Measuring the impact of employee experience is not easy — but it’s totally possible. Thanks to new tools, technology and an increasing agreement that people strategies impact business results, we’re getting closer to elevating the employee experience to a board-level business strategy. But doing so requires you to think about the entire spectrum of what you can measure.
A holistic approach to the employee experience includes well-being, engagement, inclusion and communications, with a program focused on doing something for the employee rather than to the employee. But the piece that remains is proving value in your programs and measuring program success. Can purpose and meaning really be measured? Does the employee experience truly impact business results? How do you show a connection between engagement and turnover and the overall employee experience?
Measuring The Impact Of Your Program: Why It Matters
Disengagement and turnover are potentially costing your company millions of dollars, with an average national turnover rate of 22% and a disengagement rate of 17%. We know that employees with high well-being are more likely to be engaged, less likely to leave, more loyal to their teams and more likely to recommend their organization as a great place to work. And we’re continuing to see the need for care in today’s talent war. With these statistics in mind, there’s no better time than now to take action and address how your program impacts engagement, retention and the overall employee experience.
When employees are in an environment where people feel cared for and are thriving, you’re not only saving on costs; you’re saving employees. Disengaged employees who miss work or spread negativity can impact the work of other employees, which ultimately can lead to higher turnover. The path to results is fairly simple: Successful programs foster participation and help people build habits that improve their well-being. This impacts how people feel and perform at work, which leads to better business results. Measuring the success of your program requires you to find the real value behind the overall employee experience. It’s time to think bigger about the opportunity you have and address the success metrics that make the most sense for your people and your organization.
My advice to fellow leaders is to focus on five key areas when measuring results:
1. A strategic program that’s committed to employees and the employee experience: Measure whether people use and like the program. Think registration, ongoing participation in activities or challenges, achievement of earned points, user satisfaction, organizational support and more.
2. Habits that improve well-being and are reinforced by organizational support: Measure how behavior is changing. This can include exercise, quality of sleep, financial management or work-related behaviors such as having regular one-to-ones.
3. The overall well-being of employees (the subjective sense of feeling good and living with purpose): Measure changes in whole-person well-being. Give employees the ability to self-report on physical, emotional, financial and work well-being, and answer the question, “Overall, do I have well-being in my life?”
4. Better people (HR) results: Measure how employee programs impact people (HR) results. Include metrics like employee engagement, inclusion and turnover.
5. Better business performance, higher profit margin, improved revenue and better industry-specific performance: Measure how employee programs impact the business. Include metrics like customer satisfaction, innovation, profit and growth rate that tie specifically to company goals.
Like with any program you’re running, you have to measure the results — but it’s measuring what matters that truly counts. Remember, the first critical step to measuring results is to tie your program to business goals. Take a high-level view of how the work you do every day can impact people and business results, and drill down into how you can meet and create alignment across departments to tackle problems like turnover and disengagement together. Then, leverage technology to scale and measure the success of your work. With a focus on measuring what matters and a successful measurement framework, you can make the case for a program that reduces turnover, increases engagement and elevates the overall employee experience.
