As a good business owner, you are always looking for ways to make your business stronger, more efficient, and larger. One common goal that business owners and managers set out to achieve in the pursuit of a better business is trying to increase employee engagement. But too many people don’t know how to properly measure engagement—a good goal has to be measurable to be effective, and the general mood of your employees is far from scientific. Here are a few metrics you can use to measure employee engagement effectively for better goal setting and resources.

Review Retention Rates

The first measure that you can use to measure employee engagement is to review retention rates. While they are not the exact same, employee happiness and satisfaction is usually correlated with engagement and productivity. Retention rates can be a good measure to see if people like working for your company, as people don’t generally seek to leave jobs they enjoy. If you see retention rates drop in response to a change you make to try and boost employee engagement, that could be a sign that you are getting the desired effect.

Look at Employee Output

Another crucial measure that you should be looking for to measure employee engagement is to look at employee output. When employees are motivated and engaged, their output should increase, meaning they are doing more work at a good quality in the same or less amount of time. The best way to get a boost in output is to ensure that your employees feel they are impacting the company’s purpose. Employees are 121% more motivated when you connect recognition with the company’s purpose. This means that you should reward people in your company not just based on their output but the impact their output has, letting them see how they make a difference.

Watch for Innovation

The final measure that you can use to measure employee engagement is to see employees who are innovating. When employees are engaged with their work, they are more likely to discover ways they can do things faster, better, more efficiently, or otherwise come up with ideas and innovations that move the company forward. This one isn’t the most concrete on the list, but watch out for whether or not employees are offering suggestions, discovering things on the job, or trying to increase productivity or efficiency of operations on their own.

Employee engagement is a crucial aspect of a successful business operation. But finding ways to boost employee engagement means that you have to find a way to measure it. Use these three metrics to determine if your employees are engaged with their work or not.

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