The 10 biggest benefits of employee engagement surveys

As leaders interact with their employees, they get a sense of how their people are feeling and how committed they are to their jobs – but those instincts may not be accurate. That’s why you can’t rely on intuition or vibes to measure employee enthusiasm, connection, and motivation. Instead, collect real data with an employee engagement survey.

An employee engagement survey will give you the numbers and insights you need to make informed decisions. By comparing your latest survey results with data from previous employee surveys, you can track changes in engagement over time.

Understanding employee engagement survey metrics

First of all, what is employee engagement? It’s a metric that represents how employees feel about their organization, including how motivated they are to put in extra effort on the job and how committed they are to staying with the company.

While employee engagement may feel like a nebulous concept, engagement surveys can help you translate abstract employee sentiments into actionable insights. Effective employee engagement survey questions focus on key outcomes of engagement (what we call the Employee Engagement Index), as captured in the following questions:

• Pride: “I am proud to work for [Company]”
• Recommendation: “I would recommend [Company] as a great place to work”
• Present commitment: “I rarely think about looking for a job at another company”
• Future commitment: “I see myself still working at [Company] in two years’ time”
• Motivation: “[Company] motivates me to go beyond what I would in a similar role elsewhere”

An employee engagement survey usually asks 50-60 questions covering the Employee Engagement Index and the four main drivers of engagement: leadership, enablement, alignment, and development. Employees typically respond using the Likert scale, a five-point scale measuring their level of agreement with a statement (Strongly agree, Agree, Neither agree nor disagree, Disagree, and Strongly disagree). These surveys often also include open-ended questions or a comment section to allow for more specific employee feedback.

Top benefits of conducting employee engagement surveys

When it comes to understanding the value of employee surveys, engagement surveys are a cornerstone for workplace decision-making. They provide actionable insights into employee sentiment, highlight areas for improvement, and guide strategic decisions that enhance workplace culture and overall organizational performance. Considering how much they offer, it’s no surprise that employee engagement surveys are among the most common types of employee surveys!

Below, we share 10 benefits of holding an employee engagement survey:

1. Gain insight into employee satisfaction and sentiment

You may think you know what’s working and what isn’t at your organization, but an engagement survey will provide concrete measurements of your employees’ feelings about various aspects of the employee experience. You’ll get data on not only your company’s overall engagement score but also insights into what is driving engagement at your company.

2. Identify key areas for targeted improvement

Engagement surveys can help you pinpoint the highest-impact areas of opportunity within the employee experience. In general, if scores are low for a particular aspect of the employee experience (i.e., communication), then that’s a good place to focus your efforts.

Moreover, some employee engagement tools include sophisticated, built-in analytics tools for identifying focus areas. These tools can help companies cut through the noise generated by the thousands of data points that result from an employee survey – making it more straightforward to identify actions likely to improve engagement and employee satisfaction.

3. Track engagement over time

Monitoring employee engagement over time is essential for uncovering trends, measuring initiatives’ impact, and identifying areas for improvement. While a single survey offers a snapshot of engagement, historical context allows for more meaningful analysis. By conducting regular surveys and tracking changes, your business can better understand engagement and make more strategic decisions. Plus, you’ll be able to see whether specific changes or interventions have led to measurable improvements in engagement scores, ultimately taking some of the guesswork out of improving employee engagement.

4. Foster employee trust through active listening

When an employee fills out an engagement survey, they’re taking time to share their feelings with you. When you respond to and act on that feedback, you demonstrate that you value them and their input. Understandably, employees find it frustrating to be asked repeatedly for feedback only to find that nothing changes within the organization.

You can show employees that you care by:

• Sharing survey results within a few weeks of the survey
• Openly communicating how leadership will be taking action on employee survey results and relaying progress over time
• Organizing deeper dives into engagement survey results by department and/or team
• Hosting small group discussions to explore the results

When an organization makes changes based on engagement survey results, employees see that leaders listen to their feedback. This can improve employee satisfaction and build company loyalty, making them more likely to stick around.

Learn everything you need to know about employee surveys

Check out our complete guide to employee surveys and start gathering meaningful feedback that drives smarter, more impactful people decisions.

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5. Enhance company culture and unity

Engagement surveys also reveal how people feel about your company’s culture. You can use surveys to assess how well employees align with different elements of the culture and determine if you want to take action to emphasize certain values or goals.

While people typically think of surveys as a way to gather employee feedback, they also convey information. The questions you ask and the language you use to ask them reinforce your company’s values and priorities. Writing survey questions with this in mind can make the survey feel more personal and relevant while reminding your employees of the organizational mission behind their work.

6. Measure organizational performance and health

By leveraging external benchmarks to contextualize your employee engagement survey results, you can see how your company stacks up against your competitors. With the right benchmarks (i.e., same industry, company size, geographic region, etc.), you’ll get an accurate sense-check of how well your company performs compared to similar companies.

Benchmarks can also serve as a baseline for a “good” or “bad” engagement score – making it easier to understand whether or not you need to worry about a particular aspect of your employee experience.

7. Retain top talent

Keeping top talent is crucial for your business, especially when research shows that replacing an employee can cost 40% to 200% of their annual salary. Alarmingly, the same research found that 42% of employees who voluntarily left their jobs in the past year said their manager or organization could have prevented their departure.

Leveraging engagement data to uncover and address the root causes of employee dissatisfaction can proactively resolve issues that otherwise would have employees looking for the door. By taking action, your business can retain valuable employees while fostering a healthier and more productive work environment.

8. Increase productivity

Engaged employees are not only more productive but also more loyal, motivated, and willing to go the extra mile to meet – and exceed – their goals. In fact, Gallup research shows that businesses with engaged employees are 23% more productive and experience 78% lower absenteeism rates than those with disengaged employees. By prioritizing employee engagement, your organization can create an environment where employees have the tools, resources, and support they need to excel.

9. Strengthen employee confidence in leadership

Engagement surveys show employees that leaders take their feedback seriously. When people see their feedback result in tangible improvements, it reinforces the perception that leadership is attentive, responsive, and committed to building a better workplace.

Transparency plays a crucial role in this process, so share survey results openly and outline how leadership plans to address employee concerns. This can build trust and accountability with your workforce – especially as employees see you follow through on these commitments.

As employees’ confidence in the process grows, they’re likely to engage more openly in future surveys, providing even richer insights. Over time, this creates a flywheel of continuous improvement, where trust, communication, and engagement reinforce each other – helping your business build a thriving workplace culture.

10. Drive better business outcomes through engagement insights

Employee engagement has a powerful impact on your company’s bottom line, and employee engagement survey results provide insights you can use to guide strategic decision-making as you move forward.

Multiyear research from Gallup connects employee engagement with performance outcomes, including customer loyalty, profitability, and employee wellbeing. For example, a 2021 report found that highly engaged teams are 14-18% more productive than teams with low engagement.

Even if your survey results show that your engagement numbers aren’t where you want them to be, that’s valuable information. You may be able to use those findings to get buy-in from leadership on strategies to improve engagement, such as increasing access to learning and development opportunities. Culture Amp data shows that companies that focus on L&D have 14.6% more engaged employees than those that don’t.

Best practices for conducting employee engagement surveys

Looking to get started with your own engagement surveys? Here are four tips to help you plan a successful survey launch:

1. Determine the optimal survey frequency for accurate feedback

Asking employees to complete surveys too often may result in survey fatigue, which can lead to lower participation rates and less actionable feedback. To avoid this, it's essential to strike the right balance – scheduling enough surveys to collect meaningful insights without overburdening your team.

Culture Amp recommends a quarterly survey cadence to sustain participation and gather actionable data throughout the year:

• Quarter one: Conduct a baseline engagement survey with up to 50 questions. This provides a comprehensive snapshot of overall employee engagement and key drivers.
• Quarter two: Use a pulse survey with 10-15 questions to monitor progress on initiatives that resulted from the baseline survey.
• Quarter three: Administer a deep-dive diagnostic survey with 25-50 questions. Focus on a specific area, such as leadership, career development, or general engagement drivers, to gather more detailed insights.
• Quarter four: Conduct another pulse survey to track progress on targeted initiatives and revisit core engagement questions from the diagnostic survey.

This cadence helps organizations gather powerful insights and drive continuous improvement without overburdening employees.

1. Ensure anonymity to encourage honest feedback

Employees may hesitate to provide candid feedback, especially if they fear the company will be able to trace their responses back to them. Guaranteeing anonymity – ensuring feedback cannot be linked to specific individuals – creates a safe space where employees feel confident sharing their real thoughts.

A survey tool like Culture Amp allows businesses to collect anonymous feedback without sacrificing valuable insights. It assures confidentiality by aggregating responses and grouping them by relevant categories such as team, tenure, or demographics while protecting an individual’s identity.

2. Ask the right questions to maximize survey impact

Survey questions require careful thought and intention. Asking too few questions – or the wrong questions – may leave you without the insights you need to drive meaningful change, but asking too many questions can overwhelm employees, resulting in lower survey completion rates and lower-quality feedback.

Need help refining your survey? We’ve put together a list of 22 employee engagement survey questions you should ask to help you strike the perfect balance between depth and brevity.

3. Build an action plan based on survey insights

To foster employee buy-in and build trust, act on the feedback you receive via engagement surveys. Start by sharing survey insights openly across the organization, along with a detailed action plan. This transparency in your employee engagement strategy turns engagement into a collaborative conversation, demonstrating your company’s commitment to creating a better workplace based on employee input.

Update employees regularly on the progress of your action plan and any resulting initiatives. Highlight the changes and their impact so employees see how feedback drives tangible improvements to your organization.

Make the most of your next employee engagement survey

While engagement surveys offer many benefits, they will deliver the most value if you ask the right questions, use science-backed tools to evaluate employee survey responses, and take action based on what you learn.

Culture Amp's employee engagement tools provide powerful insights, create a culture of accountability, and deliver data you can trust. From customizable survey templates and reports to proven action planning and benchmarking, this easy-to-use platform will help you increase retention, boost engagement, and drive lasting change.

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This article was originally published on June 22, 2023, and has been updated on Dec 10, 2024.