According to Gallup’s report, global employee engagement is declining: in 2024, it stood at 21% , down 2 percentage points from 2023. This concerning trend can be reversed by working on engagement regularly: measuring and analyzing it through surveys, then developing a clear action plan. Here is a step-by-step guide to improving your company’s employee engagement survey results.
Key steps
Start by thanking employees and explaining the next steps
Employees are not obligated to take the survey or provide feedback. However, many do because they care about the company’s future. A simple “thank you” shows respondents that you value the time and effort they invested in sharing their feedback.
Explain what happens next. Employees do not control the survey process and do not know how long data processing will take or what you plan to do after analyzing the results.
Set a timeline for analyzing the results
Create a survey project plan with a clear sequence of actions. Specify when you will deliver the results.
Inform employees about the next steps
Post a message in the shared channel explaining how and when you will analyze the survey data. You can use the following email template.
“Thank you very much for completing the survey. We look forward to reviewing the results and will have them ready by 2026. We will then contact managers and hold group/department meetings to discuss your suggestions for improving various aspects of life at the company. If you have any questions, please contact the HR department privately.”
Explain how survey anonymity is protected
Make sure you have clearly explained how employee data will be used and how anonymity will be protected.
Share a few teasers
Share the survey’s first key findings, such as the percentage of employees who completed it or the overall engagement score. This will keep teams interested in the survey.
Share company-wide engagement data with employees. Appraise report
Analyze the survey results
Engagement surveys reveal the issues within a company, while data analysis helps determine how to improve employee engagement in the next survey cycle.
Consider what you could improve in your corporate culture, which factors have the greatest impact on employee satisfaction, and what to prioritize now.
Segment the data by demographics, office location, department, or tenure to examine the employee experience in greater detail. The overall engagement score may be strong, but segmentation can reveal that some employees have a different experience from others. If so, develop hypotheses about the factors that may account for these differences.
Engagement levels across different teams. Appraise report
Share the survey results with the entire company
This is the most important part of the plan. Acknowledging areas for improvement and maintaining an open dialogue will help strengthen employee trust.
Consider what you can share with senior executives and department heads, and what you can share with individual contributors. Communicate the information appropriately and in manageable amounts.
- Schedule meetings with senior leadership to share the results. Compare the current survey results with those from the previous cycle to see where you have made progress and where more work is needed.
- Once you segment the data, you will gain more detailed insight into employee engagement levels in each department. Share this data with department heads to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
- Share the survey results with all employees. Post a summary in the shared company channel covering all key points: the overall engagement level, the main issues identified by the survey, and other data relevant to the teams.
Set goals
Setting measurable, achievable goals will build momentum and strengthen employee trust. To avoid taking on too much, start small and select a few areas to focus on.
Arrange a meeting with department heads and work together to define goals directly linked to the company’s strategic priorities and employee needs.
Brainstorm the next steps
To create a workplace where everyone can perform at their best, you can and should ask employees to share their opinions. Ask what changes they would like to see in the company.
Crowdsourcing ideas together will help employees feel more valued and increase the impact of the engagement survey.
Meet with teams to discuss what positive changes they would like to see in the company and how those changes could be implemented. Create a safe environment where every employee can share ideas without feeling pressure from management or other team members.
Free guide to improving employee engagement
Ready-to-use survey templates
Automate your engagement survey
Maintaining trust and transparency, analyzing data, and developing recommendations to improve engagement all require considerable time and effort. Appraise helps you create an employee engagement survey in just two clicks.
You can use the simple survey builder or a ready-made template. The Appraise survey was developed by experts based on Gallup Q12 and scientifically validated engagement factors.
Employee engagement survey template in Appraise
The survey is anonymous for all team members, encouraging employees to share their opinions without fear of being penalized or dismissed for doing so. Once responses have been collected, a report is generated, allowing you to view and compare engagement across departments and among employees of different ages and genders.
In Appraise, you can view employee engagement levels by group, such as gender or role within the company
Collect feedback in just a few clicks
Run surveys that employees will actually complete and increase engagement