Employers began “discovering” employee engagement about a decade ago. Multiple offerings of twelve, sixteen and twenty question surveys provide employee engagement “scores” that employers can compare to last years’ results to see if they are moving in the right direction. But these short surveys cannot provide the roadmap that leadership really needs to effectively manage employee engagement.

Next-in-class engagement surveys can. Today’s most comprehensive employee engagement survey references national standards, recognizes the six different types of employees (who they are, why they work and what they want in return) and measures the importance of, and satisfaction with, thirty-four elements of the “employment deal” (i.e. covering Jim’s four cornerstones and more). This survey also delves into workplace attitudes, activities and exeriences and reports the results separately for groups (business units, functional departments, locations, etc.) identified by management.

When asked which measurements “give the best sense of a company’s health” in a 2006 Business Week advice column, former GE Chairman and CEO Jack Welch replied: “Employee engagement first. It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it. That’s why you need to take the measure of employee engagement at least once a year through anonymous surveys in which people feel completely safe to speak their minds.”

Employee engagement represents the biggest productivity and retention lever available to business today. But employers can’t manage what they don’t measure.

The latest tools allow employers to measure and manage employee engagement like never before. Twenty four major global enterprises sponsored the underlying research. Human capital thought leaders directed three years worth of studies and the best in the business designed and tested the survey.

Now, any company can gather the actionable information necessary to drive employee engagement to unprecedented levels and reap all the productivity and retention benefits that got with it.

Kind regards,