How Do You Communicate Employee Engagement Report Results Effectively? (With Examples)

You ran an employee engagement survey—that's perfect! 

You're already measuring your staff's commitment to your mission, the team, and their role within the company.

But what will you do with the results you got from their input? 

Most importantly, how will you go from the employee engagement report to meeting your people's career growth wishes?

Are you still struggling to find the answers?

Our guide is for you! We gathered actionable advice and examples that'll enable you to:

• Know exactly what to do with employee engagement survey data.
• Make sense of what that data reveals.
• Excel at communicating engagement survey results.

Follow us through this article for the tricks of building a valuable and strategic report on employee engagement!

❗️ The importance of employee engagement for business

First things first, the relevance and impact of an employee engagement report go beyond the HR borders. Of course, measuring engagement is a function of People Ops. And it's also one of the employee engagement trends—listen actively to determine if workers are thriving.

But an employee engagement survey report transcends the concerns for the team members' aspirations. It's an instrument full of insightful information that C-suite executives need to understand how healthy and robust their workforce is.

And that's a strategic matter. Because there's no way you could drive business results without an involved and excited staff!

Employee engagement drives productivity, outperformance, and a positive workplace. 

Gallup reported that it decreases turnover by up to 43% and increases customer loyalty by 10%, sales by 18%, and profitability by 23%.

📊 Analyzing your employee engagement data

Let's consider that you already know how to design an employee engagement survey and set its goals. 

So, now, we'll focus on analyzing the results you obtained from conducting the study.

The first significant piece of advice here is to prepare ahead of time for the analysis. To achieve this, put the mechanisms to quantify and segment the data in place.

Use numeric scales, scores, and percentages

Use numeric scales and convert answers to numeric values every time you can in your engagement survey. 

You'll notice that comparing the data won't be a significant headache. 

That's because numbers are much less prone to misinterpretation than your personnel's opinion in free text.

Consider qualitative input

Even though quantitative data is objective, you must also analyze qualitative data. Because sometimes, it's not easy to put thoughts and feelings in numbers. And without deets, it'd be impossible to make conclusions about employee motivation, attitudes, and challenges.

For instance, if you ask people to score 1–5 on how happy they are about their team, a number other than five won't tell you much. But if you ask them to write about the reason for their incomplete satisfaction, you'll get the gist of their complaint or worry.

Segment respondent groups

Unequivocally, your workers divide into different groups according to distinct criteria. And that translates to varied perceptions of their jobs, colleagues, and your organization.

To figure that out, segment engagement survey results while keeping answers anonymous. 

Assure your employees their anonymity and ask them to indicate their:

• age;
• gender;
• department and team;
• tenure;
• whether they're junior, mid-level, or senior staff;
• their executive level they are (manager, director, VP, or C-level).

Read the consensus

This step is when the real action of analysis begins! 

If you followed our recommendations for quantifying (and segmenting) survey data, you're ready to pinpoint what they're trying to tell you.

In generic terms, if most or all of your workforce expresses the same opinion on an issue, you've got to investigate the topic and improve something. 

On the other hand, if only a few people feel unhappy about the same issue, you might not need to address it as thoroughly.

It all depends on the significance of the topic to the business and the healthy functioning of the team and company. And it's up to the right stakeholders to decide whether it's worth dedicating effort to discovering what's behind the results.

Cross data

Engagement levels don't always connect to personnel's position, teams, or your business. Instead, those levels might have to do with other factors, such as salary or the benefits package, just to name a couple.

And it's up to you to combine engagement survey data with data from other sources.

So, consider information from your HR management system when reviewing your engagement results.

Also, evaluate engagement data in relation to business information. 

That's information you can extract from your ERP system and ties intimately to business outcomes.

Compare results

The ultimate point of analyzing engagement survey data is discovering critical improvement areas. And to do it as comprehensively as possible, you must compare your current engagement survey results against

• Your past engagement survey results—to unfold the engagement levels of your organization, departments, and teams over time
• National and global engagement survey results—especially those from other companies within your industry that have a business similar to yours

And these are the insights to look for:

• Why is your organization performing better or worse than before?
• Why are specific departments and teams performing better or worse than before?
• Why is your company performing better or worse than similar ones within your country or abroad?

📈 Organizing data in your employee engagement report

An employee engagement survey report must shed light on how engagement affects the performance of your business and people. 

But such a report is no good if you don't properly organize the data in it. Let's see how.

First, you must keep the survey goal in mind. That's developing an action plan to improve the areas with a higher positive impact on your levels of employee engagement.

Then, beware that traditionally, some areas score low in any organization. We're talking about compensation and benefits, career progression, and workplace politics, to name a few.

But as a rule of thumb, you must prioritize the areas where your company scored low compared to industry benchmarks. Those are the ones that'll most likely:

• Generate a positive ROI once you enhance them.
• Promote the improvement of all the other areas of employee experience.

Usually, the most impactful areas are:

• Employee appreciation;
• Response to proactive employees;
• Involvement of employees in decision-making;
• Communication with leaders.

But you might suggest other areas to focus on.

Now, you must conveniently organize the survey results in your report on employee engagement. 

In other words, you must disclose the engagement numbers:

• for the entire company;
• per department;
• by team;
• by age and gender;
• per tenure;
• per executive level;
• by seniority;
• per period (current month, quarter, or year against the previous one);
• by region (within your country, in your locations abroad, and against the national and global benchmarks for your industry);
• any combination of the above that makes sense, such as by gender and team or by age and department.

And to single out the areas for improvement, you must show the survey data by those areas within each of the divisions above. We recommend that you convert those divisions into distinct document sections.

We also recommend using means to visualize the results, such as charts and graphs. 

For instance, use:

• Bar graphs—for identifying trends over time.
• Line charts—for comparing this year's data with last year's.
• Callout graphics—for highlighting surprising numbers or conclusions.

Those visuals will help your stakeholders comprehend and objectively analyze the results in your employee engagement report. But most importantly, visualization makes it easier to prioritize improvement areas and provide actionable findings.

🏆 Best practices for communicating engagement survey results

After collecting and analyzing your employee engagement survey data, it's time to share it within your company.

And these are our tips for communicating engagement survey results to your employees and leaders.

💡 3 Tips for sharing engagement survey results with employees

Right after the employee engagement survey is over, the CEO must make a company-wide communication. Alternatively, the VP of HR or an HR senior leader can do it.

And in that communication, they make an acknowledgment.

Thank employees for their participation in the study

Your leader—if that's not yourself—can do this either by email or in an all-hands meeting. 

But it's essential that they thank employees as soon as the survey closes. And besides thanking, the leader must assert their commitment to bringing engagement to higher levels.

Advise them to appreciate the employees' dedication to helping improve your organizational culture. That'll send out the message that employee feedback is valuable, which per se has a positive impact on engagement.

Briefly present the engagement data you obtained

One week after closing the survey, your leader must share an overview of the results with the organization. Again, an email or a company-wide meeting does the trick.

The overview must include participation stats and a summary of key findings (best and worse numbers). 

This moment is also an excellent opportunity for your leader to explain what employees should expect next. And one way to set expectations is to outline the action plan.

However, your leader can't provide much detail at this point. 

The first communication of employee engagement results must focus on the figures with a broader impact. 

In other words, this is an occasion to concentrate on the effect of the data at the organization's level.

Inform the complete engagement data and plan enhancements

Three weeks after the survey closes, HR and leaders—team leaders and other executives—must start:

• Thoroughly reviewing the results.
• Detailing the action plan: the improvement areas you'll address and the engagement initiatives you'll implement. 

Once your key stakeholders have decided on the action plan, it's time to communicate all details to your employees. 

The deadline should not be later than a month or two after closing the survey.

💼 3 Tips for sharing engagement survey results with leaders and major stakeholders

When the engagement survey results are in, the first step is to share them with the executive team. Here are our top recommendations on how to approach this task.

Don't rush leaders into deciding what to do with the data

Give your leaders time to review the engagement data, absorb it, and carefully reflect on it. 

We recommend this timeline:

• One week after the survey closes, before communicating high-level results.
• Three weeks after completing the survey, before exhaustively starting to discuss the data and deepen the action plan.
• One to two months after the survey closes, before communicating the detailed results.

Raising your employee engagement levels is a process of change. And as with any corporate change, internalizing it doesn't happen overnight. Plus, your leaders are the ones who must steer the wheel of change, so they need time to prepare.

Emphasize the end goal and feed the dialogue

The process of thoroughly examining engagement data starts with you. Present your leaders with:

• the overall employee engagement score;
• company-wide trends;
• department-specific trends;
• strengths and weaknesses (or opportunities).

The leaders must clearly understand which organizational culture you're after. 

And the survey results will help them figure out what's missing. 

So make sure you communicate this mindset to them.

Then, while debating the data in depth, you must promote an open dialogue. That's the only way your leaders will agree on an effective action plan to increase engagement levels.

Don't sweep problems under the rug

There's no elevating employee engagement without transparency. And you play a part in that, too. 

You must share with your leaders the fantastic results and the lame numbers from your engagement survey.

Reporting the alarming discoveries is mandatory for improvement. 

After all, how could you enhance something without fully comprehending and dissecting it? 

Besides, investigating the negative scores and comments is ultimately a win-win situation for the workforce and the business.

🏢 Real-life employee engagement reports examples

These are four reports on employee engagement that caught our eye. We'll investigate why they did that and what you can learn from them.

1. New Mexico Environment Department

The engagement report from New Mexico's Environment Department: 

1. Starts with a message from a top leader of their organization, providing:

• The overall response rate;
• The overall engagement level;
• A few areas for improvement;
• An affirmation of the senior leaders' commitment to addressing employee feedback.

2. Uses callout graphics to highlight the most insightful findings.

3. Narrows down numbers from a general overview to year-over-year high and low figures per department and survey section.

4. Compares their employee engagement level with a national benchmark.

5. Includes information on the organization's engagement actions throughout the year before the survey.

6. Breaks down the demographics of survey respondents.

7. Elucidates on their leaders' next steps and how employees can participate.

8. Discloses an appendix containing year-over-year scores for all the survey questions in which they used a numeric scale.

👀 Note: The year-over-year comparison allows this organization to identify trends in their employee engagement.

2. GitLab

The engagement report from GitLab:

• Explains how survey answers will remain confidential.
• Lists the survey's areas of focus.
• Shows a timeline of the actions the company took around the survey.
• Clarifies the steps that'll follow the survey closure.
• Presents the overall response rate, the overall engagement level, and an industry benchmark.
• Thanks to employees for their participation in the survey.
• Discloses the answers that ranked higher in the top three focus areas and compares them with the industry benchmark.
• Highlights the areas that require improvement.

👀 Note: The timeline with survey actions might seem insignificant. However, it's an element of transparency, building trust among the report's readers.

3. UCI Irvine's Human Resources

The report on employee engagement from the University of California's HR department:

1. Starts with justifying why employee engagement is important to the workplace culture and various stakeholders.
2. Defines the responsibilities of everyone involved in engaging those stakeholders.
3. Recalls the previous employee engagement survey results and establishes them as the baseline.
4. Compares the results from the most recent survey against the baseline numbers.
5. Distinguishes engaged, disengaged, and actively disengaged staff members between the previous and the most recent data per organizational unit.
6. Lists the new opportunities the department must address and the strengths they must continue exploring.
7. Presents a phased engagement program timeline and a few planned actions.
8. Outlines the next steps that leaders must follow with their team members.

👀 Note: The report points out that the numbers vary between the two survey editions because the HR department encouraged the personnel's participation instead of forcing it.

4. UCI Riverside's Office of the Chancellor

The employee engagement report from the University of California's Office of the Chancellor at Riverside:

1. Contains instructions on how the scores were calculated.
2. Compares the employee engagement survey results with different kinds of benchmarks, from past survey results to national figures.
3. Highlights the questions that represent a priority to the organization.
4. Distinguishes the level of statistical significance that each number has, clarifying how meaningful they are.
5. Describes suggested actions with some detail.
6. Groups the scores per category—such as career development or performance management—role—like manager or director—gender, ethnicity, tenure, and salary range.
7. Breaks down the scores within each category.
8. Shows the total percentage of employees at each engagement level, from highly engaged, enabled, and energized to disengaged.
9. Concludes on the key drivers of engagement, such as the promotion of social well-being.

👀 Note: The document is highly visual and relies on colors for presenting the data. Although this appeals to most readers, it makes it less inclusive and compromises the organization-wide interpretation.

💡 Now that you know how to analyze your survey data and organize your engagement report, find out how to create an employee engagement program.

➡️ Engage and enable your people with Zavvy

Zavvy is the next evolution in employee engagement. 

Our platform promotes measuring engagement and following up on employees' input and challenges.

Use Zavvy's employee engagement software to:

• Run surveys that measure engagement and satisfaction.
• Actively improve engagement at multiple dimensions, including career development and employee onboarding.

Here is a sample of the solutions we offer to lift your employee engagement levels:

• 🧭 Career pathing—to support transparency in career progression for employees at all levels.
• 👩‍🎓 Learning experience platform—to create and deliver personalized training content that drives performance and organizational change.
• 👯 Connections—to feed communication, trust, empathy, and bonding among your team members.

Schedule your Zavvy demo today! And get ready to produce an actionable employee engagement report that'll leverage your people and business.