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If 2020 taught us anything, it is that the institutions and systems we rely on as a society are vulnerable and fragile. The year that may go down as the worst in history delivered a series of previously unfathomable crises that underscored dangerous cracks in our systems for ensuring health, safety, social justice, and effective governance.

The HR profession was on the front lines of responding to the health, safety and economic consequences of the pandemic while also addressing issues of inequality and fairness in the workplace in response to widespread social protests. The impacts of these crises, and the contemplation of their longer-term consequences in the workplace, will ultimately require a reevaluation of organizational responsibility for the psychological and emotional well-being of workers.

Depending on which surveys you look at, somewhere between 70% to 85% of employees in the workforce are not engaged. Those are discouraging numbers for employers, because disengaged employees score lower in productivity metrics than they should. In practical terms, that means they contribute less, lack motivation and show little interest in their work.

More than half (53 percent) of U.S. companies with 500 or more employees conduct employee engagement surveys. However, more than a third of managers do not act on the results of these surveys. The implications of this inaction, which has held at a relatively constant rate for several years, are particularly significant in today’s business environment in which high turnover rates and historically low unemployment converge to reduce capacity for achieving growth forecasts.

In our last two blog posts, our colleague, Tyler Morrison has spoken about why an engagement survey is important to understanding your organization's health and how to prepare your organization for your survey. This week Tiffany Adams, is taking the reins and sharing her ideas for not wasting all the money you just spent on your engagement survey!