Last week we read an article that likened the measurement of employee engagement with the measurement of love.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but bear with us…

Love has no unit of measurement. We have no benchmark for the lowest or highest level that can be achieved. We also have no tools or technology capable of mapping or measuring it. It simply can’t be measured.

Employee engagement is the same. There are no units, benchmarks or models to work from. Like love, the best we can hope for when attempting to gauge employee engagement is a rough indication based on more measurable indicators.

Unfortunately, involvement is no more measurable than engagement – or love for that matter. However, because the implications of an involved workforce are far more noticeable than a workforce that’s simply ‘engaged’, measuring the indicators of involvement is much easier.

Are You Asking the Right Questions? 

One of the easiest ways to build an accurate picture of the levels of involvement within your organisation is to ask questions. In his article, Kevin Kruse calls these proxy questions. Though they don’t offer a concrete metric for gauging involvement, they will give you a pretty good idea of what’s going on.

So, what sort of questions should you be asking to determine the levels of involvement within your organization?

First you need to know what you are aiming for. Do you know what a fully involved workforce would look like?

Once you know what your aiming for, you can then work backwards to put together questions that will determine how close you are to achieving this standard.

You might start with questions like:

–   Does [team member A] work extra hours without being asked?

–   Do they take ownership of initiatives without being asked?

–   Do they regularly come to you with new ideas?

These are clearly just a start – but you get the idea. By answering these questions, both for individual team members and for your organization as a whole, you’ll be left with a clear indication of whether you are heading in the right direction.

Unfortunately, a technological solution that allows us to accurately measure team involvement at the touch of a button is probably a long way off. That said, estimating the level of involvement within your organization, and measuring the effectiveness of your change programmes, is a crucial part of improving your team’s productivity. Just because it’s not perfect, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it.

If you’d like more information about gauging involvement within your organization, or if you’d like to know more about why our change programmes are so effective, don’t hesitate to give us a call