Engagement is crucial to driving employee performance and retention. Reflektive’s approach to employee engagement is based on published research and best practices from our experience partnering with hundreds of companies. Read more for how we constructed our customizable engagement surveys, benchmarks, and Natural Language Processing to provide powerful engagement insights for HR teams.
Our approach
Reflektive’s approach to measuring employee engagement is unique for four main reasons:
- Includes survey categories & questions on performance management, given the strong link between performance programs and employee engagement
- Includes survey categories & questions on career growth and feedback, especially important for millennials and Gen Z
- Optimizes for employee authenticity, thanks to our partnership with organizational behavior experts from Stanford University
- Optimizes for high completion rates
Measures & Factors
Reflektive’s Engagement survey is comprised of “measures” and “factors":
- Engagement measures comprise the overall engagement score. Companies can assess how well they help employees reach their highest productivity.
- Engagement factors contribute to employee sentiment.
Engagement Measures
Our engagement measures include questions on retention, discretionary effort, and likelihood to recommend:
- I would recommend my company to a friend as a great place to work
- I feel comfortable telling friends that my company has great products or services
- You'll probably see me working at my company two years from now
- I work harder at my company than I have at past companies
Engagement Factors
The following factors have a meaningful impact on employee engagement, and address the needs of a changing workforce. For each, we’ve linked to an example of articles or research to learn more about the factor.
Performance Drive
This factor includes questions on autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Per Daniel Pink’s research in Drive, these are the top contributors to employee performance.
- I generally have the freedom to make decisions that are required to do my job well
- I am developing important skills through the work I do every day
- My work challenges me
- I am able to use some personal interests in my work
- What we work on at my company matters
Career Growth
One of the biggest retention drivers is advancement, per Sean Graber in Harvard Business Review. Since employees can perceive growth as upward or lateral, our questions cover both.
- I have the option to move to other roles within my company
- I understand how to grow my career at my company
- I use my best strengths in my job every day
Culture of Feedback
A feedback culture is crucial in driving engagement and retention. In fact, people who receive meaningful recognition when they perform well are almost 2X more likely to work at their company in two years.
- My voice is valued at my company
- The feedback I receive helps me improve
- I get meaningful recognition when I perform well
Work Environment / Culture Health
Per Harvard Business Review, psychological safety - or the belief that you won’t be punished when you make a mistake - drives “higher levels of engagement, increased motivation to tackle difficult problems, more learning and development opportunities, and better performance”.
- I feel comfortable telling someone at Reflektive if I see an inappropriate interaction
- Our leadership team acts in alignment with our stated company values
- I am confident that I won't get in trouble if I admit to making a mistake
- Other teams partner well with my team to get work done
Performance Management
Reflektive’s inaugural Performance & Engagement survey revealed that those who like their company’s processes for reviews, feedback, and goal-setting are almost 3X more likely to work harder than they have at past companies.
- I like our processes for reviews, feedback, and goal setting
- I know how to do well in my job
- I am paid fairly for my job
- I understand how my work is evaluatedLeadership
Leadership’s ability to inspire confidence plays a major role in employee satisfaction. Per Gallup, 70% of employees are engaged at work when leadership drives employee enthusiasm in the future of the company. When leaders don’t drive enthusiasm, only 1% of the employee population is engaged.
- Our leaders are open to changing their perspectives based on new information
- Our leaders follow through on their commitments
- I believe in my company's plan for future growth
- We have a strong leadership team
My Manager
In a similar vein, management’s ability to inspire and support their employees is crucial in driving engagement and retention.
- My manager cares about me as a person
- My manager helps me to develop key skills
- My manager sets a high standard of excellence for the team
- My team and I feel inspired by our manager
- My manager helps me solve problems
Benchmarks
Engagement data in a vacuum is not helpful. That’s why we have four types of benchmarks to enable seamless comparisons over time, and versus relevant peers:
Market Data:
Compare your organization’s engagement results versus those of similar companies. Our benchmarks cover thousands of employees across the US. Current benchmarks available include:
- Small Business
- Mid-Sized Business
- Enterprise
- Large Enterprise
- Software and Tech
- Finance and Insurance
- Healthcare
- Advertising and Media
- Professional Services
Past data (from Reflektive):
View your company’s historical engagement data from past Reflektive surveys to observe trends and pinpoint areas of opportunity.
Current data (from Reflektive):
Visualize company-wide engagement results versus those from a particular department, location, manager, or more.
Past data (from another platform):
Import data from Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or another engagement provider for a better understanding of your company’s engagement over time.
Natural Language Processing
HR leaders have told us they’ve spent dozens of hours analyzing survey comments. We built our Natural Language Processing so HR teams, executives, and managers can easily identify comment sentiment and theme -- in one glance.
Reflektive works with Amazon Web Services to analyze comment sentiment. Comments are categorized as positive, negative, mixed, or neutral.
Reflektive’s in-house technology is used to detect the following 24 themes:
- Alignment
- Benefits
- Career Growth
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Community Service Focus
- Company Performance
- Compensation
- Customer Focus
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Enablement
- Feedback Culture
- Innovation
- Leadership Team
- My Manager
- Ownership
- Performance Drive
- Performance Management
- Quality Focus
- Recognition
- Social Connection
- Staffing
- Work and Life Blend
- Work Environment
Additional Survey Templates
Onboarding
- Audience: New hires
- Purpose: Assesses corporate recruiting, orientation, and communication efforts
- How It Was Developed: Optimized for high completion rates (14 questions, takes 5 minutes to complete). Includes specific questions to address areas of opportunity (e.g., “Is there something we could have done to improve the recruitment process?” “What is the most important information a new employee should receive?”)
Exit
- Audience: Employees departing voluntarily
- Purpose: Supplements exit interview to provide companies with insights into employee departures
- How It Was Developed: Built to get a holistic perspective on why the employee is leaving, and what can be done to prevent more departures. Questions include, “What, if anything, could have been done to keep you at the company?” and “What’s the most important thing that we should know about your reason(s) for leaving?”
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
- Audience: All employees
- Purpose: Helps companies assess and improve their inclusion efforts
- How It Was Developed: Reflektive’s DEI Survey Template was created in consultation with ReadySet, a high-touch boutique consulting firm specializing in making more human-centric, inclusive work environments. The survey covers five factors crucial to driving inclusivity, including “Belonging” and “Opportunities”. Sample questions include: “I feel like my workplace provides a positive and healthy environment for me” and “I feel safe being vulnerable with my coworkers”.
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