Why is it important to assess workforce engagement and satisfaction? How do organizations measure workforce effectiveness?

Answer 1

Measurement of workforce effectiveness, satisfaction, and engagement are important to determine how work systems are performing and contributing to an organization's strategic objectives, and also to provide a foundation for improvement. Understanding the "voice of the employee" particularly with regard to employee satisfaction, management policies, and their internal customers and suppliers helps organizations improve their human resource management practices.
Organizations can use both outcome and process measures to assess workforce effectiveness. Outcomes measures might include number of suggestions implemented, employee turnover, perception of teamwork, engagement, satisfaction, and empowerment. Process measures include the number of suggestions that employees make, the numbers of participants in project teams, and participation in educational programs. Team process effectiveness can be assessed by tracking the average time it takes to complete a process improvement project, and determining whether teams are getting better, smarter, and faster at performing improvements. Organizations also look for other indicators of performance, such as improvements in team selection and planning processes, frequency of use of quality improvement tools by employees, employee understanding of problem-solving approaches, and senior management involvement.