Employee engagement is the core of every successful organization. Engaged employees are much more likely to meet deadlines consistently, be self-starters in their role, and spur company-wide innovation.

But how does an organization actually measure employee engagement? And what are the clear signs employees aren’t engaged? To help give you a better idea of what organizations can learn from employee feedback tools, we have created this guide.

Employee Engagement versus Job Satisfaction

While often used interchangeably, employee engagement is not the same thing as job satisfaction. Though they are related, both are crucial for an organization to operate efficiently as well as scale. And at their core, feedback tools like employee surveys provide insight into both employee engagement and job satisfaction.

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement, in short, is a measurement of how engaged employees are in their organization’s mission and work, and how motivated they are to help their organization succeed.

Engaged employees are not simply happy or satisfied in their roles, they are constantly thinking of ways in which their role, department, or the company as a whole could be improved.

As a result, engaged employees are leaders in their companies and contribute to a company’s innovation and growth over time. This makes employee engagement invaluable for employers and can make the difference between a company that grows in revenue each quarter, and a company that becomes stagnant.

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is more closely related to how content an individual feels in their role. Satisfied employees are less likely to be actively job searching while they’re part of a company, and are more likely to complete their tasks than dissatisfied employees.

However, job satisfaction does not always correlate with someone’s level of engagement. This means that satisfied employees aren’t necessarily engaged with their work, and therefore, aren’t striving to continuously improve themselves or their company.

According to reports, “The cost of unhappy workers in the US was estimated to be between $450 and $500 billion in a single year”.

Employee feedback tools can not only help an organization measure both employee engagement and job satisfaction, but employee engagement surveys can find solutions for increasing both employee engagement and satisfaction.

How do Employee Surveys Boost Employee Engagement and Retention?

Employee surveys can help an organization by showing them where employees are unsatisfied with daily operations.

1. Uncover Opportunities for Training and Professional Development

When employees aren’t engaged or satisfied, it may be from a lack of professional development opportunities.

According to research, “68% of workers consider training and development opportunities an organization’s most important policy”.

Providing feedback to employees is just as important as receiving feedback from employees. When employees receive consistent feedback from their managers, they can learn more efficient ways to complete their tasks, develop more confidence in their abilities, and grow as professionals.

With talented team members who are focused on growth and improvement, a company can expect to grow as well. And, an employee survey can help you determine if feedback and training opportunities are what employees would like to have available.

2. Improve Retention and Lower Absenteeism

Engaged and satisfied employees are more likely to stick around. However, when employees do leave a company, it’s often because they don’t feel valued for their strengths, utilized to their full potential, or even challenged enough in their role.

Employee feedback tools help ensure that employees are engaged with a company’s mission, that they feel they’re contributing meaningfully to that mission, and are reaching their potential.

This, in turn, helps increase retention rates for companies. And, retaining employees is far more beneficial and cost-effective to a company than replacing them.

If you want to know how your employees feel, Dropthought can help you to collect your employee’s feedback, create delightful experiences, and more.

Dropthought is a user-friendly, omnichannel, and real-time employee experience management platform. We empower companies in different verticals to create delightful experiences for employees across their employee journey. Get detailed analysis and insights from data to exactly know what your employees think and what actions you need to take to delight them.

With a dedicated team, we would ensure that you are optimizing your employee Experience programs and strategies to create great experiences!

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