The Science Behind Diagnose
The PI Employee Experience Survey supports PI clients by measuring employee engagement and the effectiveness of the clients’ talent strategies. The PI Employee Experience survey is a theory-based, self-report measure of employee engagement and serves as the foundation of the PI Diagnose solution. The survey has been researched and refined extensively and exclusively for use within employee populations.
What the PI Employee Experience Survey Measures
The PI Employee Experience Survey primarily measures employee engagement, which is defined as an employee’s emotional commitment to their organization and its goals. We also measure secondary employee experience factors, such as working for an organization with a bright future, working for a great manager, and producing high quality work. These measurements help senior leaders or managers identify areas that need change.
PI measures an employee’s experience at work across four subdomains:
To feel aligned with their jobs, it helps when people are excited about the work they do every day. It starts with making sure the work they do is a good use of their talents, skills, and abilities. Employees need the correct resources, such as team members, tools, technology, and information in order to do their work at a high level.
Managers play a critical role in setting the stage for team dynamics, employee development, and supporting leaders’ efforts in creating a solid organizational culture. Employees need to believe their managers work and manage with integrity, and that they are supported by their managers.
Rarely do employees work exclusively on their own, and the team dynamic is an important element in a person’s ability to get their work done. To create an environment that fosters maximum productivity, employees need to trust and feel respected by the people with whom they work. Team members should be aligned on what each person is accountable for on the team, as well as the role each team member plays.
Employees need their senior leaders to share a vision of the future that is motivating and that shows them a long-term future with the organization. A culture of open, honest communication is necessary for an employee’s confidence in their leaders and in the organization.
The core PI Employee Experience survey is 50 questions covering five main categories outlined above: Job, Manager, People or Team, Organization, and Engagement. Scores are reported at the individual question level and at each category level.
Development of the PI Employee Experience Survey
To ensure organizations get the most effective feedback, PI researched a broad pool of questions. After approximately 3,000 responses, we successfully identified the most effective survey questions.
Following those analyses, the final survey was created, consisting of 10 Job items, 10 Manager items, 10 Team items, 16 Organization items, and 4 Engagement items.
Administering the PI Employee Experience Survey
When implementing the PI Employee Experience Survey, organizations should consider several factors, including the size of their company, time of the year, employee tenure, and leadership involvement.
The PI Employee Experience Survey is designed for organizations of at least 50 employees who are committed to maximizing employee experience. While the survey can be administered at any point throughout the year, it is recommended that careful thought be taken to identify the optimal time for a survey in the organization. Exceptionally busy times of year, common vacation times, and close proximity to other HR-focused initiatives are not considered ideal times to administer the survey.
In addition to thoughtful timing throughout the year, successful administration means considering business events. Care should be taken not to implement major business changes, such as a reorganization or merger/acquisition, during or within six weeks of administering a survey. If the organizational structure isn’t stable, employees won’t be able to provide thoughtful and effective feedback on their working relationships.
The survey should be administered to all employees who have been with the organization for at least 90 days. Employees with a shorter tenure than 90 days are often considered in the onboarding phase of the job. They have not yet had adequate time to learn the job, form relationships, and understand the organization, which means their feedback is less useful.
Finally, for maximum success, leaders should support the survey and action planning process, and identify an internal champion who is accountable for the administration process.
Interpreting the PI Employee Experience Survey Results
Upon completion of the PI Employee Experience Survey, the organization will receive a report with their overall results. Each specified team with at least five team members will also receive a team report. In each report, the group will receive their overall percent favorable score for each dimension (i.e., Job, Manager, People, and Organization).
Each report contains three Strengths and five Areas of Opportunity. The Strengths are those items that 1) are the most strongly positively correlated with – and therefore have the largest impact on – engagement and 2) are the farthest above the external benchmark. The Areas of Opportunity are those items that 1) are also the most negatively strongly correlated with – and therefore have the largest impact on – engagement and 2) are the farthest below the external benchmark. External benchmark scores were originally computed for each item based on a sample of over 3,000 people across a wide variety of industries, and encompassing individuals sitting at different levels in an organization. These benchmarks were updated in December of 2021 and now reflect a larger sample of over 25,000 people across over 17 industries. The benchmarks serve as a point of comparison to help executives understand how their organization as a whole compares to other businesses on certain aspects of the employee experience. Only overall organizational scores are compared to the external benchmark.
Each team will also receive unique Strengths and Areas of Opportunity that are calculated based on how closely they are correlated with engagement and how much they differ from the overall organization benchmark (i.e., how much the team differs from its own organization). Within the report, the organization and teams can also see each individual item score, how it differs from the external or organizational benchmark, as well as each individual item’s impact on engagement.
Finally, the report contains action plans that are specific to the organization’s and each individual team’s areas of opportunity. These action plans guide teams through where and how to focus their efforts to take action on improving engagement.
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