A Guide to

Employee
Engagement
A lot of people believe employee engagement is the same as employee happiness. Others
associate it with employee productivity. The truth is it’s both. In fact, one is meaningless without
the other.

Employee engagement is the intersection of employee happiness and employee productivity.

When an employee enjoys their job, they deliver great results on a consistent basis. And when
they see their work makes an impact, they feel good about what they do for a living.

Engagement goes deeper, however, particularly the productivity factor. We can better
understand productivity by exploring its three drivers—ability, opportunity, and motivation.

Ability
Ability is innate talent combined with the specific knowledge you’ve acquired through past work
experience and education. People like taking on work they have an aptitude for since it comes
easy and makes sense to them.

Opportunity
Opportunity is being put in the right position to apply your abilities. Employees maximize their
productivity when their tasks and goals align with their knowledge and skill set.

Motivation
Motivation is having the drive to deliver outstanding results, each and every day. However, there
are two types of motivation—extrinsic and intrinsic.

Extrinsic motivation versus intrinsic

motivation
Extrinsic motivation comes from tangible factors, like favorable compensation, earning a bonus,
or getting affirmation from your boss. On the negative end of the spectrum, it’s the fear of failure
or being reprimanded.

www.trakstar.com | 911 E. Pike St. Suite #333, Seattle, WA 98122 | 877.489.5651

Extrinsic motivation has little impact on employee engagement. In fact, using it to stimulate
productivity results in the following problems:

Incentivizes short-term productivity – People care about extrinsic rewards in spurts but
they don’t encourage consistent, long-term productivity.

Motivates the wrong behavior – Employees are motivated by their self-interests, not what
is good for the organization, the customer, and their colleagues.

Attracts the wrong talent – New hires sign up for the reward, instead of the opportunity to
do work they’re passionate about and be part of an organization they believe in.

Causes workplace issues – Employees compare their rewards to their peers and become
envious when someone gets something they didn’t (e.g. a promotion or recognition from
a manager).

Intrinsic motivation has a greater influence on productivity. It’s the fulfillment that comes from
doing something you truly enjoy. When people are intrinsically motivated, they derive
satisfaction from the daily process of doing their job, not just the paycheck and pat on the back
they get when it’s complete. Let’s explore the three factors that make up intrinsic motivation:

Mastery – The sense of accomplishment you get from doing your craft. Knowing you’re
good at what you do and consistently getting better at it.

Autonomy – The freedom and trust from your employer to apply your skills as you see fit.

Purpose – Seeing the positive impact your work has on your organization and the people
it serves.

Extrinsic motivation is a baseline for getting talented people to join your organization. Intrinsic
motivation is what keeps them productive and happy over the course of months and years.

Let’s quickly recap the key points of employee engagement:

Employee happiness + productivity equals employee engagement.

Ability, opportunity, and motivation lead to productivity.

Intrinsic motivation has a greater impact on productivity than extrinsic motivation.

www.trakstar.com | 911 E. Pike St. Suite #333, Seattle, WA 98122 | 877.489.5651

 Mastery, autonomy, and purpose make up intrinsic motivation.

Why employee engagement is more

important now than ever
As an employer, it only makes sense to want an engaged workforce. Every team member should
love what they do and deliver results that propel your organization forward. If you can
successfully achieve engagement, you’ll maximize your employees’ abilities and retain your top
performers.

Losing a great employee isn’t just a letdown. It’s a strain on organizational operations and
resources. A study from Employee Benefits News revealed that it costs 33 percent of a
former employee’s salary to hire and train their replacement. SHRM reports a more
conservative figure of $4,129 cost-per-hire on average but adds that it takes roughly 42 days to
fill a position.

And then there are Millennials, who now account for the largest portion of the U.S labor force.
Study-after-study shows that young professionals present the greatest flight risks to their
employers due to a lack of engagement. Deloitte reports that nearly half of Millennials (49
percent) are planning on quitting their current job in the next two years. According to a Gallup
report, only 29 percent of Millennials are engaged at work and are willing to job hop until they
find fulfillment. “While Millennials can come across as wanting more and more, the reality is that
they just want a job that feels worthwhile―and they will keep looking until they find it,” the
report states.

While previous generations valued compensation, Millennials and other young professionals
want more from their work experiences. Many are willing to forgo a high-paying opportunity for a
job that aligns with their intrinsic interests. They want to be part of an organization they believe
in, do work they love, and have experiences that result in professional growth.

As more young people enter the workforce, employee engagement will become more important
than it already is. Making smart hiring decisions and investing in the professional development of
your employees boosts productivity and decreases turnover. They won’t feel compelled to seek
out other opportunities because they’re already satisfied by their work. And if an employee does

www.trakstar.com | 911 E. Pike St. Suite #333, Seattle, WA 98122 | 877.489.5651

leave, you’ll have suitable replacements ready to step up because you’ve been preparing them
for new challenges.

How your organization can promote

engagement
Many organizations have the best intentions when it comes to employee engagement. They
create a strong culture, bring the right people on board, and try to put everyone in a position to
succeed. But engagement driven by intrinsic motivation is difficult to achieve. Mastery,
autonomy, and purpose differ from person-to-person and are challenging, yet possible, to
measure.

We’ll conclude this guide with a few methods for gaining insight into the engagement of your
workforce and individual employees.

Surveys and polls

If you want to know how your employees are feeling, you just need to ask them. That said, you
need to take the right approach so they feel comfortable truthfully providing the information
you’re looking for.

Surveys and polls consisting of the right questions help you collect engagement data across the
organization. However, you should allow employees to provide their answers anonymously so
they’re willing to share their authentic thoughts and feelings.

Facebook found that simply asking their employees how long they intended to stay with
the company was more than twice as accurate at forecasting future turnover than predictive
analytics software. They also learned that people who didn’t complete either of their two annual
surveys were 2.6x more likely to leave in the next six months.

Surveys and polls allow you to hear from every employee on the issues that matter most in your
organization. Some employees have no problem expressing what is on their minds, while others
keep their thoughts to themselves. Asking everyone to complete an anonymous questionnaire
provides a complete picture of engagement across the organization. Using the results you

www.trakstar.com | 911 E. Pike St. Suite #333, Seattle, WA 98122 | 877.489.5651

collect, you can identify trends and determine where your organization is excelling and where it
can do better.

Employee and manager check-ins

Surveys are ideal for measuring engagement on an organizational level. However, everyone has a
unique experience at work and you want to hear directly from the employees who are facing
challenges.

Frequent check-ins between employees and managers help you gauge an individual team
member's engagement. These meetings should go beyond, “What are you working on?” and get
to the heart of their happiness and productivity. There should be a discussion around what is
going well, what isn’t, and how processes can improve going forward.

Again, you need to foster a work environment where employees feel comfortable sharing this
information. Implementing check-ins for every manager-employee pair where the same
engagement-focused questions are discussed promotes a culture of transparency.

Measure employee engagement with

Trakstar
In addition to our industry-leading performance management solution, Trakstar also offers an
employee engagement module. It includes three specific features for measuring the abstract
factors that make up happiness and productivity:

Company Pulse Survey – Measure employee engagement across your entire organization
using our predefined survey questions.

Opinion Poll – Get a quick snapshot of your workforce on any topic related to employee
engagement.

Manager Check-in – Provide employees with a short questionnaire to complete before

check-in meetings with their manager so the conversation is productive.

If you want to learn more about Trakstar Engagement, request a live demo today!

www.trakstar.com | 911 E. Pike St. Suite #333, Seattle, WA 98122 | 877.489.5651