Beginner's Guide to Employee Engagement Data
How do I share employee engagement feedback with my team? Chief Wellness Officer Amy Locke, Resiliency Center director Megan Call, Utah Health Academics HR leader Sarah Wilson, and Organizational Development Director Chris Fairbank explain when and how to talk with your team.
By Megan Call, Amy Locke, Chris Fairbank, and Sarah Wilson | 4 minutes
As leaders in health care, we want to know how to make the experience better for patients and for our teams. In academics, we want to strengthen educational experiences and excel at research. In clinical operations, we want to provide quality care in a learning environment. To that end, we ask for feedback from our teams.
The purpose of the is to give leaders and teams actionable data to make 麻豆学生精品版 a better place to work. When we examine needs of our teams, we gain insight on how we can create environments conducive for engagement, well-being and improvement.鈥
This article provides answers to a few of the most common questions associated with our survey process.
IS THE DATA ACCURATE?
The first question we often hear is: Is the data accurate? Follow up questions include: Does it represent my whole team? How do parts of the group compare to others? Sometimes, when these answers aren鈥檛 clear, paralysis sets in. The data gets pushed to the back burner and nothing changes.
It鈥檚 important to remember that these surveys will never be 100% accurate because we鈥檙e not measuring something as tangible as an individual鈥檚 height, weight, or blood pressure. We鈥檙e measuring our team culture, so the responses from the surveys aren鈥檛 鈥渞ight or wrong.鈥 Rather, they give us a jumping off point to think about the needs of our teams. What鈥檚 important is that we take the information we have and work to make improvements.
WHAT DOES A LOW SCORE MEAN FOR MY TEAM?
First, let鈥檚 acknowledge the obvious. You鈥檙e human, you work hard, and you care a lot about your team. When our survey results aren鈥檛 all positive, it鈥檚 hard not to take this feedback personally and that鈥檚 okay. Groups struggle for lots of reasons and the purpose of gathering data is to support teams, not punish individual leaders.
It鈥檚 also important to remember that we are asking our people for feedback. We can鈥檛 control whether that feedback will be positive or negative, but we can be confident that it鈥檚 always better to understand what our people are thinking.
Though it may be difficult, when we are faced with negative feedback, we can apply a learning mindset and find potential 鈥渘uggets of truth鈥 for learning and growth. Some questions to consider:
- What can you take from the feedback?
- Is there something you can do differently as a leader?
- What can you delegate or ask for help with?
Starting from a place of reflection and curiosity can help identify aspects of your leadership style that may have inadvertently led to breakdowns in communication and team connection.
IS MY GROUP READY TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOW WE ARE DOING?
There are many factors that can contribute to low survey scores. They can stem from things like interpersonal conflict, unclear roles and expectations, or low engagement with one or more members of the team. While addressing these can be tricky in the beginning, acknowledging concerns and working toward improvement can have a high impact on the well-being of individuals and the effectiveness of the team.
Be aware of how you respond to your team when negative feedback arises. The impulse to 鈥渇ix it鈥 in health care is strong. Before heading into your group with, "You don't think I keep you informed?" or, "You don't think you can tell me your opinions?鈥, think about how you can discuss the issue in a way that invites openness.
Leaders and team members are often in different places about how safe it is to share opinions or provide critical feedback, especially in front of one another.鈥疨sychological safety鈥痠s present when people can share their ideas without fear of retribution. Psychological safety is essential for high functioning teams, and it is important to know how your team is doing in this realm before you decide how to talk about the data.
There are a few survey questions that can shed some light on whether your team is ready to wade in:
- My input is sought, heard, and considered.
- There is open and honest communication on my team.
- I am encouraged to come up with better ways of doing things.
- I can share my opinions openly without fear of retaliation.
- I feel free to discuss work hazards and safety issues freely and openly. (Applicable for Hospital/Clinics Department of Nursing).
- I can share my opinions openly without fear of retaliation (Applicable for Hospital/Clinics Department of Nursing)
WHEN YOU'RE SEEING A LOWER RESPONSE IN THESE QUESTIONS
we recommend connecting with a facilitator to help you determine next steps.
Facilitators who can help:
- Utah Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
A facilitator can help you explore what might be contributing to low scores and chart a path forward. Sometimes a facilitator can be the means by which you can hear feedback that you otherwise might not. They can also help ensure a process that allows people to feel comfortable speaking up. Listening involves open and honest discussion of what鈥檚 working and what isn鈥檛. It has to be a no-blame, no-shame, any-idea-goes exercise. Shutting someone down, even once, can prevent important information from surfacing.
WHEN YOUR TEAM IS FEELING GOOD
For those with a high degree of psychological safety, we recommend leaders share the data with their teams, acknowledging what the data appears to say.
With curiosity, ask questions like:
- Does this data match what we see day to day?
- Is this our reality? What does this look like for us?
- What should we be doing as a group to address these concerns?
- Something we should be doing more? Less of?
If the feedback is focused on leadership issues, try saying something like 鈥淚鈥檇 really like to better understand this feedback. This may not be something we鈥檙e comfortable discussing as a team yet, so please reach out to me individually if you鈥檙e willing." If your people are feeling psychologically safe, they likely will.
Additionally, these questions can鈥get the group moving towards improvement. You can also take a look at鈥痶his list of questions鈥痶o help identify what might be holding the team back.鈥
WHERE SHOULD I FOCUS?
The Better U survey will provide a lot of data that can potentially be overwhelming. Start by reviewing your dashboard. This should give you good sense of where your scores fall and how they compare to groups across the organization. The has video walkthroughs and other helpful materials to help you navigate through questions you may have.
The best place to start will be the 鈥淥utcomes.鈥 These four areas is a snapshot of the health of a team.
- Engagement
- Inclusion
- Well-being
- Burnout
The next level of detail are the individual questions, or 鈥淒rivers.鈥 鈥淒rivers鈥 help you understand what more actionable upstream factors might be impacting how a team is doing.
Some questions to ask yourself: What do you notice about the feedback? What themes emerge? Is this in line with your daily experience with the group?
The next step is to open a conversation with your team. Ask the questions mentioned above so that you and your team can better understand the issue, or start with the 鈥淟isten鈥 phase of the Listen-Sort-Empower framework. Let your team then help as you implement changes or strategies to make things better. Don鈥檛 take this all upon yourself. Your team has great ideas.
HOW LOW IS TO LOW? WHEN SHOULD I BE WORRIED?
Survey data is commonly a moving target. You will see scores move up and down over time depending on current circumstances. If you see that scores on a particular outcome are regularly lower than other parts of the organization, and your efforts don鈥檛 seem to be moving the needle, then it would be worth talking to someone. A different perspective can often be helpful.
If you would like help interpreting the data, reach out to the below contacts. These teams can walk you through how to get more from your data, and discuss additional options for making improvement.
- Utah Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Originally published March 2022, updated November 2023 to reflect current processes.
CONTRIBUTORS
Megan Call
Licensed psychologist, Associate Chief Wellness Officer, Director of the Resiliency Center, 麻豆学生精品版
Amy Locke
Chief Wellness Officer, Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Co-Director of the Driving Out Diabetes Initiative, Adjunct Professor of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology in the College of Health, 麻豆学生精品版
Chris Fairbank
Director, Organizational Development, 麻豆学生精品版
Sarah Wilson
Senior HR Director, 麻豆学生精品版
