In our first episode of Awardco Academy, we zeroed in on employee engagement surveys and how to turn Awardco Engage from “just another survey tool” into a strategic engine for culture, recognition, and retention.
@nathangray, Client Education Specialist, sat down with Sarah Marrs, an organizational psychologist and member of Awardco’s Center of Excellence, to unpack what “real” engagement means, how to measure it effectively, and how recognition moments shape culture over time.
Key Takeaways from the Session:
- Defining “True” Engagement: Sarah explained that engagement is a state, not a mood or fixed trait. It should be stable enough not to swing week to week, but dynamic enough to improve or erode over months. In Awardco Engage, engagement is measured through four lenses: advocacy, motivation, belonging, and intent to stay—giving leaders one clear metric backed by meaningful sub-dimensions.
- The Recognition–Engagement Link (and Shelf Life): Awardco’s research shows that all formal recognition helps, but not all recognition is equal. Recognition from senior leaders has roughly 2x the impact on engagement compared to managers—and its effect can last up to a year, versus about three months for manager recognition. Company-wide awards are the most powerful form of recognition, while quick IM/Slack/Teams shoutouts alone don’t meaningfully move engagement unless paired with more visible, intentional moments.
- Peer Recognition and Well-Being: Peer-to-peer recognition doesn’t significantly shift engagement scores or intent to stay on its own, but it strongly supports well-being. It builds the trusted relationships and support networks employees rely on during high-stress or “crunch” periods—making it a key lever for preventing burnout even if it’s not the main driver of engagement.
- Choosing the Right Questions in Awardco Engage: With a robust Engage question library (including curated 19-, 40-, and 57-question sets), the focus shouldn’t be “ask everything,” but “measure what matters.” Sarah recommended:
- Anchoring your survey on a validated, core set of questions that cover fundamentals like career, performance, trust, and strategy.
- Adding a small number of organization-specific questions tied to what’s happening right now (e.g., M&A, big system rollouts, AI upskilling, recent change or layoffs).
- Keeping most engagement surveys around 35–40 questions, and generally under 50, to balance depth with completion time.
- Annual vs. Pulse Surveys (and Avoiding Survey Fatigue): Rather than starting from “how often can we send surveys?”, Sarah urged teams to ask, “How often can we realistically act on results?” For most organizations, a solid model is one annual engagement survey plus a mid-year check-in, with pulses used thoughtfully. True survey fatigue comes less from frequency and more from employees feeling like they’re “talking into a black hole.” The antidote: always close the loop—acknowledge feedback, share what you heard, and outline what will (and won’t) change.
- Post-Survey Action Plan Fundamentals: Sarah highlighted that the first three steps after a survey closes should focus on:
- Digesting results and identifying key themes and drivers.
- Playing back insights to employees quickly so they know they were heard.
- Prioritizing a small set of realistic actions, to avoid over-promising and under-delivering—especially at the team and manager level.
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