Measuring employee engagement in an organisation which ranges in diversity from senior executives and admin staff to roles as varied as social workers, refuse collectors, planners, and registrars, is a huge challenge. However, it is key to measure and track employee engagement over time so that you can address aspects which need improvement and identify issues on which you are doing poorly – or better than you expected.

Because local government workers fared very differently during the pandemic, some working from home, while others were required to continue working on the front line in public spaces, and very few were actually furloughed, the playing field for local government employees has felt far from level. Are we back to normal yet? Is there a new normal? The best way to find out is to ask.

If employee engagement research is new to your organisation, you should conduct initial ‘deep dive’ research, followed by smaller ‘pulse’ surveys every six to twelve months. Making each question relevant to everyone is important. The best way to achieve this is to talk to the people you will be surveying. Chatting with a few individuals, or forming a focus group, can be illuminating and help you draft the key questions.

Making the survey accessible is also essential. You might need to provide paper copies for employees with no access to smart technology. These results can be transcribed and added to the digitally collected data. You should aim to achieve a high response rate, with plentiful data to analyse, so that findings are meaningful and representative. It is crucial to gather opinions as broadly as possible across your organisation; this includes your senior executives, who should be firmly encouraged to take part.

We always recommend strongly that clients position the survey in advance. The industry norm in employee engagement surveys is around 40%, but we regularly see this response rate more than double when the survey is explained clearly to employees beforehand. People need to be reassured that the results of the survey will not just be noted but used to make progress. In fact, if you are not going to act on its findings, we recommend that you do not conduct a survey.

Confidentiality is also key. Employees should feel able to express opinions, especially if you allow free expression in some questions rather than an exclusively tick box approach. If people believe their opinions will be listened to in confidence, they are much more likely to participate.

We also recommend that surveys are not too long. The ‘deep dive’ should address the issues that you want to explore but should still be as concise as possible. Follow up ‘pulse’ surveys should consist of just a few carefully crafted questions and should take no more than a few minutes to complete. This helps to keep response rates consistently high.

Be as transparent as you can with the survey findings. If the results are challenging, let people know what action you are taking to address the more negative themes. Let your teams know when progress is made. For example, if job satisfaction is higher now than two years ago, that’s excellent news and it can be attributed in part to their participation – so say thank you.

Take as much action as you can. Change the things that you can influence as promptly as possible. Employee engagement research can help form a virtuous circle of listening, improvement, and engagement. Not listening to your teams or making improvements will have the exact opposite, demotivating, effect. Involve people in your change programmes following your survey. By empowering teams to take ownership of their results, you encourage teams to drive lasting, positive change at a local level and releases the burden on HR to always be responsible for the survey and its outcomes. In addition, we know from over 20 years’ experience that when people are involved and own their change, that change is significantly more likely to ‘stick’.

Arguably, it has never been more critical to be able to measure employee engagement as this gives valuable signposts into whether your team are focused and working well, disengaged and doing the bare minimum, or actively considering leaving you.

Gary Cattermole is director of The Survey Initiative