It could be that your organization isn’t actively looking for an employee engagement partner. You’ve got a vendor you’ve worked with for a while now; you know their platform, their work style, their deliverables. Although it would be nice to figure out how to return to those early days of priority service, change hasn’t really crossed your mind.
Why upset the applecart?
Senior leaders are always looking for confirmation that proves the validity of your employee engagement programs. Can you justify efforts? Results? Return on investment? Does your vendor’s approach increase the strategic relationship between employee engagement initiatives and meaningful outcomes for your business and talent strategies?
The number one question you need to ask to decide if it’s time for a change: Are business results improving in tandem with employee engagement levels?
Reactions to an online editorial about firing your employee engagement vendor amplify this school of thought. One commentator notes: “If we can get our engagement scores to go up, then, theoretically, every desirable financial, operational and HR metric should go up with it because employee motivation affects everything going on inside our companies.”
Another emphatically reinforces this position: “Employee engagement measures are critical but if not coupled with the right process to enable manager development and employee connection to your organization – why bother? Frankly, everyone claims a validated set of question items. Clients paying [five or] six figures for ‘results’ should be asking specifically about the “change process” not the measurement process.”
That’s why a major retailer with more than 200 locations across the nation has a long-standing partnership with TalentMap dating back to 2008. The company keeps separate data related to store-by-store customer satisfaction and sales performance. Recent analysis to establish links showed:
In the U.S., where a hot economy is fueling a huge voluntary job exodus, there are clearly some deep-rooted issues that call for attention – sooner than later. To stay ahead of talent challenges that can bolster or bludgeon business outcomes your practical need to assess employee engagement, needs more-than-ever to be supported by an employee engagement partner with deep knowledge and strategic post-survey experience that delivers proven results.
- Employee engagement is very stable except in one area – immediate management
- In stores where employee engagement is high, sales and customer satisfaction are also high
- Conversely, in stores where engagement is low, sales and customer experience are low
Ergo, because of this data linkage analysis the client was able to conclude if they trained and changed management behavior on an as needed store-by-store basis, those engagement-targeted efforts would drive higher sales and customer satisfaction.
It’s natural not to want to change the status quo
For one, it takes too much time and effort to switch employee survey vendors. Right? Wrong.
The right employee engagement partner, one with a demonstrable track record, like TalentMap, will develop a detailed project plan, help you transition and get all your programs up and running, quickly and smoothly, within a specified timeframe or sooner.
What about all that data you’ve collected – are all those years of insights going to be lost?
Definitely not. Your historical information is the basis from which strategy evolves. With years of experience helping clients transition from one survey approach to another, TalentMap preserves and protects your data and integrates it along with your HRIS system into an easy to use survey and reporting tool.
The headache of having to retrain people on a new system seems such a waste of time. Why fix what’s not broken? If the data and outcomes you’re getting don’t sync with justifiable business improvements, something IS amiss. At TalentMap, you’re partnered with a dedicated, expert Project Manager who provides in-depth training on the platform. They not only train but troubleshoot and solve any roadblocks. They bring in other members of the TalentMap team to make sure you get the kinds of customization, benchmarks, reports and expertise you want, for the information and post-survey direction you need to guide department, geographic and corporate-wide change. Your personal Project Manager is committed to making sure there are no headaches. You’re supported every step of the way.
Invested in your success
TalentMap develops a strong working rapport with its partners, many lasting for nearly to two decades. We’re an extension of your organization. A professional team of project managers, data analysts, software engineers, subject matter experts and thought-leading engagement consultants who understand what works and what doesn’t. We want to be sure our efforts, collectively, align with your strategic objectives, workplace requirements and unique work culture, and that those efforts produce quantifiable business results.
You’ve got lots of options when it comes to asking your employees questions. The question is – are you seeing bottom line benefits? Maybe it is time for change.
