To:
Aliana Cole, Retail Director
Date:
January 23, 2022
Re:
Proposal for project to improve Employee Engagement
Introduction
I have noticed a glaring opportunity in our retail space and wanted to address it with a proposed
solution. I have been in my role as a Retail Manager for 3 years now, and whether it is due to the
changes that our company has gone through from a business standpoint, or because of the
changes we have been forced to go through to navigate through the pandemic, our retail locations
are facing a downward spiral of disengagement and high attrition. Daily, I see the effects of low
engagement and high engagement on our employees and our performance. As a leader, I know
that the most important way to improve this is by increasing our employee engagement.
Challenge
Employee engagement is vital to the future success of our business, and our team. The level of
engagement effects performance, job loyalty, and greater employee satisfaction (Peters, 2019).
For us to continue to perform, and increase performance, we need a way to measure employee
engagement so that we can find areas of opportunity and learn to improve.
As a company, we have been using the Gallup poll to measure engagement and satisfaction
quarterly, but the results are targeted towards helping executive leadership and stakeholders
measure engagement. Instead of an outside polling source, we need a way to meet our employees
where they want to be met, on a more consistent basis. By implementing an all-encompassing
tool that allows them to rate their satisfaction and engagement daily.
Background
Our current method of gauging employee engagement is a good overarching method. The Gallup
poll is one of many processes for measuring employee engagement, but according to Peters
(2019), they are they pioneers. Gallup has been used to measure performance and engagement to
“more than 25 million employees in 189 countries” (p. 189). It is a well-established and well
researched system, that measures engagement on multiple levels. We have, in the past year, seen
the survey results reflect poor engagement directly following a reduction in force, and we have
seen it increase rapidly when the poll was rolled out immediately following a large merger that
inspired confidence in the strength of our brand, and everywhere in between. The employees are
hesitant to believe the poll is completely anonymous, and the random nature of the questions
make them feel that company isn’t truly concerned about the matters that matter to them.
Potential Solution
To increase employee engagement in a more consistent and more measurable scope at the retail
level, is incorporate the measurement into a tool we utilize every day. Upon signing into our POS
systems, we have had to implement changes that require a 10-question survey around health and
mitigating the Covid-19 exposure. Our answers determine what email is sent to us at the
conclusion of the questionnaire. I propose that we simply modify the questionnaire to include
three additional questions. One question should address an employee’s current state of mind. The
second should address the employee’s reaction to their previous shift. The last question should
be addressing the employee’s prediction for the coming day.
Preliminary Research
Though these three questions are simple, they address one of the three tenets of human behavior,
people operate in time (Burlacu et al, 2019). The Gallup poll largely addresses the other two
tenets, “we search for meaning” and “we have a soul” (p.383). Burlacu conducted research
specifically targeting how employee engagement can give a company a competitive advantage.
We are in a highly competitive field, and though our business has been rated number one in our
field by J.D. Power, as well as Root Metrics, our advantage continues to shrink. One of the facets
of people operate in time, is that our current behavior directly correlates with what we believe or
future holds.
Conclusion
If we can utilize this information that we receive daily from our employees, we can analyze
trends and find out how we can re-engage on a more precise and consistent basis. We must be
sure that we are providing engagement tools in the response emails that correlate with their
answers. These are engagement tools that we already have, though they are not as readily
accessible. If we can create a process of having these links sent to the employee when a new
trend develops or a new rating is detected, this will allow the employee to be empowered over
their own engagement as well.
References:
Burelacu, N., & Mura, I. (2019). Employee engagement stratedies concerning competitive
advantage achieving. Ovidius University Annals, Series economic sciences, 19(1), 381388
Peters, J. (2019) Employee engagement: Creating high positive energy at work. KR Publishing