Do you feel like your team members aren’t as invested or enthusiastic as they should be? You may have noticed a few people dragging their feet or waiting until the last minute to complete a task. Perhaps you just want to pre-emptively avoid these symptoms altogether and ensure that morale remains high. If any of this is the case, you may need to assess your employee engagement levels. 

Employee Engagement Breakdown

As a business owner or manager, you need to put significant thought into building up your employee engagement. But, what exactly is employee engagement?

Engagement is the emotional commitment an employee has for the company and its goals. It’s a demonstration of how they truly care about their work and their company, often measured by “discretionary effort,” which is when a coworker goes above and beyond. Engagement is often influenced by the actions of leadership in a company. If the engagement of your team members is low, it’s very likely a result of workplace management. 

As a manager, tracking employee engagement through survey questions is one of the most productive things you can do for yourself and your team.An employee engagement survey pertains to work culture, burnout, and so much more. It can give a pretty good estimation of how motivated team members are to successfully complete their work. 

Why are employee engagement questions important?

Did you know that organizations with engaged employees outperform their competitors by 202%? If your team’s engagement is low, your team members are most likely showing low levels of productivity, efficiency, and job satisfaction. If you don’t have a solid grip on your colleagues’ engagement in your organization, you won’t be able to make informed decisions about productivity. Even if those team members aren’t satisfied with an aspect of the workplace, they may need a little motivation to voice those concerns, which means you won’t have a clear understanding of how to create the best environment for your team. 

This sort of understanding is best cultivated through constructive feedback. Of course, there are several questions you can ask your colleagues about their experiences, and those questions can be asked in a focus group, annual survey, one-on-one interviews, and more. No matter which method you choose, you want to make sure you’re covering as much ground as you can when you’re gathering your information. In order to get honest, valuable feedback from your team members, we’ve provided the most productive employee engagement questions to ask as a manager.

Top 4 Employee Engagement Questions You Should Be Asking

Do you have an idea for a project you’d really like to work on?

This will initiate conversations about their passions, goals, and motivations. Make sure to take note of what motivates them, because assigning them to tasks that they actually feel fulfilled by can ultimately ward off the causes and effects of burnout.

This question can also inspire someone to start thinking outside of the box in areas that they hadn’t considered previously. The question can function as both a way for you to gather information and also for your employee to get a little pep in their step.  It allows them to tap into their most joyous strengths.

How much direction and/or feedback do you prefer from me? 

Everyone is different, and some prefer more direction than others. Some people have really strong self management skills. Leadership is not a one-size-fits-all situation for every team member. 

Oftentimes, not enough feedback can be an issue, especially with younger generations. Checking in on how much feedback they’d prefer may open up important conversations about their work. On the other hand, you’ll also want to make sure you’re not overwhelming someone with too much feedback. Ultimately, you want to make sure your team members aren’t continuing aimlessly like a ship with no captain. 

What aspects of our team would you change if you were in my shoes?

Team culture is monumentally important in any organization.  If a colleague feels that the culture is not conducive to their growth, they may not feel comfortable in that space or motivated to interact with that environment as much. In fact, when an individual doesn’t feel fulfilled at work, they are 47% less likely to put in more effort to help your organization succeed.

This question then opens the floor for honest conversations about the preferences of your team members, and it makes them feel comfortable to express concerns they may not have been able to bring up organically.

As your manager, what’s something I should consider to change or start doing?

Similar to the previous question, this question allows your team members to provide honest feedback that can be productive to your leadership style, whether you choose to apply that feedback or not. 

During this conversation, it’s important to make your team feel like they are being 100% seen and heard. Opening yourself up for critique levels the playing field between employee and manager, and it allows for a much more sincere connection.

Conclusion

Tracking engagement in a meaningful way shows that you are an empathetic leader who cares about the quality of your team’s experience, and it will ultimately equip you with information that can help you make productive changes. Just make sure you’re not overloading your employees with engagement surveys or too many questions. 

It’s important to remember that keeping tabs on employee engagement in your organization is essential to maintaining a happy and healthy workplace where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued. No one wants to spend their time in an environment that doesn’t feel welcoming or productive. To learn more helpful tips about effectively managing a workplace or business, visit our Joyjournal page.

FAQs

• What are good employee engagement questions?
  • A good employee engagement question emphasizes the preferences of the employee in order to receive honest feedback that could help with office productivity. 
• What are the top 5 drivers of employee engagement?
  • Employee engagement relies heavily on trust, interpersonal relationships, opportunities for growth, aligned values, and honest feedback. 
• What are 3 key points to an engaged workforce?
  • An engaged workforce is powered by productive and honest feedback, recognition, and validation. This can be encouraged by conducting an employee engagement questionnaire.
• What should be included in an employee engagement survey?

An employee engagement survey should include questions that make your employees feel valued, seen, and heard.