Employee Engagement Survey

Research-based // Valid // Reliable

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Employee Engagement Survey Sample Items

The DecisionWise Employee Engagement Survey contains a subset of research-based anchor questions that
are designed to measure overall engagement. The other questions measure the factors that drive engagement
and satisfaction in an organization. The survey is completely customizable to the needs of every organization.
The following sample only shows a limited number of the 50 total items found in the complete survey. To see the
complete version, contact [email protected].

My Job

Strongly
Disagree
Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly
Agree

Dont
Know

Strongly
Disagree
Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly
Agree

Dont
Know

Strongly
Disagree
Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly
Agree

Dont
Know

Strongly
Disagree
Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly
Agree

Dont
Know

2. I have the tools and resources I need to do my job well.

8. Most days, I see positive results because of my work.
11. My work is valued by this organization.
12. I have received the training I need to do my job well.
13. The amount of work I am expected to do is reasonable.

My Team
15. The people I work with take accountability and ownership for
results.
19. The people I work with treat me with respect.
20. My coworkers and I openly talk about what needs to be done to
be more effective.

My Supervisor
21. My supervisor helps me understand how my work is important to
the organization.
25. My supervisor is approachable and easy to talk to.
26. My supervisor creates a motivating and energizing workplace.
32. My supervisor sets high expectations for our teams performance.

My Organization
35. The vision and goals of this organization are important to
me personally.
37. This organization provides attractive opportunities for training
and development.
39. There are opportunities for my own advancement in this
organization.
40. My opinions are sought on issues that affect me and my job.
41. This organization cares about employees.
47. I would recommend this organization as a great place to work.

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DecisionWise Leadership Intelligence

Employee Engagement Survey

What is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement is an emotional state where employees feel
passionate, energetic, and committed to their work. This translates into
employees who give their hearts, spirits, minds, and hands to deliver a
high level of performance to the organization.

The Model
When we first look to join a company, we may be enticed by some salary
promises, the company brand, or cool perks. Important? Of course.
But these factors, we call them satisfaction elements, dont increase
engagement. Engagement goes beyond satisfaction. Engagement
occurs when we find meaning, autonomy, growth, impact, and connection--MAGIC--in what we do.
The DecisionWise five-element model of employee engagement stems from two decades of research,
gathering and analyzing feedback from tens of millions of employee survey responses in over
70 countries.

Hearts, Spirits, Minds, and Hands

Meaning

Autonomy

Growth

Impact

Transformational

Engagement
Connection

Transactional

Satisfaction

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DecisionWise Leadership Intelligence

Employee Engagement Survey
5 MAGIC Keys of Employee Engagement
Based on our extensive research using over millions of employee survey responses, we have found that
there are five keys that drive employee engagement. We use one question as a direct measure and three
supporting questions to measure each of the five MAGIC keys. This allows organizations to determine
which of the five keys is driving or inhibiting engagement and understand how to take action to improve.

Do employees find meaning and purpose in their jobs? Does their work make a
difference for others?
Survey Item: My job provides me with a sense of meaning and purpose.

Meaning

Do employees have freedom, self-governance, and an ability to make choices about

their work?
Survey Item: I have the freedom to choose how to best perform my job.

Autonomy

Does the job provide development and growth opportunities. Does the work challenge
and stretch employees to grow and improve?
Survey Item I feel challenged and stretched in my job in a way that results in
personal growth.

Growth

Do employees feel like they are successful in their work? Do they see that their effort
makes a difference and contributes to the success of the organization?
Survey Item: Most days, I see positive results because of my work.

Impact

Do employees have a personal connection with the people they work with, their boss,
and the social community of the workplace?
Survey Item: I feel like I belong here.

Connection

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DecisionWise Leadership Intelligence

Employee Engagement Survey

Using Anchor Questions to

Measure Engagement
Measuring the engagement levels of employees is a
practice that has been refined at DecisionWise since 1996.
DecisionWise uses a set of six anchor questions to measure
the level of engagement in the workplace and additional
questions to identify the drivers that lead to engagement.
Some of these engagement anchor questions include:
It is easy to become absorbed in my job.
I would recommend Sample Company as

a great place to work.
My job is stimulating and energizing.

Employee Engagement Index

Based on responses to the anchor questions, DecisionWise creates an Engagement Index that defines
various groups of employees from Fully Disengaged to Fully Engaged. The results are further analyzed to
show what items cause employees to feel the way they do.
The Employee Engagement Index helps us understand the attitudes and characteristics of employees
in each of the groups. Weve created a table that provides an overview of the thoughts, feelings,
and intentions of employees based on their level of engagement. Which group best describes your
organizations workforce?
Fully Disengaged

Opportunity Group

Key Contributor

Fully Engaged

Bored and frustrated

at work.

Generally feel
underutilized.

Meet expectations.

Constantly learning and

taking calculated risks.

Make sarcastic jokes

about work.

Spend significant
time taking care of
personal needs.

Stick to what you know

and take few risks.

Feel stretched beyond

your comfort zone.

Speak poorly about the

company and leaders.

Do just enough to get by

and not get in trouble.

Respond well to
leadership.

Take personal satisfaction

in the quality of your work.

Look for ways to

find blame.

Pay is a big reason why

you stay.

Rarely stretched by
assignments

Work can be stressful but

is also rewarding and fun.

You quit, stay, and corrupt.

Youre putting in the time.

Committed to your job.

You love your job!

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DecisionWise Leadership Intelligence

Employee Engagement Survey

Dont Forget About Measuring Satisfaction

Remember, employees need to have their basic needs met or engagement will suffer. Many of the survey
items measure concepts that impact employee satisfaction. Some of these items include:

I have received the training I need to do my job well.

I have the tools and resources I need to do my job well.
My supervisor treats people with fairness and respect.
I clearly understand what my supervisor expects of me.
My supervisor gives me regular feedback on how I am doing.
There are opportunities for my own advancement in this organization.
We work effectively across departments and functions.
This organization communicates well with all employees about what is going on.

We find some interesting correlates when looking at satisfaction survey questions. For example, a low
score on the item I have the tools and resources I need to do my job well, is often identified as a
negative driver of engagement.

Open-ended Questions
Open-ended comments provide a wealth of qualitative information and provide detail on the reasons
behind employee engagement survey scores. We recommend using two simple open-ended questions:
What are the greatest strengths of our organization?
What are the areas that need the most improvement in our organization?
Our research shows that using more than two open-ended questions significantly lengthens the time it
takes to complete the survey and doesnt yield that much more good qualitative information.

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DecisionWise Leadership Intelligence

Employee Engagement Survey

200+ clients in 70 countries and 30 languages

Over 14 million survey responses
Coach executives around the world
Train leaders on coaching skills
Turn Feedback into Results

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DecisionWise Leadership Intelligence

Employee Engagement Survey

What Clients are Saying.

Thank you for the help you provided us during our journey to become one of the FORTUNE 100 Best
Companies to Work For.

- Senior Vice President of Talent Management

THANK YOU once again for everything youve done to be a great partner over the past year related to
our Employee Engagement Survey project! We appreciated your presentation to the executive team. It
was so professionally doneyou are truly experts in your field and it showed in the presentation content,
the depth to which you understood our data and your ability to answer the questions that came your
way. I continue to be impressed more and more every day and feel incredibly proud and pleased about
my decision to choose DecisionWise as our survey vendorwhile I always heard that you valued being a
partner, not everyone knows what that means or does it even half as well as you do. Thank you for being
a great partner to work with and for all of your advice and guidance during our follow-up session on
action planning initiatives. You guys are amazing!

- Director, Organizational Development

The best thing that happened to us was that our previous survey company went out of business. Not
only did you do a great job gathering the data, but also interpreting the results. 10 out of 10 Fantastic!

- Vice President of Human Resources

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DecisionWise Leadership Intelligence

Employee Engagement Survey

We literally wrote the book on Employee Engagement

Learn more about MAGIC and Employee Engagement at EngagementMAGIC.com.
The Engagement MAGIC Training is based on the concepts and research from the book MAGIC:
Five Keys to Unlock the Power of Employee Engagement. The book
provides a five-part approach to making organizations stronger, more
profitable, and better places to work.
Employees and leaders intuitively know that when we find a place where
we can throw our hearts, spirits, minds, and hands into our work, we
are happier, healthier, and produce better results. Yet, most struggle
to understand exactly why we engage in some environments and
dont in others. MAGIC introduces the five MAGIC keys of employee
engagementMeaning, Autonomy, Growth, Impact, and Connection
and shows how leaders can help employees achieve higher levels of
engagement, as well as how employees can be more successful by taking
ownership of their own MAGIC.

The Research
Based on over 14 million employee survey responses across 70 countriesthe most extensive employee
engagement survey database of its kindMAGIC combines principles of psychology and motivation
with solid business concepts. Written by internationally recognized experts in leadership and employee
engagement, Dr. Tracy Maylett and Dr. Paul Warner, MAGIC provides actionable advice that will reduce
employee attrition, encourage initiative, drive growth and profit, and increase personal engagement in
ones work.

Engaging Content
In this book, leaders and employees will find real-world case studies, exercises, assessments,
thought-provoking questions, and suggestions that increase engagement on the individual, manager,
and organizational levels.

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For all inquiries, contact us at:

DecisionWise
815 West 450 South
Springville, UT 84663 USA
Local
+1.801.515.6500
Toll Free
+1.800.830.8086
[email protected]

www.Decision-Wise.com