Employee engagement has a direct impact on productivity, as most companies know. However, they do not all use measures to assess the first to improve the second.
Inadequate measuring tools
The results of an ADP survey point out that nearly half of Canadians are not as productive as they could be. Knowing that nearly three-quarters of employees are not very engaged in their work, according to a study by the Conference Board of Canada, it is possible to establish a link – other factors also effect productivity but engagement is one of the main ones.
Conducted among 126 financial executives across the country, a study sponsored by ADP Canada and carried out by the Canadian Financial Executives Research Foundation, “Understanding Productivity through the Prism of Finance”, shares disturbing figures: only 10% of people interviewed think that their tools for measuring productivity fully meet their company’s needs and more than one quarter do not use any productivity data.
Large companies are measuring engagement more
Other results are rather reassuring: 62% of respondents are aware that employee engagement is a significant measurement and 40% measure it at least once a year. There are however significant differences depending on the size of the company – 49% of organization with less than 250 employees do not use any measurement tools on the issue. Does this mean that small companies are not concerned about engagement? Not necessarily: it is mainly due to the fact that in these organizations, the managers are in constant contact with their employees. They can therefore informally assess their engagement from day to day without having to launch an internal investigation.
Evaluate, then act!
The other observation is that assessing engagement is of no use by itself – it’s only if the leaders take measures to improve it that the impact on productivity will be felt. As pointed out by Sunil Gandhi, Financial Director of Trophy Foods, “employees can find it frustrating if management asks for their feedback without taking up the recommendations.” So when results fall, act accordingly!