NPR Interview – Employee Engagement Surveys that Maximize Business Success

Ken, Tell our listeners about Scarlett Surveys.

We specialize in Employee Engagement Surveys.  Basically, we help business leaders inspire their employees so everyone puts forth their best efforts and the business continuously succeeds.  We do this by administering precision survey questionnaires to employees and providing management with easy-to-apply engagement data. This data enables business leaders to maximize return on human capital while improving the work environment – to lead, inspire, focus and retain their employees.

We hear a lot about “employee engagement” these days. What is the definition of engagement?

That’s a good question, Mike. If a company does not define engagement they certainly can’t measure or manage it.
We define an engaged employee as someone who likes their job or finds meaning in their job so much, they put forth extra effort to ensure the company continues to succeed. Think of your positive experiences with employees at Chick-Fil-A or Southwest Airlines. Chances are you were dealing with an engaged employee and as a result became an engaged repeat customer. Engaged employees going to work right now can feel the dedication and enthusiasm. The Army calls it being “switched on”. Conversely disengaged employees feel disconnected or “switched off”. So, engagement is actually a step above satisfaction: it’s creating an environment that mobilizes minds to continuously create value for the business.

What have you learned from these employee surveys that can help our listeners?

We have found that engaged employees have higher levels of productivity, they innovate on their own and their financial benefit to the business is about 25% higher than disengaged employees. Scarlett has also found that talented employees stay with companies much longer where employee engagement is a priority, and customers seek to do business with engaged people. Top performing companies routinely measure and manage employee engagement. Lower performing companies do not. Because of these proven outcomes, engaging employees is the most important aspect of running a global business, after business model and strategy.

Ken, is employee satisfaction and engagement as low as USA Today reports at 47% -a drop of 5% in one year? That means that 1 out of 2 people going to work this morning are dissatisfied with their job.

That’s a lot and it means that about half of the companies out there are headed downhill. Regrettably, we’re seeing the same downward trends based on survey input from employees who quit other companies. The fact is: 70% of the cost of doing business today is people related, so if companies are not engaging their talent, they’re losing big bucks and valuable intellectual energy. From a stock value perspective, analysts routinely penalize companies that don’t have reliable engagement numbers, because they know that haphazard people leadership and disengaged minds will eventually kill the business. It’s like not having a financial statement for 70% of your business!  And that’s why measuring Employee Engagement is so critical – it’s about unifying people with the business and giving meaning to both: a win for the customers and employees, a win for management, and a win for stockholders.

Ken, if I were the President or Board member of a Company why would I want to use Scarlett Surveys to survey our employees?

There are two, huge payback reasons Mike. Reason number one – to keep a company “switched on,” business leaders need routine & trustworthy engagement measurements to effectively manage their Human Capital and balance their business scorecards. At the end of the day, working on the right engagement driver, at the right time, in the right country, along with your financials is what it takes to be globally competitive. We deliver that data knowledge and management system. Now, reason number two is this – business leaders need to see ahead and act on employee perceptions that are proven to affect business outcomes. For example, we can predict what employee perceptions affect turnover so management can do something about people leaving before it happens. Dr. Jac Fitz-enz, creator of the Saratoga Institute, calls this “managing tomorrow today.” In total, business leaders hire us because of our proven, copyright protected survey products, our global benchmarks, our leading edge web technology, and our really great people! Our crowning uniqueness is that we own the questions and indexes that truly measure the 15 drivers of engagement: our engagement measure is the essential people piece of the “triple bottom line” method of management.

How does one of Scarlett’s engagement surveys work?

Based on the client’s business strategy, we develop a written survey process and timeline and tailor one of our employee survey products to meet their needs. Once the questionnaire is approved, the survey is scheduled and administered to employees on the web or by hard copy. From there our OMNI System securely processes up to 10,000 questionnaires a day in 19 languages and generates on-line results. We then review survey results with clients via web-meeting or on-site to help them apply the data. One of our latest developments is an automatic, web-based action planning system that compresses the time lag between receiving results and making improvements. This saves clients loads of meeting time and accelerates the engagement process.

Ken, how does someone contact Scarlett Surveys to find out more about Employee Engagement Surveys?

They can contact us through our web-site at ScarlettSurveys.com or they can call us at our 800 number. We invite listeners to check out our white-paper about employee engagement and connection to bottom line business success. We also invite listeners to e-mail us with examples we can publish about engaged employees creating engaged customers.

Ken, thank you for being with us today to acquaint our listeners with Employee Engagement Surveys.

You’re welcome Mike. It has been a pleasure.