Employee Engagement

Customers’ perceptions of service quality are predominantly driven by employees of the service provider; the most loyal customers are those who are the most satisfied. There is much reliable research to prove that organisations with highly engaged employees have highly satisfied customers; employees are part of organisational brand. To have a truly successful brand and service image, staff should be willing, able, and have the necessary tools to contribute to a highly positive customer experience.

An organisation must have an effective customer management process that addresses both the customer and employee components of the equation. Few employees come to work to do a bad job, or want to deliver less than excellent service to their internal or external customers. It is often the employer’s processes, procedures, or facilities that cause the employee to deliver a less than perfect job or become dissatisfied within their role. Of course, the less they commit to providing a good day’s work, the more it costs the organisation, both directly and indirectly through reduced efficiency and productivity.

We work with businesses and their employees to design an employee feedback system which measures levels of satisfaction and engagement across all aspects of their organisation, including areas such as environment, management, facilities and review process. This provides a forum and format for your employees to provide both quantitative and qualitative feedback on agreed factors that depict their role and day to day interaction.

We also apply our GAP analysis methodology to measure and determine employee satisfaction and loyalty. Gaps are analysed and through prioritised reporting we highlight areas for immediate attention vs. areas where you are delivering to the standard expected by your employees (or sometimes even over-delivering).

Many businesses conduct their own internal research, usually in the form of an employee opinion or attitude survey. This well-intended initiative usually, and fairly quickly, becomes discredited in the eyes of both the employees who complete the questionnaires and the management who should use the results because the ‘pain points’ raised by employees simply cannot be addressed. Recognise the symptoms?

The reasons for this are actually quite easily explained: our experience shows us that most organisations’ employee research is little more than an officially sanctioned ‘Moan Meter’. By this, we mean it has been developed to focus on ‘pay and rations’ to the exclusion of virtually everything else. This makes the issues that are covered difficult, if not impossible, to manage and action. In turn, your employees lose faith in the process, response rates fall, and a downward spiral is created; Your money is wasted, your employees are even more disheartened, and the effect of the study is negative – the exact opposite of what you intended.

Our employee research process prevents the above pitfalls from occurring. It also positively addresses the capability of the employees to favourably impact customer perceptions, and indeed any other corporate goals.

Some examples of our recent work include:

• An annual survey with G4S Care and Justice Services employees on the key areas that determine employee satisfaction and engagement.
• A regular employee survey with a leading manufacturer to highlight where action is recommended to provide the basis for enhanced employee engagement and to ensure resources are targeted in the correct areas.

For further information please contact Graham Craigmile, Research Director

E: graham.craigmile@spafuturethinking.com

T: +44 (0)1494 688 400