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Peoplebox Engagement Framework

Last updated on Jul 29, 2024

How do we define engagement?

Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and put effort into their work. Engaged employees experience a fulfilling & rewarding work life. We have identified 11 psychological drivers which foster engagement and connection. These drivers cover individual, group & organizational level behaviours that set a positive work environment & culture.

What is the Peoplebox Engagement Framework?

Our employee engagement survey is based on 11 psychological drivers that each have 3 sub-drivers under them. The sub drivers are enablers of employee engagement, supported by several organizational behaviour & management theories. These enablers help us understand specific behaviours that promote engagement. At the core of employee engagement we have found factors like emotional commitment, connection, motivation are proven to impact the workplace positively.

How do we measure the scores?

eNPS scale

Our survey contains one question that measures engagement using an eNPS scale as data tracked from our users allows for robust visualization- Detractors, Passives, and Promoters. In other words our tabulation gives us insights on both individual and aggregate levels that can be used to understand change over time and specific trigger reactions. eNPS is a scale that is used to measure in competitive landscapes and provide a basis of comparison to benchmark their scores in relation to the competitors in their industry.

Five point scale

Our survey assesses 11 psychological drivers using a 5 point scale to quantitatively measure a respondent’s agreement, satisfaction or behavioral frequency with a question. Our survey users must experience a seamless and we use the 5 point scale for the following reasons:

  1. They are well reciprocated by both the user & receiver.

  2. A point scale allows us to collect granulated data that reflect beliefs & perceptions which enhance insights. Cumulating scores provides attitudes and behaviours that can be primed with actionable feedback.

  3. This holistic view allows us to cater to diverse mindsets & feelings, eventually leading to sharper analysis, areas of improvement & a clarity on behaviours that are doing well.

We have adapted the Likert - Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agree into a 5 Point Scale - (Not at all)1 2 3 4 5(Absolutely), asked by a chatbot.

However, unlike the eNPS, 5 point scales are effective in measuring sentiments, saves time and offers a large range of analytical data. In our survey we use in moderation a good mix of both scales to offer valuable insights that lead to actionable feedback.

Key Outcome (Engagement)

Our survey measures the extent of psychological connection experienced by an employee towards their organization using psychological drivers followed by feedback designed to enhance engaged behaviours.

  1. How likely are you to recommend your company to your friends & family?

  2. How happy are you working at your company?

  3. How likely are you to see yourself working at this company 12 months from now?

The 11 key drivers that drive this outcome are:

  1. Collaboration

  2. Connection

  3. Inclusion

  4. Goal Setting

  5. Career Growth

  6. Manager Support

  7. Infrastructure & Resources

  8. Recognition

  9. Role Clarity

  10. Personal Well-being

  11. Leadership

Drivers and questions

1. Manager support

is the extent to which a manager enables ease of work & relationship with their subordinates peers. Level of trust, communication extended between an employee and manager as well as active involvement is measured. Mintzberg (2009), conducted a study where he found 3 of 9 most important managerial characteristics to be managing resources, handling conflict & organizing information were dependent on manager trust, communication & involvement.

  1. Overall Motivation: How motivated are you to work with your manager?

  2. Manager participation: Do you believe your manager helps you to succeed at work?

  3. Expertise: Do you feel that your manager provides the expertise to support you at your organization?

  4. Open communication: Do you think your manager is open to receiving criticism?

Open Text Question: What could your manager do to make your work experience more meaningful for you?

2. Role Clarity

is the degree to which not only employees have a clear understanding of their tasks, responsibilities and processes at work. These questions help understand mutual expectation, assess whether employees are receiving specific actionable feedback & maintain manageable workloads. (JDR model, Hackman & Oldham).

  1. Task allocation: Do you feel well-informed about your expectations at work?

  2. Actionable feedback: Do you think you get actionable feedback on your work?

  3. Managing job demands: Would you say that your workload and goals are manageable?

Open Text Question: What is the most meaningful part of your job?

3. Leadership

is the perception of a leader's style of working, actions taken and overall direction in the company. The questions measure employee’s beliefs about leader perception, involvement in work & company direction. (Nembhard & Edmonson, 2006) found that employee belief about fairness & transparency; the extent to which a leader is involved & accountability foster positive work environments.

  1. Direction & Strategy: Do you think your leaders are taking the company in the right direction?

  2. Listening: Do you think your leaders listen to feedback?

  3. Leader accountability: Would you say that your leaders walk the talk?

Open Text Question: Name one thing you would do differently as a CEO?

4. Collaboration

Collaboration means people coming together to complete tasks or achieve goals through their work. We measure individual involvement, ease of collaboration among teams and support extended by the organization. Biswas & Bhatnagar (2013) found a link between collaboration & work engagement.

  1. Intra-team collaboration: Do you and your peers collaborate well together?

  2. Inter-team collaboration: Do you feel there is good cross team collaboration?

  3. Culture of Collaboration: Do you feel that your organization has a culture of collaboration?

Open Text Question: How can we improve team collaboration?

5. Connection

measures bond between fellow peers, how much they care for eachother, casual camaraderie at work. Trust and care among employees creates stronger bonds Brown & Leigh (1996). A friendly workplace is said to show high levels of employee engagement.

  1. Camaraderie: Do you think you have a connection with your co-workers beyond your work?

  2. Community: Do you feel you share common interests with your peers at work?

  3. Friendly environment: Do you feel your organization encourages building friendship?

    Open Text Question: What makes you feel connected to our company?

6. Inclusion

is the freedom to express views and feel accepted & have those suggestions be appreciated or valued. Measure of how safe employees feel to be themselves at work. (Frazier et al, 2017) in a study found inclusion & psychological safety to be predictors of workplace engagement.

  1. Emotional safety: Do you feel safe to voice your thoughts, regardless of the consequences?

  2. Belonging: Do you feel like you can bring your true self to work?

  3. Equality : Do you feel that everyone is treated equally at work?

Open Text Question: What could we do to improve diversity and inclusion in our organization?

7. Goal setting

is the ability to determine, set individually and familiarise others of the same. Goal setting measures clarity of goals, inclusion in goal setting & realistic goals. Brown & Leigh, 1996 found that employees who were actively involved & set realistic goals were engaged at work.

  1. Clarity of goals: Do you believe that your goals are clearly defined?

  2. Inclusion in goal setting: Do you believe that your opinions were considered in setting your current goals?

  3. Individual-organizational goal alignment: Do you believe that your personal goals and organizational goals are aligned?

Open Text Question: How can we set goals more realistically?

8. Infrastructure & resources

is the measure of material resources & involvement provided by the company to make (JDR, Hackman & Oldham) a physical environment conducive for work. Here employee’s belief about their infrastructure having a positive effect on their work & wellbeing is assessed.

  1. Organizational support: Do you think your organization has provided you with all the resources you need to accomplish your tasks?

  2. Resources allocated: Do you feel that your work resources are helping you learn?

  3. **Request for resources:**Do you believe if you need any resources, your company acts quickly to provide for it?

Open Text Question: Is there anything in your work world that’s causing frustration or delays?

9. Career growth

is the overall experience of being challenged & achieving goals to express your work style to learn along your career. Measures the opportunity to showcase strengths, learning and future career path. ERG Theory by Alderfer says that opportunities to display strengths, promote employee learning are linked to engagement.

  1. Growth: Do you feel like your job enables you to grow and learn new skills?

  2. Learning & development: Do you think that you are learning and growing through your opportunities?

  3. Clarity of career trajectory: Can you see a clear career path for your future in this organization?

Open Text Question: What are some learning & development opportunities your organization can provide to help enhance your career?

10. Recognition

is the extent to which employees feel appreciated and acknowledged for their contributions. Our scale measures recognition across employee beliefs about the culture of recognition, acknowledging achievements & understands what is celebrated.

  1. Achievement: Do you feel your work is being recognised?

  2. Manager recognition: Do you feel that your manager often recognises your contribution?

  3. Culture of celebration: Do you believe that your company has a culture of recognition & celebration?

Open Text Question: How can your company celebrate your contribution better?

11. Personal well being

is the extent to which one feels happy, healthy and comfortable at work. Here we aim to understand work disconnection, exhaustion & perception of company's efforts into employee well being (Maslach, MBI, 1986).

  1. Work disconnection: Do you fully disconnect from work after your workday?

  2. Physical wellbeing: Do you feel you are leading a healthy physical life?

  3. Company's efforts : Do you feel your company is invested in employee wellbeing?

Open Text Question: Which company value would you like to embody more?

FAQs

How should I run this survey?

There are 3 ways to run the survey:

  1. Recommended - Pulse survey - 4 questions - fortnight, recycled quarterly: You can ask 4 questions to your team every fortnight through slack. This would ensure you don’t over-burden your team at the same-time you get good participation.

  2. Baseline survey - 12 questions - once in quarter: We’ve designed in a way that the first question is a pivotal question in all the drivers. So you can pick the first question in each driver along with the eNPS question at the first - you will have a survey with 12 questions for your baseline data.

  3. Exhaustive survey - 44 questions - once in 6 months: You can create a survey with all of the above questions in one survey and send it every 6 months. This will be taxing for your employees and we do not recommend this.

How should I analyze the results?

With pulse surveys, it is important to disseminate the results earlier. Prefer sharing the responses with your organization managers earlier.

What is a good participation rate?

Usually a good participation rate is 75%. If there is a participation rate of 100%, be aware if it is through coercion which might change the quality of responses. A good analogy is to compare voting turnout in healthy democracies.

How do I ensure a good participation rate?

The simplest way to ensure good participation is to let the team know that they are being heard. Acknowledge the scores in meetings - Townhalls, team-meetings and 1-on-1s. Embed them in your process, that would ensure your pulse surveys have good participation.

References

Collaboration

  1. Biswas, S., & Bhatnagar, J. (2013). Mediator analysis of employee engagement: role of perceived organizational support, PO fit, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Vikalpa, 38(1), 27-40.

  2. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0256090920130103

Connection

  1. Kiefer, S. M., Alley, K. M., & Ellerbrock, C. R. (2015). Teacher and peer support for young adolescents’ motivation, engagement, and school belonging. Rmle Online, 38(8), 1-18.Teacher and Peer Support for Young Adolescents’ Motivation, Engagement, and School Belonging

  2. Psychological Climate Measure (PCM; Brown & Leigh, 1996). Shuck, B., Reio Jr, T. G., & Rocco, T. S. (2011). Employee engagement: An examination of antecedent and outcome variables. Human resource development international, 14(4), 427-445 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13678868.2011.601587

Inclusion

  1. Psychological Climate Measure (PCM; Brown & Leigh, 1996). https://doras.dcu.ie/22239/1/Diversity_and_Engagement-_Final_Accepted_Submission.pdf

  2. Frazier, M. L., Fainshmidt, S., Klinger, R. L., Pezeshkan, A., & Vracheva, V. (2017). Psychological safety: A meta‐analytic review and extension. Personnel Psychology, 70(1), 113-165 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=management_fac_pubs

Goal setting

  1. Psychological Climate Measure (PCM; Brown & Leigh, 1996)

Career growth

  1. Theory on motivation and engagement, including Two Factor Theory (Herzberg),

  2. ERG Theory (Alderfer), and

  3. Employee Engagement (Kahn).

Manager support

  1. Mintzberg (2009) Mintzberg, H. (2009). Managing. Pearson Education.

Infrastructure & resources

  1. Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham).

Recognition

  1. Self Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci), and the Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham).

Role Clarity

  1. Leiter, Schaufeli, and Maslach (2001) cite engagement as the positive antithesis of employee burnout.

  2. JDR model

Personal well being

  1. Leiter, Schaufeli, and Maslach (2001) cite engagement as the positive antithesis of employee burnout.

Leadership

  1. Ghadi, M. Y., Fernando, M., & Caputi, P. (2013). Transformational leadership and work engagement: The mediating effect of meaning in work. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.

  2. Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). Making it safe: The effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 27(7), 941-966.

Engagement

  1. Employee Engagement (Kahn).