Employee Engagement Companies – How To Find The Best One For You

Employee engagement companies can help you focus on the issues that are relevant to your people and let’s face it, with the growing number of challenges that HR departments face, a helping hand goes a long way. In the past few years, there has been, amongst others: rapid changes in hiring, growing millennial demand for new and improved employee experiences, legislative mandates on employee data collection and retention, a rise in new technology that has empowered employees with unprecedented access to information as well as the pandemic creating shifts in employee expectation.

Many HR departments are struggling to keep up with all these trends. Those overseeing staffing programs need to find ways of managing these challenges and one way is to undertake employee engagement surveys. With so many factors changing so rapidly, it is essential that your company partners with a provider you can trust. There are many employee engagement companies in the UK so how do you find the right one to work with?

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement surveys are used to measure how committed employees feel to an organisation’s goals and values, as well as assessing their motivation to contribute to organisational success, whilst enhancing their own sense of wellbeing. Employee surveys can be a powerful way to identify and address problems before they get serious enough to affect the company’s bottom line.  Organisations can run their own surveys, but that route is not recommended. The data obtained will not always be a true reflection of what people are thinking due to concerns around confidentiality and anonymity arising from internal surveys – running it via a specialist third party is always advised.

How to identify the best employee engagement companies

There are some things to keep in mind when you’re looking for the right employee engagement company:

1.        Budget

How much are you willing to spend on employee engagement surveys? What’s your budget range? These are important questions to ask before you start shopping around for the right company to conduct your company’s engagement surveys. Keep in mind that there are various price points for different types of engagement surveys.

2.        Requirements

Before contacting potential employee engagement survey companies, it might be a good idea to think about some background information things like:

• How committed to accepting the results are you?
• Is there a desire to change within the organisation?
• Are you prepared to be open and transparent in sharing the results?
• How will the results feed into your people strategy or organisational aims and objectives?
• What would you like to achieve as a result of your survey? For example:
  • Are you looking to find out how your people feel about changes within the organisation?
  • Are you worried about retention and need to know how the workplace could be improved?
  • Do you want to make informed business decisions?
  • Do you want to find out why people are staying or leaving?
  • Do you want to know why some departments are doing better than others?
  • Do you want your managers to undertake development?
• How quickly do you need results?
• Do you need national and/or international surveys?
• Online, paper or both?

Once they understand your requirements, good employee engagement companies will be able to make suggestions and be able to furnish you with the information you need to help with the decision-making process.  They may even know what you want before you do!

You may already know exactly what type of survey you need, and they should be able to work with that too!

3.        Ask about previous work and clients

Employee engagement companies will normally highlight projects and clients on their website and it’s a good idea to take a look at any testimonials or case studies initially.  Once you’ve narrowed down your providers and you’ve chosen a few companies to approach, don’t forget to enquire about their wider client base, the industries they serve, and the type of engagement surveys they provide to them. What kind of work have they done for other companies like yours? Do they have experience with the industries you serve? Are they happy to put you in touch with organisations they have already worked with? Do they have references from clients you know or can contact?

4.        Find out what else they do

While you’re asking about previous work, find out what else the company does. Some providers offer a wide range of HR services and products. Some are more focused, offering just employee engagement surveys.  The advantage to employing a company that only does employee engagement surveys is that they will be extra knowledgeable in their subject and will have up-to-date benchmark data.

Finally, find out if the provider does anything else for your employees. Do they offer any coaching or mentoring services that might help you retain your best employees? Do they offer post survey services such as focus groups, facilitation and consulting?

5.        Data Security

Data security is more important than ever, given the increasing volume of sensitive data and number of cyber-attacks. As businesses continue to collect more data and store it for longer, the risks associated with that data become even more pronounced. It is important to check that the provider of your surveys has taken steps to ensure the security of the data you are providing to them.

Find out if they’re accredited with any professional bodies – for example the Market Research Society which has a code of conduct.  As well as whether they are GDPR compliant and if they comply with ICO guidance and statutory codes of practice.

Look for Cyber Essential and those that follow ISO27001 which will ensure that the provider has defences in place to prevent cyber-attacks.

6.        Customer service

Take note of how quickly they respond to your calls and emails.  It’s a good indicator of how they will respond whilst they’re working with you. If they’re taking their time to reply or don’t seem like they care, it’s not a good sign. Look out for their eagerness and passion when they do reach out to you. If they’re not asking the right questions and don’t seem like they’re invested in your business, it’s a red flag.

Your employees are the best asset your organisation has. They are the ones who keep everything moving, who ensure that the company’s products and services get delivered as promised. When employees are engaged and feel appreciated, they are more productive and loyal. Employee engagement surveys can help you understand what your employees want and how you can improve their experience at work. The best employee engagement companies will help you do that.

If you would like to know more about how The Survey Initiative can help your organisation improve employee engagement call us on +44 (0)1255 850051 or email: info@surveyinitiative.co.uk