What is: Employee Engagement

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the connection employees feel towards their work, their teams, and their organisation. Engaged employees feel connected to their teams, love their jobs, and have positive feelings about the organisation because they:

• Know they will be recognised for their contributions
• See opportunities for professional growth and career development
• Understand when organisational change happens and why
• Know Our values are at the centre of how we work and interact with one another
• Find alignment between their values and goals and that of the organisation

Why is it Important?

Engaged employees are happier and more productive. Metro North Health can only reach its full potential when our employees are engaged. An engaged workforce will result in better patient outcomes, far more effectively than a disengaged one.

When employees are engaged, they are more committed to their roles. Employees want to go above and beyond the basic requirements of their job. They enjoy the opportunity to take on new challenges or learn new skills. Research has shown an engaged team will display:

• Higher job satisfaction, motivation, and employee morale
• Higher retention rates, lower absenteeism, improved productivity
• Higher patient satisfaction and decreased mortality rates.

Levels of employee engagement

The Best Practice Australia Analytics (BPA) defines an engagement culture as being made up of three groups of employees:

1. Employees in an Engagement Cycle – positive, upbeat, optimistic, and engaging
2. Employees in a Disengagement Cycle – negative, pessimistic, blaming
3. Employees called the Swinging Voters – neither overtly positive nor overtly negative

How do values affect employee engagement?

Workplace culture is the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours of the organisation. At Metro North Health we value high performance, teamwork, integrity, compassion, and respect. What we value informs the way we work, the way we work helps us to achieve what we strive for.

Values influence people’s experiences of work, which is:

• the way people show care for one another,
• the emphasis on employees’ safety, wellbeing, and support,
• the focus on innovation, learning and growth,
• demonstrated leadership and behaviours.

As a result, workplace culture plays a big part in influencing peoples’ levels of engagement, that is, how committed they are to their workplace.

How is it measured?

1. Employee engagement surveys

One of the ways Metro North Health engages staff to reflect on their workplace culture is to provide everyone with the opportunity to Have Your Say. The Best Practice Australia Analytics (BPA Analytics) Have Your Say survey has been developed to understand peoples’ experiences and perceptions of their work, manager, team, and organisation.

2. Employee lifecycle surveys

First Impressions entry survey: Onboarding helps ensure new employees receive the best start possible. The first impressions entry survey aims to find what newly appointed staff think of our onboarding process? What is their first impression of our culture? What is their outlook for the future?

Lasting impressions exit survey: Exit surveys provide people the opportunity to reflect on their experience working for Metro North, both positive and negative. This feedback provides unique perspectives and insights to inform future improvements.

Other key measures of employee engagement include, WH&S incidents, patient experience surveys, staff attraction, retention, and turnover.

Who drives employee engagement?

A better workplace is everyone’s responsibility and we are all responsible for investing in improvement strategies to increase employee engagement, enabling MN32 future workforce initiatives.

The role of leadership

Organisational leaders are the top promoters of an engaged culture. Metro North Health depend on leaders to:

• Set the tone
• Share a vision
• Communicate change
• Update the organisation on progress

The role of managers

Managers create an environment where employees can thrive and truly be engaged. Metro North Health depend on managers to:

• Build relationship of trust with each employee
• Serve as a sounding board for employee feedback and suggestions
• Recognise and celebrate individual and team performance
• Provide continuous performance feedback
• Help employees develop and grow
• Ensure behaviours align with the MN Values

The role of employees

Employees are our voices on the front line and our main line of sight into the employee experience. Metro North Health rely on employees to:

• Provide honest, candid, and actionable feedback about what is and isn’t working
• Brainstorm new and creative solutions that address their concerns
• Own their performance and development
• Engage in meaningful relationships with their teams and managers