The Right People in the Right Place: Building Retention through Engagement

  • | Employee Retention, Engaging Employees

The Right People in the Right Place: Building Retention through Engagement

As talent retention remains a strategic focus for many businesses looking to the future, we often hear leaders ask, “what can we do to ensure that our people stay with us in the long-term?”

The answer, it turns out, comes from looking within the organization and asking employees themselves. To that end, Engagement Surveys, like those offered by PRADCO, are powerful tools to gather critical information about employee morale, attitudes, and the overall health of the organization and its culture. So how do they work and how do you make sense of the findings?

To start, think of an engagement survey as a platform. It empowers leaders to gain insights from employees in a confidential way, allowing people to candidly share experiences, recommendations, and concerns. Beyond that, engagement surveys are an essential element of empowerment for employees because they offer employees a voice.

GIVING EMPLOYEES A VOICE

Employee voice is how your people share ideas and hopes for the future, concerns and worries, and make clear what works and what does not with the leaders they believe can drive change. Without a platform for employees to express their voice, they frequently withhold valuable input, making it difficult to determine areas of strength and opportunity within an organization. Beyond that, employee voice encourages resilience, which represents the personal factors that allow people to weather hardships and overcome obstacles.

UNDERSTANDING ENGAGEMENT

It should come as no surprise that engagement—a positive, fulfilling, work-related state—helps keep employees focused, resilient to setbacks, and committed to their organizations. In fact, engaged employees are often happier, healthier, less prone to burnout, and more motivated at work than disengaged employees. And that means engaged employees are more likely to stick with their employers, support morale among their peers, and go above and beyond on the job.

DESIGNING AN ENGAGEMENT SURVEY

With our engagement surveys, PRADCO partners with organizations to examine, measure, and understand employee engagement. We conform to current guidelines in practices in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and combine a wealth of data, expertise, and sound research practices in the design of our engagement surveys. The survey is fully online, convenient, and quick to complete – most people complete the survey in under 25 minutes. In fact, we frequently see companywide participation rates exceed 75%!

The design of the survey allows us to gather data on core elements of engagement like Communication, Recognition, Appreciation, and Relationships with Coworkers. Along with that, our survey integrates open-ended questions to provide context and detail behind what drives an organization’s strengths and defines its opportunities for improvement. Using that data, our consultants identify key drivers and obstacles of engagement within the organization.

INTERPRETING FINDINGS

Next, PRADCO delivers data-driven recommendations for supporting engagement and addressing opportunities within the organization. Focusing on strengths allows organizations to capitalize on the qualities of the work and culture that appeal to employees and keep them committed to the mission, even during difficult times. Further, we leverage insights and best practices to resolve challenges that may frustrate or disengage employees, helping organizations reduce or eliminate elements that promote employee burnout and turnover.

BUILDING AND SUSTAINING ENGAGEMENT

Knowing what matters to employees is just the first step in building and sustaining engagement. In addition to identifying steps you can take to engage employees and keep them on board, strengthen your selection process with assessments tailored to your organization. Through the use of our Quick ViewTM Assessments, PRADCO works with leaders to identify key predictors of success among candidates to help hiring managers bring in people who will perform well and fit with the organization’s culture.

Next, invest in your employees through organizational development, such as coaching and workshops. Research and best practices show that organizations that support their employees strengthen engagement and receive stronger commitment and support in turn. PRADCO offers a variety of coaching packages and workshops covering topics like Managing High-Performing Teams.

Finally, solidify your organization’s commitment to engagement by remeasuring employee engagement every 1-2 years. In doing so, you can evaluate which strategies have been the most effective in improving employee engagement and experiences while getting a pulse of concerns. When organizations undergo significant changes, such as a change in leadership, organizational structure, or a culture shift, we strongly recommend conducting an engagement survey to identify any concerns or risks to engagement.

LEARNING MORE

If you are interested in learning about what keeps your employees engaged, we recommend starting with an engagement survey. At PRADCO, we offer different Engagement Survey options to meet your needs, and we are happy to help your organization understand your people and grow in the process. You can contact PRADCO at (https://pradco.com/contact) to learn more.

Bob Bickmeier, Ph.D.
As a Senior Management Consultant at PRADCO, Dr. Bob Bickmeier supports the organization with updated research through his interdisciplinary education in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Organizational Science. He is passionate about ensuring organizations hire employees that perform and fit well in their roles based on current research and on data specific to each position, organization, and industry. He is proficient in quantitative and qualitative research methods and design, data analysis, and best practices related to the workplace. Bob uses his research processes and knowledge to approach organizations with a data-driven perspective and a focus on assessment validation to ensure sound recommendations. He has worked with a variety of organizations to plan and develop new divisions, to design and conduct engagement surveys, and to work with leadership to implement data-driven recommendations. Dr. Bob Bickmeier obtained a B.A. in Psychology from Ohio University. He obtained an M.A. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and a Ph.D. in Organizational Science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

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