret responses. Assessments are engineered into Atana courses, and the analysis is done automatically by the Atana Insights behavioral analytics engine. The data is then presented to L&D in a user-friendly dashboard. “Those analytics are clear indicators of employee attitudes and intentions that engagement surveys simply can’t deliver.” Hansen explains. “They signal the difference between ordinary training and data-informed learning that produces ROI for organizations.”
- Through its ongoing methodological innovations, Atana aims to address the previously noted drawbacks associated with surveys, enhance the accuracy of data collected, and provide feedback that more accurately reflects true employee behaviors and attitudes while facilitating more effective organizational interventions.
Given the limitations of engagement surveys, organizations seeking comprehensive insights into employee perceptions should supplement findings with additional data. Capturing employee data in a specific context is one way that can be done.
In learning and development (L&D), in-context surveying involves assessing employees' attitudes and perceptions about a workplace behavior while they’re learning about it. For example, if an organization’s managers are training to initiate difficult conversations with direct reports, it’s helpful to get a sense of the managers' feelings about conflict and their own abilities to handle employee defensiveness or anger—issues that often arise in a difficult conversation.
In L&D, in-context surveying involves assessing employees' attitudes and perceptions about a workplace behavior while they're learning about it.
To provide in-context surveying, Atana courses embed validated engagement questions asked within the context of vicarious workplace experiences. “The data derived from learner engagement with our courses offers proof that the training is making an impact, and that is something L&D teams have long been asking for,” says Atana CEO John Hansen. “Atana's unique approach measures and predicts specific behavioral changes employees intend to adopt as a result of training, going beyond sentiment analysis.”
2 key benefits for L&D
- Having a solution that both teaches behaviors and measures behavioral intent, like the one provided by Atana, is appealing to L&D teams because they don’t have to design questions or interpret responses. Assessments are engineered into Atana courses, and the analysis is done automatically by the Atana Insights behavioral analytics engine. The data is then presented to L&D in a user-friendly dashboard. “Those analytics are clear indicators of employee attitudes and intentions that engagement surveys simply can’t deliver.” Hansen explains. “They signal the difference between ordinary training and data-informed learning that produces ROI for organizations.”
- Through its ongoing methodological innovations, Atana aims to address the previously mentioned drawbacks associated with surveys, enhance the accuracy of the data collected, and provide feedback that more accurately reflects true employee behaviors and attitudes while facilitating more effective organizational interventions.
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- The Atana Insights engine allows for measuring organizational progress over time, surpassing the limitations of simple engagement surveys. Additionally, the dashboard provides industry and national comparison data, categorized by employees and managers.
- Measuring behaviors in the context of a learning intervention incorporates advanced analytics and strategic survey design to help solve such issues as low response rates and biases sometimes associated with online (versus in-person) surveys.1
- Atana analysis includes suggestions and resources to help L&D staff determine appropriate next steps to address identified issues—just the solutions needed to demonstrate that employees’ concerns have been heard, valued, and acted on.
Meaningful results achieved
"Behavior change relies on an employee’s intentions," Hansen explains. “That intent is shaped by their attitudes, their abilities, and the support they receive from others. Atana captures that information helping to further illuminate issues that company engagement queries may have revealed. Pairing Atana insights with data from other internal surveys can produce powerful results that help L&D drive positive progress from individual to organizational levels.”
Learn more about the benefits of Atana’s behavior-based courses and accompanying analytics to see how your L&D team can make solid contributions to business success and upskilling initiatives—all with absolutely no heavy lifting to design or interpret statistical data.
About the Author
John Louviere, Ph.D. | Atana VP of Content and Research
Dr. Louviere has over 20 years of practical and theoretical research experience utilizing state-of-the-art learning analytics methodologies to assess and design online learning. He is passionate about applying theory-influenced innovation to design and deliver excellent and effective learning experiences.
John Louviere, Ph.D. | Atana VP of Content and Research
Dr. Louviere has over 20 years of practical and theoretical research experience utilizing state-of-the-art learning analytics methodologies to assess and design online learning. He is passionate about applying theory-influenced innovation to design and deliver excellent and effective learning experiences.
