Simmons seeks to improve employee engagement by making it part of our culture and business strategy. Gallup defines engaged employees as those who are highly involved in and enthusiastic about their work and workplace. Increasing engagement starts by meeting employees’ 12 basic, individual, teamwork and growth needs. These 12 elements of employee engagement make up the items on Gallup’s famous Q12 survey.
- Increase Engagement in Four Steps
Gallup defines engaged employees as those who are highly involved in and enthusiastic about their work and workplace; not engaged as those who are psychologically unattached to their work and company and who put time, but not energy or passion, into their work. Not engaged employees will usually show up to work and contribute the minimum required. Gallup defines actively disengaged employee those who have miserable work experiences and spread their unhappiness to their colleagues
To move employees from simply “putting in their time” to being committed to their work Gallup recommends the following:
First: Measure what matters most for employees’ performance.
Leaders often focus on metrics that don’t tie strongly to employees’ psychological needs and ultimate performance. You don’t have to ask a lot of questions. Just the right ones. Gallup’s Q12 survey employee engagement survey results tie directly to outcomes such as productivity, profitability, and employee retention and turnover.
Second: Act quickly
Research shows employees who strongly agree that their organization acts on survey results are 1.9 times more likely to be engaged.
Third: Make it an ongoing process
One of the most common mistakes that leaders make is to approach engagement as a sporadic exercise in making their employees feel happy. Employees need ongoing purpose and development, not biannual perks, to achieve more for your organization.
Fourth: Empower managers to drive engagement.
Engagement isn’t just an “HR thing.” Managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. There are no quick fixes when it comes to human relationships. It is essential that managers effectively interact with and develop each team member over time.
- Simmons 2020 Annual Engagement Survey Results
Improvements
- Simmons engagement improved in 2020—the grand mean improved from 3.64 to 3.74 which led to Simmons moving from the first to the second quartile of the Gallup database.
- A belief that coworkers are “committed to quality work” was strongest individual element in 2019 and improved again in 2020.
- Recognition and having a best friend at work both improved significantly since 2019.
Opportunities
- Foundational elements—“knowing what is expected”, having the “materials and equipment” you need to do that work and having the “opportunity to do what you do best”—are lowest elements and did not improve in 2020.
- Recognition has improved but remains a high need, particularly as employees report feeling burnt out and overwhelmed
- Employees are hopeful given recent changes at the institution, but remain concerned about the future and are looking for transparency and clarity about financials and priorities
- Simmons Engagement Activities
2021
- January and February: Simmons hosted 3 Engagement 101 Roundtables for all faculty and staff. View the recorded session from 2/25/2021.
- February, March, April, May: Gallup hosting 1:1 engagement coaching sessions with expanded leadership team
- March: Simmons pulsed Faculty and Staff to gather input on the importance of policies and procedures to assure a safe return to campus. | Results
- April: Gallup hosting Boss to Coach training session | Overview
- April: Gallup hosting Creating and Engaging Workplace Training for Staff | Overview
- May: Gallup hosting Creating and Engaging Workplace Training for Faculty | Overview
2020
- January: Gallup hosted 3 Engagement roundtables for all faculty and staff at the start of the rollout of results.
- February: Gallup Student Experience Program (STEP) update shared with the BOT, inclusive of engagement survey results
- February, March, April, May, June: Dr. Sharron Credle conducting 1:1 speed conversations with managers focused on engagement survey results
- April: upon the start of the pandemic and remote work, Simmons launched a Pulse Survey. See results.
- May, June, July: Gallup hosted 1:1 coaching sessions with expanded leadership team.
- July: In the midst of the pandemic, Simmons launched a second Pulse Survey. See results.
- October: Simmons launched the Second Annual Employee Engagement Survey. See results.
- December: sent email to managers with instructions how to access and download engagement results.
2019
- November: Simmons launched its first Annual Employee Engagement Survey. See results.
- December: The results of the survey were shared with UST and Deans as part of the communications rollout.