An Insider's Guide to Measuring Change Engagement

Employee engagement surveys are a major part of measuring the success of a change, or even just pulse checking how a team is faring along the way. 

But the problem with a survey for measuring change engagement is that "what people say" and "what people do" can be two very different things.

Marketing roots 

I used to work in Marketing, and I still bring a lot of marketing tips and tricks into my Change work (and teach it to my students in Leading Successful Change!). Focus groups, customer satisfaction or feedback surveys, and social media listening are all key marketing activities in understanding consumer sentiment and how much they like your brand and products.

You can totally apply all of these to Change Management, too (and I have)!

But I'll never forget hearing a Customer Insights Team colleague once share that even though customers say they'd pay more for a particular product that aligned to their ethics, when push came to shove, they still bought the cheapest brand or their usual brand. 

So we need to take "what people say" with a grain of salt - as they say, talk is cheap! 

What's the alternative to sentiment?

The alternative is to look at behaviour. Monitoring behaviour can be a powerful way of understanding how well your change has landed and embedded.

And no - you don't have to sit and watch every employee like a creepy Big Brother!

Instead, consider:

• Participation rates - of briefings, trainings, launch events, etc.
• Usage reports - of systems, platforms, applications, physical sites, or number of views or downloads, etc.
• Queries and questions logged - to their manager, IT help desk or customer service team (and don't feel dismayed by high numbers - at least it means people are using what you've created!), etc.
• Compliance reports - if there's an independent audit/review or monitoring of adherence to a process or policy, etc.

And of course, you can observe behaviour. You might go hang out and work in an impacted team's area for a while, or jump onto some of their meetings as a fly-on-the-wall, or sit side-by-side as they process a real transaction.

When I worked in Marketing, there were tools used in the design / testing phase that tracked where customers' eyes looked at on shelves, or tracked the paths they walked in a store. And there's definitely software that tracks where your mouse navigates and scrolls on a website. 

As they also say - actions speak louder than words!

Integrating across say and do

And the beautiful part? You can marry the two up - you can do your focus groups, interviews and surveys and use them to inform your behaviour measures. Or vice versa - keep an eye on behaviour and notice trends and then deep dive with conversations to find out why and get further feedback. In Change - bring as much in as you can!

Because really understanding if a change has been a success can be as complex as the change itself. 

If you're keen to learn all the tips and tricks to measuring success and embed in Change, consider joining my Leading Successful Change program. We spend a whole Module on measures, readiness, support models, post implementation reviews, handover and embed. And even better - how to set those measures, benefits and change visions in the first place.

CLICK HERE to find out more about my Leading Successful Change program

Lata xx