6 Employee Engagement Metrics for Your HR Team to Track

How do you track if an employee is engaged at work? How can you measure how connected someone feels to their company and its goals? 

Taking the time to closely examine and measure engagement is important because highly engaged employees are more likely to be loyal and productive. Disengaged employees cost U.S. organizations around $450-550 billion each year. Best Buy even identified the value of a .1% increase in employee engagement to be more than $100,000 in a store’s annual operating income.  

It may seem almost impossible to quantify a sentiment like engagement, but there are steps that organizations can take to measure engagement rates. We’ve outlined a few metrics below that can help indicate exactly how engaged your team is. 

1. Turnover rate

Perhaps the easiest metric to measure is the rate of turnover. How many of your employees are voluntarily leaving your organization per year? A high turnover rate may indicate a very competitive market, poor pay, less-than-stellar benefits, or a lack of engagement. Some turnover in any organization is normal, and benchmarking your metrics against others in your industry is key to determining if your numbers are par for the course or indicate a larger problem. 

When employees do decide to leave your organization, an exit interview can be a great way to get a better understanding of why they are leaving. When measuring turnover, examine retention rates, too. High rates of employee retention often indicate a highly engaged, loyal, and happy workforce. Don’t forget about interviewing these folks as well. A stay interview can be a great way to receive valuable feedback and stay ahead of potential concerns. Regular ongoing communication with teams can help identify issues in advance and allow you to offer new opportunities or solutions for bored or frustrated employees. 

2. Absenteeism

Absenteeism, or how often your employees are absent from work, can be a strong indicator of employee engagement. Some absenteeism is normal, and in fact, employees at your organization should feel confident and comfortable taking a sick day or mental health day as needed. However, if benchmarking measurements are indicating that your absenteeism rate (often measured by dividing the number of absent days by the number of working days in a given period) is significantly higher than other organizations, it might be time to examine why. 

High rates of absenteeism could indicate stressful working conditions and poor morale. A workforce that has high rates of absenteeism is likely to have low rates of presenteeism. Research on presenteeism, or how mentally present someone is at work, indicates that healthier employees are also more present. Employees who are unhealthy, stressed, and frequently sick may physically be at work but unable to function at their full capacity.

A highly engaged workforce feels that their employer cares about them on personal and professional levels, and 87% of employees consider health and wellness packages when choosing where to work today. A comprehensive wellness program can help reduce rates of absenteeism, increase presenteeism, and improve engagement across teams. 

3. Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPs)

Measuring emotions such as satisfaction and engagement can be difficult, but net promoter scores (eNPS) have long been a method that employers use to gain insight into how happy their employees really are. 

In a survey, employees are asked how likely they are to recommend your organization as a place to work to a friend or colleague. Generally, companies measure eNPS on a scale of 1-10 with promoters being those that offer a score of 9-10, passives providing 7-8, and detractors giving a rating of 6 or below. Promoters are often highly engaged and satisfied. A passive is doing okay but is more likely to leave if a better offer comes their way, while detractors are outright frustrated and angry. A strong net promoter score indicates that your employees feel fulfilled, autonomous, and productive within their roles. 

4. Glassdoor rating

Glassdoor is a website where employees can leave anonymous ratings and reviews of their current or former workplaces. Leading HR organizations recommend using Glassdoor as a way to examine engagement rates. Glassdoor ratings can reflect what employees really think about your organization and highlight opportunities for improvement. Glassdoor is particularly important to keep an eye on for recruiting purposes as prospective employees (especially Millennials and Gen Zers) read reviews during the interview process.  

5. Customer satisfaction rating

Customer satisfaction ratings are more than just a measure of how happy customers are — they indicate how engaged your employees are, too. Employees who are highly engaged are proud of their work or product and want customers to have the best possible experience when using it. They feel a sense of pride in acting as a representative for the organization and often have a strong sense of autonomy and accomplishment. A study by Gallup showed that a two-point increase in employee engagement leads to a one-point increase in customer satisfaction. 

6. Benefits utilization

An engaged employee base uses the benefits their employer offers. Strong benefits and perks can reduce healthcare premiums for employers, decrease absenteeism, and improve employee satisfaction and engagement. Market research and surveys can help ensure that your company is offering benefits that are appropriate for your organization’s unique population. You will also need to carefully consider the employee experience before implementing a new program. 

It’s important to select a vendor that acts as a strategic partner and can provide advanced analytics on program usage so that your organization can make productive business decisions. YorkHoist, the leader in the overhead crane and material handling industry, wanted to offer its employees more flexible benefits. Organizations such as YorkHoist have certain limits on how much flexibility they can offer due to the nature of their business and the safety of workers, yet they have still created a positive culture by offering an easy-to-use benefit program. Today, YorkHoist’s flexible lifestyle spending account (LSA) program has a 98% engagement rate because employees have more choice in how they spend their benefits. 

“I think our employees definitely find Benepass easy to use, and their choice in vendors is pretty much wide open,” said Denise Myers, HR Manager. 

The team was able to closely measure engagement with the new program through the Benepass analytics dashboard. “The dashboard is really beneficial to me and the VP of Operations. It helps us to see participation rates and plan our budget for the next year,” Denise said.

Highly engaged employees are seeking flexibility more than ever, and our 2022 Benefits Benchmarking Guide found that leading organizations are offering this through similar LSA programs. LSAs were the second-most popular perk, with 37% of companies offering them at an average of $171 in monthly funds. If you are looking for ways to attract and retain top talent or increase engagement with your benefits programs, LSAs are a great option. Contact sales@getbenepass.com to learn more about how the right benefits can improve employee engagement.