You may have heard the expression, “happy wife, happy life.” And while, yes, that’s 100% true, you can also apply this idiom to employees. Happy, engaged employees go the extra mile and lift their teammates and clients up in the process. Disgruntled, disengaged employees can be not only unproductive but sometimes also counterproductive — their bitterness spilling out onto others. Remember the 20-year-veteran flight attendant who, in 2010, grabbed a beer and pulled the plane’s escape chute lever, quitting his job with an f-bomb flourish? Nobody wants their employees to get to that breaking point.
At Intouch, company culture is a big deal, and employee happiness and engagement is taken extremely seriously. So along with our inclusion and diversity initiatives, a plethora of learning and development opportunities, a flexible workplace policy, a monthly tech stipend, weekly yoga and meditation classes, meeting-free zones, “Early Fridays,” and so much more, Intouch also conducts a twice-yearly survey to check in with employees on how they feel about their jobs.
Gallup, the same organization that conducts opinion polls about political, social and economic issues, also offers employee engagement surveying. According to Gallup, it has “studied over 100,000+ teams — and over 2.7 million workers worldwide — to understand what employees need most to perform at their best.”
Given this unique moment in which we are all currently living, it is more critical than ever that we understand how our employees are doing. – Kristi Vietch, EVP Human Resources
Gallup’s survey accurately measures how engaged Intouchers are. By identifying what matters most – and taking actions to support and improve those things – we can better strengthen our workplace and understand where we’re meeting employee needs and where we have opportunities to improve.
The Survey
The Gallup Q12 survey features – you guessed it – 12 statements that employees are asked to respond to:
- I know what’s expected of me at work.
- I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
- At work, I have an opportunity to do what I do best every day.
- In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
- My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
- There is someone at work who encourages my development.
- At work, my opinions seem to count.
- The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
- My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
- I have a best friend at work.
- In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
- This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.
Since Intouch began implementing the Gallup Q12 survey, employee engagement has risen every year. Take a look at just a few of our results:
- Percentage in the Engaged category: – 63% engaged
- Since beginning measuring engagement just 2 years ago, we have gone from being slightly below the 50th percentile to well above the 60th percentile of companies in Gallup’s database.
- According to Gallup, only 37% of American workers are engaged. Intouch nearly doubles that—almost 2/3 of our workforce is engaged.” And our percentage of actively disengaged workers is 10 percentage points below the average American workforce according to Gallup.
Measuring engagement is one thing. Cultivating a culture of continuous improvement based on those results is another. As part of our partnership with Gallup, we carefully review the results of each survey and implement action plans to address any pain points. We’re proud that, since our first survey in January 2019, the percentage of engaged Intouchers has risen by 18 percentage points, from 45% to 63%, with two of those surveys taking place during a global pandemic.
“Employees who are engaged are more productive, loyal and have less absenteeism. They have lower stress, anxiety, depression and report a better quality of life,” says Intouch SVP of human resources, Greg Kirsch. “Intouch partners with Gallup to boost engagement, because when we’re all engaged, we all win.”
If you’d like to work for a company that asks you how you’re doing, and really cares about the answer, visit our jobs page today!