The study, Investigating Employee Engagement and Predictive Analytics, surveyed the opinions of over 100 business leaders in UK public, private and charity sectors. The survey revealed that while public sector organisations unanimously agree that employee engagement affects employee performance, alarmingly, only half (53%) understand the level of engagement of their own employees, while nearly two fifths (38%) admit to not understanding how to engage employees.
When asked about the importance of assessing employee opinion about their organisation, the research found that very few (3%) assess it on a regular basis, while a disturbing 41% believed it was unimportant.
Online surveys were the most common method of measurement used by 50% while 22% still use paper bound surveys. Interestingly, despite 63% highlighting that people respond more honestly to an external provider, only 38% use an external provider to conduct the surveys.
Commenting on the research, MidlandHR’s research director, Dr Leslie Bowie said: “While this research shows that business leaders in the public sector recognise that engaging employees directly affects employee performance, retention rates and overall organisational performance, these organisations are not adequately measuring engagement amongst their employees.
“In today’s economic climate, when the success or failure of an organisation relies on optimising its people and focusing their performance, organisations should do their utmost to keep their employees engaged, in order to get the best from them. Unless steps are taken to ensure proper employee engagement strategies, employee performance and absence levels will continue to suffer across the public sector.
“Employee engagement surveys and tools such as predictive analytics, designed to analyse employee engagement levels of staff, enable employers to gain insight into individual employee job satisfaction levels, which when used correctly, can promote company-wide well being and drive organisational performance.”