Two Conflicting Employee Engagement Survey Results Suggest Companies Need Their Own Metrics

How could two reputable survey companies come up with completely different views of employee engagement and what does that mean for organizations trying to make sense of the impact of engagement?

Engage2Excel—Engagement Reaches Record Heights
Gallup—Engagement Reaches Record Lows
What to Make of This Big Discrepancy?

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Employee engagement surveys can generate publicity for advisory firms and provide useful insights for management, but the striking gap between the findings of these two different survey firms suggests that organizations need to develop their own way to gauge the true impact of engagement. Instead of only using employee survey scores to gauge engagement, how about using data already at most organizations to calculate the actual impact?

Engage2Excel—Recognition Reaches Record Heights

According to the Mooresville, NC-based Engage2Excel in its 2024 survey, “Employee engagement in the US climbed by nearly five percentage points between 2022 and 2024, reaching 68.3%, the highest level since 2018.” The survey is based on 5,000 respondents representing all major industries with a confidence level of 95%.

The EEI Survey was developed by Dr. Jack Wiley in 2016. He is Engage2Excel’s Chief Scientific Officer, “an award-winning organizational psychologist with over three decades of experience helping leaders and their organizations achieve optimal performance.” The survey is based on an analysis of weighted responses to such questions as:

I am proud to tell people I work for my organization (Pride).
Considering everything, I am satisfied with my organization as a place to work (Overall Satisfaction).
I would recommend my organization as a place to work (Advocacy).
I intend to be working for my organization for a long time (Commitment).
My organization motivates people to work hard and put in extra effort when needed (Discretionary Effort).

Gallup—Engagement Reaches Record Lows

Gallup apparently has a different read on the employee landscape. “Employee engagement in the US fell to its lowest level in a decade in 2024, with only 31% of employees engaged. This matches the figure last seen in 2014. The percentage of actively disengaged employees, at 17%, also reflects 2014 levels.” This is the conclusion of the latest survey by Gallup, the Washington DC-based survey and research firm.

In 2024, the company says its analysis encompassed 183,806 business units and teams worldwide, according to its latest State of the Workforce report. The survey asks employees:

How satisfied are you with your company as a place to work?
I know what is expected of me at work.
I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
There is someone at work who encourages my development.
At work, my opinions seem to count.
The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
I have a best friend at work.
In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

What to Make of This Big Discrepancy?

A significant exercise would probably be required to understand how two reputable organizations could come up with such different conclusions. The nature of the questions and sample size may be factors. Or, do these findings suggest that if a company engaged both Engage2Excel and Gallup to survey their employees they would come up with completely different results?

What is clear: companies cannot rely on engagement surveys alone as a serious predictor of value creation or destruction. It remains a common fault in anything to do with people in business to measure activities instead of actual impact in terms of value creation or on the purpose, goals, objectives, and values of the organization.

To better understand employee engagement impact, consider adding to whatever survey your organization uses the practices advocated in ISO 30414 human capital standards and ISO 10018 people engagement standards. A more meaningful picture of employee engagement potentially includes:

Employee turnover and estimated cost of replacement;
Number and cost of employee legal actions and outcomes; safety, discrimination, harassment, etc.;
Actual employee referrals as a percent of employees along with cost-savings;
Directional trends of revenues, profits, and costs per employee, customer, and if applicable, channel partners;
Human capital ROI and human capital value add.

Enterprise Engagement Alliance Services

Celebrating our 15^th year, the Enterprise Engagement Alliance helps organizations enhance performance through:

1. Information and marketing opportunities on stakeholder management and total rewards:
ESM Weekly on stakeholder management since 2009; click here for a media kit.
RRN Weekly on total rewards since 1996; click here for a EEA YouTube channel on enterprise engagement, human capital, and total rewards insights and how-to information since 2020.

2. Learning: Purpose Leadership and Stakeholder

Management Academy to enhance future equity value and performance for your organization.

3. Books on implementation: Enterprise Engagement for CEOs and Enterprise Engagement: The Roadmap.

4. Advisory services and research: Strategic guidance, learning and certification on stakeholder management, measurement, metrics, and corporate sustainability reporting.

5. Permission-based targeted business development to identify and build relationships with the people most likely to buy.

6. Public speaking and meeting facilitation on stakeholder management. The world’s leading speakers on all aspects of stakeholder management across the enterprise.