3 Questions to Increase Employee Engagement

Regularly meeting with each of your team members is essential. It gives you a chance to understand what’s happening in their work, communicate expectations, identify problems before they become bigger problems, and make sure everyone is still rowing in roughly the same direction.

Yet many managers struggle to have useful conversations with employees. We prepare agendas, review numbers, run through project lists, talk about deadlines, and then wonder why our one-on-one meetings start to feel like just another item everyone needs to check off the calendar.

If you want to increase employee engagement, sometimes the best thing you can do is stop talking quite so much and ask a few good questions instead.

What Is Employee Engagement?

Employee satisfaction and employee engagement are related, but they aren’t quite the same thing.

Satisfaction tells you something about how content an employee is with the job and workplace. Think of it a little like your “5-star” rating after eating at your favorite restaurant. Did you have a good experience? Were you comfortable? Would you come back?

Employee engagement goes deeper. It reflects how involved and enthusiastic employees are about their work and workplace. Do they understand what’s expected of them? Do they have the tools they need? Do they feel that their opinions matter? Can they use their strengths? Do they understand how their work contributes to something larger?

Those aren’t simply questions about whether somebody likes coming to work.

They tell you something about employees’ relationships with their work, their manager, and the organization itself.

Research from Gallup has long connected stronger employee engagement with better business outcomes, including productivity, retention, customer outcomes, and profitability. But for a manager sitting across the table from an employee, the important part isn’t memorizing another set of percentages.

It’s understanding that managers have an enormous influence on the everyday experiences that help people become engaged in their work.

Employee Engagement Is Built in Everyday Conversations

Engagement isn’t something you fix with an annual employee survey, a company picnic, or a new slogan in the breakroom.

It develops through the everyday experience of working for the organization—and particularly through an employee’s relationship with their manager.

Do employees know what’s expected of them? Do they get useful feedback? Does someone notice when they do good work? Can they raise a concern without regretting it later? Does their manager know enough about them to understand what they’re good at and where they might need help?

That’s why regular one-on-one conversations can be so valuable.

They don’t need to be elaborate. In fact, asking three simple questions can uncover an astonishing amount of useful information.

1. What Could You Use More of—or Less of—to Be More Effective in Meeting Your Work Goals?

Employees often have plenty of ideas about what would make their jobs work better. Some will be completely feasible. Some won’t. But you won’t hear many of them unless employees believe there’s an open invitation to ask.

One employee might need additional training. Another might be fighting with an outdated computer or software that turns a ten-minute task into a thirty-minute one. Someone else might need fewer interruptions at certain times of day or a different schedule that helps them balance work and home demands more effectively.

And sometimes what they need less of is just as revealing.

Fewer unnecessary meetings. Fewer duplicate reports. Fewer approval steps. Fewer changing priorities. Fewer interruptions. Fewer “we’ve always done it this way” processes that no longer make much sense.

You won’t necessarily be able to give an employee everything they request, nor should you. But the question gives you an opportunity to discover where friction exists.

That ties directly into improving team performance. Sometimes the fastest way to help someone perform better isn’t asking them to work harder. It’s removing something that’s getting in their way.

2. What Can I Do Differently to Help You Be Better at Your Job?

This question changes the conversation because it puts some responsibility back on the manager.

Before you ask it, take a deep breath and be prepared for an honest answer.

You could hear, “It would help if you’d stop using my mistakes as examples in our team meetings.” Or, “It’s hard for me to understand written directions, so it would help if you could walk me through a new process the first time.” You might hear that priorities aren’t clear, that you’re changing direction too frequently, or that an employee needs more feedback before a project reaches the finish line.

Some of the answers may be uncomfortable.

Ask anyway.

The point isn’t to promise that you’ll make every requested change. The point is to understand what the employee experiences when working with you and determine whether there’s something reasonable you can do differently.

If you ask for feedback and then immediately explain why the employee is wrong, you’ve probably guaranteed a much shorter answer the next time you ask.

Listen first. Ask questions if you need clarification. Thank them for telling you. Then decide what you can change, what you can’t, and what needs another conversation.

And when you say you’ll do something, follow through.

3. What Is Something You’re Proud of That You Would Like to Share With Me?

People aren’t always comfortable showing off their successes, particularly if they don’t naturally enjoy drawing attention to themselves.

So invite them.

An employee might be proud of landing a difficult sale, solving a customer problem, finishing a complicated project, learning a new skill, or helping a coworker through a rough day.

Or the answer might have nothing to do with work.

They might be ecstatic because their child made the softball team. They may have finished their first 5K, remodeled their kitchen, earned a certification, or finally trained the puppy not to eat the couch.

That’s okay.

You’ll learn something about the person sitting across from you, and you’ve created an opportunity to celebrate something that matters to them.

Recognition is also an important part of engagement. When employees know their work is noticed and valued, they get clearer information about what good performance looks like and how their contribution matters to the team.

What Happens After You Ask Matters Just as Much

These questions only work if employees learn that their answers matter.

If someone tells you their computer is making their job unnecessarily difficult and six months later nobody has even investigated it, that sends a message. If an employee tells you privately that something you’re doing makes their job harder and you dismiss it, that sends a message, too.

You won’t be able to solve every problem.

Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes there isn’t room in the budget. Sometimes a process exists for a reason the employee doesn’t know about. Sometimes two employees will want completely opposite things.

But even when you can’t make the requested change, you can close the loop.

“I looked into that. We can’t replace the system this quarter, but here’s what we can do in the meantime” is very different from silence.

Employee engagement isn’t created by always saying yes. It’s strengthened when people know they’ve been heard and understand what happens next.

Don’t Save These Questions for the Annual Review

There was a time when many workplaces treated employee feedback as an annual event. Manager and employee sat down, reviewed a form, discussed performance, set a few goals, and repeated the process the following year.

That’s a very long time to wait to discover something isn’t working.

Useful conversations should happen throughout the year. They don’t always need to be long or formal, either. A regular fifteen- or twenty-minute conversation can give a manager and employee an opportunity to talk about current priorities, obstacles, progress, and what support is needed.

That regular rhythm also makes feedback less intimidating. When communication is normal, neither the manager nor the employee has to save everything for one giant conversation.

Listen for Patterns Across Your Team

Individual answers can also tell you something larger about the organization.

If one employee says a process is confusing, it might be an individual training need.

If six employees say the same process is confusing, you may have a process problem.

If several people say priorities change too frequently, communication may need attention. If employees repeatedly ask for the same equipment, information, or authority, there may be an operational obstacle affecting the entire team.

One-on-one conversations give managers a chance to hear individual experiences. Good leaders also step back and look for the patterns hiding inside those conversations.

Three Questions. Then Listen.

There’s nothing particularly complicated about these questions:

1. What could you use more of or less of to be more effective in meeting your work goals?
2. What can I do differently to help you be better at your job?
3. What is something you’re proud of that you would like to share with me?

The value comes from asking them sincerely—and being willing to hear the answers.

Employees are more likely to engage with their work when they understand what’s expected, have the resources and support they need, feel their opinions count, receive meaningful recognition, and know someone is interested in their development.

A manager can influence every one of those things.

And sometimes it starts with a conversation.

Looking for New Ways to Reach Your Company’s Goals?

At Paradux Media Group, we only achieve success when our clients move closer to their goals. We look beyond isolated advertising campaigns to understand the business behind the marketing—its strategy, systems, customers, opportunities, and challenges.

If you’re trying to solve a business or marketing challenge and could use another perspective, contact us today. Let’s talk about what you’re trying to accomplish and what may be standing in the way.