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Engagement Is Still The Issue

Engagement Is Still The Issue
by Mark McGraw

Some things never seem to change.

Each year, Human Resource Executive® asks readers to participate in our annual "What's Keeping HR Up at Night?" survey, a poll designed to help us get a handle on the issues that are currently causing HR leaders the most stress.

This year, we find -- as we have for the past three years -- that keeping employees engaged and productive remains the No. 1 task that keeps HR professionals tossing and turning.

When asked to name the three biggest HR challenges facing their organization today, 34 percent of this year's 305 respondents cited maintaining employee engagement and productivity, followed by attracting and retaining diverse talent (27 percent) and developing leaders (26 percent).

When a company can't keep its employees happy, those employees start to leave in large numbers. Employers remain painfully aware of this reality. When asked to rate their concern over losing talent in the next 12 months, with 5 being "extremely" concerned, 63 percent classified their level of concern as a 5 or a 4.

"The annual employee survey is no longer enough" to help organizations understand what drives employee engagement, says Adam Zuckerman, a Chicago-based employee insights practice leader at Willis Towers Watson.

"Instead, most large companies today are actively supplementing annual 'deep-dive' surveys with more ongoing, continuous input from employees through shorter, more focused pulse surveys, as well as [conducting] regular surveying of employees as they join and leave the organization."

Read full article on HRE.