Optimize and Direct Human Energy at Work

How to Use Employee Survey Software to Build Ownership and Urgency

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 06:10:12 GMT

Most organizations collect feedback but fail to act on it. Here’s how employee survey software and pulse surveys can help you measure engagement and drive accountability.

Is your organization working hard but still struggling to maintain momentum?

Most organizations don’t lose momentum because people stop working. They lose it because urgency and ownership quietly fade while output still looks acceptable.

Projects continue. Meetings happen. Deadlines are met. But decisions take longer, accountability weakens, and teams start operating without the same level of initiative. By the time leaders recognize the slowdown, performance has already begun to erode.

This is more than a leadership challenge. It’s a long-term performance risk.

Research on long-term IPO survival highlights how critical urgency is to organizational performance. The study found that companies that balanced employee value with urgency were significantly more likely to survive over 20 years. Organizations that emphasized employee satisfaction without maintaining urgency experienced slower decision-making, weaker accountability, and declining long-term performance.

In other words, engagement without ownership and urgency doesn’t drive results.

This is where many organizations struggle. They collect engagement data but measure it too infrequently to detect meaningful change. Annual surveys capture a moment, not a trend. And it’s the trend; the gradual decline in ownership, alignment, and urgency; that predicts performance risk.

Gallup reports that only 1 in 5 employees globally is engaged at work. But engagement is not just about satisfaction. It reflects whether employees feel accountable for outcomes, understand priorities, and act with urgency. These conditions shift continuously, especially during periods of growth, change, or uncertainty.

Employee survey software helps close this visibility gap. Pulse surveys and continuous feedback allow leaders to track ownership, alignment, and urgency over time, identifying early warning signs before they affect execution and performance.

This guide explains how to use employee survey software to measure employee engagement more effectively and turn continuous feedback into stronger ownership, accountability, and team momentum.

Step-by-Step Guide to Building Ownership and Urgency with Employee Survey Software

Ownership and urgency rarely disappear overnight.

The IPO survival research reinforces why these signals matter. Companies that failed to maintain urgency during critical growth periods experienced slower execution and reduced long-term performance.

Employee survey software provides a way to detect these shifts early. Pulse surveys help leaders understand how ownership, alignment, and urgency evolve across teams, making it possible to identify gaps and take targeted action before performance declines.

The following steps outline how organizations can use employee survey software and pulse surveys to measure engagement, strengthen ownership, and maintain urgency across teams.

Overview of the Steps

Define What Ownership and Urgency Mean for Your Organization
Conduct Employee Pulse Surveys Using Employee Survey Software
Measure Energy, Ownership, and Alignment Signals
Identify Gaps in Ownership and Urgency Across Teams and Managers
Turn Employee Feedback into Meaningful Action
Continuously Monitor Engagement Through Ongoing Pulse Surveys

Step 1: Define What Ownership and Urgency Mean for Your Organization

Ownership and urgency reflect both how employees act and how they experience their roles. Ownership shows up in behaviors such as taking responsibility for outcomes, following through on commitments, and solving problems proactively. Urgency reflects how quickly and decisively teams respond to priorities.

Ownership and urgency need to be defined at two levels:

Behavioral: what employees do in terms of initiative, accountability, and execution
Perceptual: how employees experience clarity, recognition, and support

Without this distinction, organizations often measure intent but miss execution gaps.

Consider questions such as:

Do employees feel accountable for outcomes they can directly influence?
Do teams take initiative without waiting for direction?
Do employees understand how their work contributes to company goals?

These questions help leaders begin thinking about how engagement can be assessed in ways that reflect real workplace behavior, rather than abstract engagement scores.

Actionable Steps:

Define behaviors that represent ownership and accountability
Identify engagement signals such as recognition, clarity of goals, and leadership confidence
Align engagement indicators with company priorities and strategic objectives

Why It Matters:

Without clearly defined engagement drivers, organizations struggle to evaluate engagement levels consistently. When ownership, recognition, and alignment are clearly defined, employee survey software can capture insights that reflect how employees truly experience their workplace.

Step 2: Conduct Employee Pulse Surveys Using Employee Survey Software

The effectiveness of pulse surveys depends on consistency and focus. High-performing organizations typically follow a fixed cadence, such as weekly or biweekly surveys, with no more than 5 to 10 targeted questions per cycle.

Most organizations rely on annual surveys, but by the time results are reviewed, the opportunity to act has already passed. This is why continuous feedback through employee survey software becomes critical.

Employee pulse surveys provide a more responsive approach by capturing regular feedback on employee motivation, recognition, and alignment with company priorities.

Through employee survey software, leaders can ask employees about topics that directly affect performance and engagement, including:

Workload and pressure
Communication from leadership
Recognition and appreciation
Alignment with company priorities

Platforms like eePulse make it easier to collect these insights consistently across teams.

Actionable Steps:

Ask focused, decision-oriented questions that identify what is helping or blocking performance, such as:

Use employee survey software to run short pulse surveys regularly
Encourage participation across departments and teams

Why It Matters:

Ownership and urgency can shift quickly. Pulse surveys provide continuous visibility into engagement patterns, helping leaders detect early signals and respond before performance and momentum are impacted. They are most effective when they are designed to inform decisions, not just collect opinions.

Step 3: Measure Energy, Ownership, and Alignment Signals

Measuring engagement signals requires distinguishing between leading and lagging indicators. Lagging indicators, such as turnover or absenteeism, reflect outcomes after performance has already been affected. Leading indicators, such as energy, recognition, and clarity, provide early signals of how teams are likely to perform.

Once feedback is collected, the focus shifts to interpreting patterns, not isolated responses. This is where raw feedback becomes actionable insight.

To understand ownership and urgency effectively, leaders should track three categories of signals:

Energy signals: motivation, enthusiasm, and sustained focus
Alignment signals: clarity of goals, understanding of priorities, and confidence in direction
Ownership signals: accountability, initiative, and follow-through

What matters is how these signals move over time. A gradual decline in energy or clarity often indicates emerging issues before they affect delivery or retention.

Platforms like eePulse help structure this analysis by organizing feedback into consistent, trackable signals and surfacing trends across teams and managers, making it easier to interpret what is changing and where attention is needed.

Actionable Steps:

Track trends over time instead of relying on one-time scores
Compare signal movement across teams and managers to identify patterns
Identify early signs of declining energy, misalignment, or reduced owners
Correlate engagement signals with business outcomes such as delivery timelines or project performance

Why It Matters

Measuring the right signals allows leaders to intervene early, before disengagement affects execution, retention, or critical business outcomes.

Step 4: Identify Gaps in Ownership and Urgency Across Teams and Managers

Identifying gaps means comparing ownership, urgency, and alignment levels across teams, managers, and departments to uncover inconsistencies in performance. Variation across teams is often more informative than overall engagement scores. Averages can mask critical differences in how teams operate under different managers or conditions.

Ownership and urgency rarely exist at the same level across every team. Some groups demonstrate strong accountability and initiative, while others struggle with unclear priorities or declining momentum.

Using employee survey software, leaders can compare engagement patterns across:

Teams and managers to assess leadership impact
Similar teams performing comparable work to identify structural differences
Locations and departments to uncover systemic gaps

This level of visibility helps leaders identify where support or intervention is needed.

Actionable Steps:

Compare engagement results across departments and leadership teams
Identify areas where ownership or urgency is declining
Recognize teams that demonstrate strong ownership

Why It Matters:

When gaps in ownership and urgency go unnoticed, teams begin operating at different speeds and levels of accountability. This misalignment slows execution, weakens coordination, and ultimately impacts overall business performance. Identifying variation enables targeted interventions instead of broad, ineffective engagement initiatives.

Step 5: Turn Employee Feedback into Meaningful Action

Turning feedback into action means using insights from employee survey software to drive focused improvements in ownership, accountability, and alignment.

Surveys alone do not improve engagement. The real challenge lies in acting on feedback with clarity and consistency. When organizations try to address too many issues at once, impact becomes diluted, and outcomes remain unclear.

Effective teams treat survey insights as a decision-making tool. They focus on a few high-impact areas where change will improve performance and alignment.

Managers play a critical role, translating insights into practical actions that teams can see, experience, and respond to.

Actionable Steps:

Identify 2 to 3 high-impact issues based on engagement trends
Assign clear ownership at the manager or team level
Define measurable outcomes to track progress
Share insights transparently with teams
Involve employees in shaping solutions
Communicate actions and progress clearly

Why It Matters:

Organizations that fail to act on feedback risk eroding trust and reducing participation over time. In contrast, consistent and visible action builds credibility, strengthens accountability, and reinforces a culture where employees take ownership of outcomes.

Step 6: Continuously Monitor Engagement Through Ongoing Pulse Surveys

Continuous monitoring is the ongoing process of using employee survey software to track changes in engagement, ownership, and alignment over time, helping leaders understand how team behavior and sentiment evolve.

Engagement is dynamic. As priorities shift and workloads change, employee experience and performance signals move with them. A single data point provides limited value without understanding how those signals change over time.

Effective monitoring focuses on trends and deviations rather than isolated scores. Establishing a baseline for key signals such as energy, alignment, and recognition allows leaders to identify meaningful shifts, whether sudden drops or gradual declines.

Ongoing pulse surveys provide the structure needed to maintain this visibility. They enable organizations to track progress, evaluate the impact of actions, and detect early signs of disengagement or misalignment before they affect performance.

Actionable Steps:

Establish baseline metrics for key signals such as energy and alignment
Track trends over time rather than one-time scores
Monitor deviations to detect early warning signs
Investigate significant changes to identify root causes
Adjust actions based on evolving feedback

Why It Matters:

Without continuous monitoring, early warning signs of disengagement often go unnoticed until they impact execution or retention. Ongoing visibility allows leaders to move from reactive problem-solving to proactive performance management, sustaining momentum and alignment across teams.

Pro Tips: Dos and Don’ts

 Dos

Run short pulse surveys regularly
Ask questions focused on ownership and alignment
Review engagement insights at the team level

Don’ts

Don’t collect feedback without acting on it
Avoid long surveys that reduce participation
Don’t rely only on annual engagement survey

Key Takeaways

Employee pulse surveys supported by employee survey software help organizations strengthen engagement, accountability, and performance.

Continuous feedback helps leaders understand how to measure employee engagement more effectively
Pulse surveys reveal early signals of declining energy or motivation
Engagement insights strengthen ownership and accountability
Leadership actions based on feedback improve alignment and performance
Regular engagement measurement helps organizations maintain momentum

Next Steps: Turn Continuous Feedback into Consistent Execution

Collecting feedback is only the starting point. The advantage lies in how effectively that insight is used to guide decisions and improve performance over time.

Begin by evaluating how engagement is currently tracked and where gaps in visibility exist. This could include limited insight into team energy, unclear alignment with priorities, or inconsistent ownership across managers.

A more effective approach relies on continuous input through pulse surveys designed to capture the drivers of performance, not just sentiment. Signals such as clarity, recognition, and confidence provide a more actionable view of how teams are operating.

eePulse supports this by enabling organizations to tailor surveys to their context, incorporate employee-driven inputs, and analyze patterns across energy, alignment, and ownership.

Over time, this creates a system where insights translate into clearer priorities, stronger accountability, and more consistent execution across teams.

Start building stronger ownership and urgency across your teams with employee survey software designed for continuous feedback and real-time insights.

FAQs

Q1. Will employees give honest feedback in engagement surveys?
Yes. Anonymous surveys and consistent follow-through help employees feel comfortable sharing honest feedback. Reliable employee survey software ensures responses remain confidential.

Q2. Will frequent pulse surveys cause survey fatigue?
Not if surveys are short and focused. Pulse surveys typically take only a few minutes and help organizations continuously understand how to measure employee engagement without overwhelming employees.

Q3. Can engagement survey results really be trusted?
Yes. Reliable employee survey software analyzes patterns across teams and time periods, helping leaders identify meaningful engagement trends rather than isolated opinions.

Q4. What if surveys reveal uncomfortable issues about leadership or culture?
That insight is valuable. Identifying issues early allows leaders to address problems before they affect morale, performance, or retention.

Strengthen Ownership and Improve Team Performance with Employee Survey Software

Use employee survey software and pulse surveys to measure engagement more effectively and turn feedback into consistent execution.

Define ownership and urgency through clear behaviors
Use pulse surveys to capture real-time signals
Track leading indicators to spot early risks
Compare teams and managers to identify gaps
Act on feedback with focus and consistency

Track key signals, act early, and drive stronger ownership and execution with eePulse’s employee survey software.

Get in touch!

7 Signs Your Team Has Lost Energy and Urgency and How Employee Engagement Solutions Can Help

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 05:15:17 GMT

How to identify the warning signs when teams lose energy and urgency, and how employee engagement solutions help leaders rebuild engagement and momentum.

Most leaders don’t notice when urgency disappears.

There’s no sudden drop in productivity. No immediate missed deadlines. No dramatic resignations.

Instead, it happens quietly.

Meetings that once sparked ideas become routine updates. Employees complete tasks but stop pushing boundaries. Decisions that once took hours begin taking weeks.

On the surface, everything still looks fine but underneath, momentum is fading. And that’s where risk begins.

Recent organizational research on long-term firm survival shows that urgency is not just a performance trait, it's a survival factor. Companies that lose urgency, even while maintaining stability, are significantly more likely to experience long-term decline. The danger isn’t failure. The danger is slow drift.

This is exactly why employee energy matters.

Dr. Theresa M. Welbourne, founder and CEO of eePulse and pioneer behind the Energy Pulse™ and pulse survey methodology, has spent more than 25 years studying this dynamic. Her research identifies employee energy, defined as the ability to do work, as a leading predictor of performance, turnover, and organizational growth.

When urgency fades, energy follows. When energy declines, performance begins to erode. And by the time leaders notice, the pattern is often already embedded.

"Energy is defined as the ability to do work. Optimizing employee energy results in higher levels of individual, team, and organizational performance. Our energy metric predicts employee turnover and performance and is a fast method to track and act."

.Dr. Theresa M. Welbourne, eePulse

This is why modern employee engagement solutions have become critical. Annual engagement surveys capture a moment. They don’t capture the trend. And it’s the trend, the slow loss of urgency, that signals the greatest risk.

Below are seven early warning signs that your team may already be losing energy and urgency, along with what they look like in practice, why they matter, and how targeted employee engagement strategies can help restore momentum before performance declines.

A Quick Overview of the Warning Signs

Work is getting done, but momentum feels slower
Employees stop taking ownership of outcomes
Teams are unclear about priorities
Employees no longer feel valued for their contributions
Fewer ideas and suggestions are shared
Burnout starts affecting performance
Engagement levels vary widely across teams

7 Signs Your Team May Need Stronger Employee Engagement Solutions

Loss of urgency rarely announces itself.

It shows up in small behavioral shifts; slower decisions, reduced ownership, fewer ideas, rising burnout. Individually, these signals may seem manageable. Together, they point to something more serious: a team that is gradually losing momentum.

Research consistently shows that organizations don’t fail because work stops. They struggle because energy and urgency quietly decline while output appears stable. By the time performance drops, the cultural shift has already taken hold.

This is why early detection matters.

Identifying these warning signs early allows leaders to apply the right employee engagement strategies before disengagement spreads across teams and slows organizational performance.

SIGN 1: Work Is Getting Done, But Momentum Feels Slower

What It Looks Like

Tasks are completed. Deadlines are hit. But something is off. Projects that used to move with urgency now drift. Decisions that once happened in a hallway conversation now require a meeting to be scheduled. The work output is technically adequate, but the pace and drive behind it have softened considerably.

In eePulse's VALour framework, built from large-scale research into the drivers of firm performance, urgency is identified as the single most differentiating variable between high-performing and underperforming teams. It is not enough for employees to feel valued or rewarded. When urgency fades, so does competitive performance.

Why It Matters

A slowdown in momentum rarely stays contained to one team. It spreads. When high-performers notice that a slowing pace is tolerated, they recalibrate their own effort. Over time, the organization moves at the speed of its least motivated employees rather than its most driven ones. Research consistently links this pattern to declining innovation output and increasing time-to-market.

Real-World Scenario

A regional financial services firm noticed its product development cycles had quietly stretched from six weeks to nearly four months over the course of a year. Nothing had changed in headcount or process, but pulse data from eePulse's Energy Pulse™ showed a sustained decline in team urgency scores across two departments. Leaders used that trend data to initiate targeted team conversations and reset accountability structures. Within one quarter, cycle times returned to baseline.

What Employee Engagement Solutions Can Do

eePulse's Energy Pulse™ tracks urgency as a measurable metric over time, not as a point-in-time snapshot. Trend data, not single readings, are what give leaders the ability to see a slowdown forming before it becomes embedded in team culture. The platform's frequent pulse cadence (monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly) makes slow energy declines visible while there is still time to course-correct.

SIGN 2: Employees Stop Taking Ownership of Outcomes

Employees complete what is assigned, but no longer take initiative on what is adjacent. Problems surface in meetings without anyone having tried to solve them first. When things go wrong, the instinct is to explain why it was not their responsibility rather than fix it. Accountability, the sense that "this outcome belongs to me", has quietly eroded.

eePulse's VALour metric measures ownership directly as one of its core variables. The "O" in VALour stands for ownership, the degree to which employees feel personally responsible for their work and the success of the team. When ownership scores decline in isolation, it typically signals a confidence problem. When they decline alongside urgency scores, it signals a deeper cultural shift.

Why It Matters

Organizations that lose employee ownership lose speed. Decisions escalate upward rather than being resolved at the point closest to the work. Managers become bottlenecks. Innovation slows because no one is willing to champion a new idea without explicit authorization. The cost of this dynamic compounds over time, especially in fast-moving industries.

Real-World Scenario

A mid-sized technology company implementing a new product launch process found that its cross-functional teams were consistently missing hand-off milestones — not because of capacity issues, but because each team assumed another team owned the critical path. When eePulse's VALour Pulse revealed low ownership scores specifically within cross-functional roles, leadership restructured accountability definitions and introduced visible recognition for individuals who stepped into ownership gaps. Milestone completion rates improved significantly within the next cycle.

What Employee Engagement Solutions Can Do

The VALour Pulse within eePulse's platform surfaces the balance between value (feeling recognized), ownership, urgency, and rewards, the four variables research identified as the strongest predictors of performance. Leaders can see not just whether ownership is low, but whether the issue is that employees don't feel empowered, don't understand their scope, or have been subtly trained by the environment to wait for direction.

SIGN 3: Teams Are Unclear About Priorities

What It Looks Like

When you ask team members what their top three priorities are this month, you get five different answers. People are busy, genuinely busy, but on things that may not connect to the most important organizational goals. Strategic initiatives launch with enthusiasm and then stall as day-to-day demands crowd out the work that actually moves the needle.

eePulse's Direction Pulse is specifically designed to measure this problem: whether employees understand their individual and team priorities, whether they understand the organization's strategy, and whether they can draw a clear line from their daily work to the company's direction.

Why It Matters

Misalignment is expensive. Teams expend enormous effort on work that has low strategic impact, while critical priorities go under-resourced. When employees cannot connect their work to a larger purpose, their sense of meaning at work declines, which directly affects engagement and energy. The Direction Pulse research shows that alignment clarity is one of the most actionable levers leaders have for improving engagement without large resource investments.

Real-World Scenario

A healthcare organization undergoing a digital transformation initiative deployed the Direction Pulse across its operations division. Results revealed that while senior leaders felt the strategy was clearly communicated, fewer than half of frontline employees could accurately describe how their team's current priorities connected to the transformation goals. Using that gap as a starting point, HR and department heads redesigned their strategy communication cadence, replacing quarterly all-hands updates with monthly team-level direction conversations. Employee alignment scores rose measurably in the following pulse cycle.

What Employee Engagement Solutions Can Do

eePulse's Direction Pulse gives HR leaders a segmented view of alignment across teams, levels, and departments. Rather than assuming a message has landed because it was sent, leaders get confirmation or a clear signal that it has not. This turns strategy communication from a broadcast activity into a feedback loop.

SIGN 4: Employees No Longer Feel Valued for Their Contributions

What It Looks Like

High performers start going quiet. They deliver their work, collect their feedback, and stop stretching. In exit interviews, the phrase "I did not feel my contributions were recognized" appears with striking regularity. Recognition programs exist on paper, but they are either too infrequent, too generic, or too disconnected from the actual work to have any real impact on how employees feel about their place in the organization.

The "VAL" in eePulse's VALour framework stands for "value," specifically the degree to which employees feel valued by both peers and managers. Dr. Welbourne's research showed that feeling valued is not just an emotional nicety; it is a measurable predictor of performance and retention. But it must be paired with urgency and ownership to drive full engagement. Value without urgency produces what the VALour model calls the "entitled" employee, comfortable but not committed.

Why It Matters

The cost of losing a high performer is well documented, typically estimated at between 50% and 200% of annual salary when accounting for recruitment, onboarding, and productivity loss. But the less discussed cost is the signal their departure sends to the remaining team. When high contributors leave, citing lack of recognition, the implicit message to those who stay is that strong performance does not lead to strong outcomes. That signal is corrosive.

Real-World Scenario

A professional services firm running on a high-performance culture noticed that its annual engagement survey continued to show high satisfaction scores, yet voluntary turnover among top-rated employees had increased two years in a row. When they deployed the VALour Pulse, the data showed a sharp disconnect: overall satisfaction was high, but value scores among the top-performing cohort were notably lower than among average performers. The firm introduced peer recognition mechanics tied to specific contributions and retargeted manager training toward recognizing effort in real time rather than only at performance reviews. Turnover in that cohort declined in the following 12 months.

What Employee Engagement Solutions Can Do

Because eePulse's VALour Pulse measures recognition and value as distinct dimensions, separate from compensation and job satisfaction, leaders can identify unrecognized pockets of the workforce before those employees decide to leave. The platform gives employees a voice through influence questions that surface what recognition looks like to them, not just what management assumes it should look like.

SIGN 5: Fewer Ideas and Suggestions Are Shared

What It Looks Like

Brainstorming sessions thin out. Both the physical and digital suggestion box goes unused. When leaders ask for feedback, the silence is polite but telling. Employees have ideas, but they no longer believe sharing them will lead anywhere. The informal idea-sharing that once happened spontaneously in hallways or Slack channels has disappeared.

This is one of the clearest behavioral signals that psychological safety within a team has declined. When employees stop contributing ideas, they are not being lazy, they are being rational. They have learned, through experience or observation, that the cost of speaking up outweighs the benefit.

Why It Matters

Innovation is not a strategy initiative. It is the output of people who feel safe enough and energized enough to contribute something new. Organizations that lose that dynamic don't suddenly stop innovating; they just find that their innovation increasingly comes from a shrinking pool of the same few contributors. The diversity of thinking that drives breakthrough ideas narrows. Competitive advantage erodes gradually.

Real-World Scenario

A consumer goods company with a well-funded innovation program was concerned that, despite significant investment in ideation workshops, the same 12 to 15 employees contributed the majority of ideas across the company. eePulse's Organizational Network Analysis, which identifies energy influencers within a workforce, revealed that the company's informal idea-sharing network had fragmented, and most employees were not connected to the nodes where ideas were being generated and validated. By identifying and empowering informal connectors across departments, the company expanded its active idea-contributor base by over 40% within six months.

What Employee Engagement Solutions Can Do

Beyond pulse surveys, eePulse's Organizational Network Analysis maps the informal energy and influence networks within an organization, identifying who the real connectors and motivators are, regardless of title. This allows HR leaders to strengthen the informal architecture of idea-sharing rather than simply adding more formal ideation programs.

SIGN 6: Burnout Starts Affecting Performance

What It Looks Like

It often begins with an increase in sick days or a decline in the quality of work that was previously reliable. Employees who were once engaged and communicative become withdrawn. Errors increase on routine tasks. People start doing the minimum necessary to get through the day. Unlike disengagement, which is often a choice, burnout is an energy state. The employee wants to perform well but no longer has the reserve to do so.

eePulse defines energy as the ability to do work, and burnout represents the depletion of that energy below a functional threshold. Dr. Welbourne's research distinguishes between "working energy," the level at which employees can perform their current responsibilities, and "optimal energy," the higher level state required for innovation, collaboration, and growth. Burnout is what happens when working energy falls below the sustainable baseline.

Why It Matters

Burnout is not a personal failure. It is an organizational signal. When it appears in one team, it often indicates systemic issues such as workload distribution, leadership style, unclear expectations, or chronic under-resourcing that will affect adjacent teams if left unaddressed. The World Health Organization classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon, not merely individual stress. Organizations that treat it as a personal issue rather than a structural one consistently find that their burnout rates do not improve.

Real-World Scenario

A logistics company saw a spike in turnover after a major systems migration, with exit interviews citing exhaustion. When they implemented eePulse’s Daily Energy Pulse, leaders found energy had been declining for 10 weeks before the spike. The warning signs were there, but not visible. The company now uses the tool during major change events as an early warning system.

What Employee Engagement Solutions Can Do

eePulse's Daily Energy Pulse is designed precisely for these high-pressure moments, such as system migrations, organizational restructuring, return to office transitions, or any period of concentrated change. It provides high-frequency, low-burden feedback that gives managers a real-time read on energy depletion before it reaches the point of burnout and resignation.

SIGN 7: Engagement Levels Vary Widely Across Teams

What It Looks Like

Your organization's overall engagement score looks acceptable, maybe even good. But when you look at team-level data, the picture fragments. One department is thriving. Two others are struggling. A third sits somewhere in between but trending in the wrong direction. The average masks the variance, and the variance is where the real risk lives.

This pattern is extremely common in organizations that rely on annual surveys or aggregate engagement scores as their primary diagnostic tool. High-performing teams can inflate an overall score while struggling teams remain invisible until the problem surfaces as turnover or a performance failure.

Why It Matters

Engagement variance across teams is often a leadership problem, not an employee problem. When two teams doing similar work in the same organization have dramatically different engagement levels , the most likely explanatory variable is the manager, not the work. Identifying those gaps early allows HR leaders to target development resources, coaching, and support where they will have the most impact — rather than rolling out company-wide programs that solve the wrong problem in the wrong places.

Real-World Scenario

A large insurance company deployed company-wide pulse surveys, expecting to identify its lowest-engagement business unit. Instead, the data revealed that its highest-variance engagement scores existed within its highest-performing business unit, where three teams were strongly engaged, and two were significantly below baseline. Digging further, HR identified that the two low-engagement teams shared a common manager who had recently been promoted into a leadership role without adequate support. A targeted coaching intervention for that manager, combined with a restructured 1:1 cadence, brought both teams' scores to within range of their peers within two pulse cycles.

What Employee Engagement Solutions Can Do

eePulse's customized reporting provides team-level segmentation that makes variance visible rather than averaged away. Leaders can benchmark team performance not just against company norms but against industry data from the Leadership Pulse™ program, eePulse's 20-year global benchmarking initiative run in partnership with the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.

Strengthen Team Momentum with Modern Employee Engagement Solutions

Loss of urgency rarely happens overnight. It begins with subtle signals, reduced initiative, fewer ideas in meetings, declining recognition, or growing burnout, that individually might seem unremarkable. Together, they trace the outline of a team that is slowly disengaging.

The problem with traditional annual engagement surveys is structural. By the time the data is collected, analyzed, and acted upon, months have passed. The trends that could have informed a timely intervention are already history. Dr. Welbourne's foundational research on the pulse survey, which she pioneered in the 1990s, demonstrated that trend data, not point-in-time data, is what gives organizations the ability to manage human energy proactively rather than reactively.

eePulse 's employee engagement solutions are built around that insight. The platform's suite of tools, Energy Pulse™, VALour Pulse, Direction Pulse, and Daily Energy Pulse, gives leaders continuous visibility into the dimensions of engagement that most directly predict performance: energy, urgency, ownership, alignment, and recognition.

How eePulse Employee Engagement Solutions Turn Insight into Stronger Team Performance

Transform your team's energy and urgency today by exploring tailored employee engagement solutions.

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At a glance:-

This article identifies seven early warning signs of declining team engagement and shows how targeted employee engagement solutions, grounded in over 25 years of research by Dr. Theresa M. Welbourne, can help leaders rebuild energy, ownership, and momentum.

Spot slowing momentum early by tracking team energy trends
Use VALour metrics to identify loss of ownership
Deploy Direction Pulse to close strategy understanding gaps
Track recognition as a measurable driver of retention
Map idea sharing to uncover collaboration breakdowns
Use Daily Energy Pulse to detect burnout early
Segment engagement data by team to reveal variance

FAQs

Q1. What makes eePulse's approach different from standard engagement survey tools?

eePulse's methodology is grounded in Dr. Theresa M. Welbourne's academic research on the predictive power of trending human energy. Rather than measuring general satisfaction, eePulse tracks specific performance-linked dimensions, energy, urgency, ownership, value, and direction, which research has shown to predict turnover, innovation output, and firm performance. The platform provides employees with their own personalized energy reports, not just aggregate scores for management, making it genuinely employee-centric.

Q2. Are employee engagement strategies difficult to implement in mid-sized organizations?

Not with the right tools. Many of the most impactful employee engagement strategies start with simple, high-frequency feedback loops rather than large structural changes. eePulse's pulse approach is specifically designed to be low-burden for employees while generating high-value trend data for leaders. The platform is scalable from small teams to global enterprises.

Q3. Can employee engagement solutions really prevent employee burnout?

Yes, but only if they provide data frequently enough to detect the trend before it reaches a critical point. Annual or even quarterly surveys typically miss the window for early intervention. eePulse's Daily Energy Pulse and regular Energy Pulse™ cadence give leaders visibility into workload pressure and energy depletion as it is happening. This enables timely action rather than post-burnout recovery.

Reignite Team Energy with Better Employee Engagement Solutions

Recognizing these warning signs early helps leaders address disengagement before it impacts performance, retention, or client outcomes. eePulse's employee engagement solutions give HR leaders and CHROs the visibility and tools to shift from reactive to proactive engagement management.

Slowing momentum signals declining urgency
Loss of ownership weakens accountability
Unclear priorities stall critical work
Lack of recognition drives quiet disengagement
Reduced idea sharing signals broken collaboration
Burnout reflects structural issues
Team-level variance reveals leadership gaps

Improve Team Engagement Today.

Contact eePulse!

Beyond diversity: Is it time to have ‘Chief Relational Officers’?

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 04:25:50 GMT

The language of diversity and inclusion is complicated and exclusionary argues Theresa Welbourne PhD. She says HR needs a new definition -one that embraces everyone and which is easier to understand:

Long before the rash of recent news showing companies were jettisoning their DEI leaders and departments, there was an ongoing identity crisis in the diversity office.

The names of the departments alone have gone from Diversity to Diversity and Inclusion to Diversity Equity and Inclusion, while other variations include Diversity and Inclusion with the term Belonging too.

Notwithstanding all of this, occasionally, you might see the term equality. For example, in numerous bold statements , Salesforce aggressively uses the word equality.

By why this word in particular? Salesforce, for example, has embraced the term equality while in other organizations this language often is intentionally deleted from references to any diversity work.

Researching diversity language

To understand this phenomenon, I recently did a survey asking business leaders and non-leader employees to tell us what they think all these words mean, and which terms they prefer.

The overall results were as follows:

Diversity – means that companies are trying to bring different kinds of people into the company.

Inclusion – the company is working on figuring out what to do with those different people

Equity – a nice idea, but no one was clear what the point really was and most found it problematic (including worries about favoritism).

Belonging – this was a mix; we saw some comments about people liking it, and others wondering who or what an employee is supposed to belong to.

Equality – there were far more emotional responses to this term. Employees wanted equal opportunity, but some employers were very fearful of the term. For instance, some cited the work they have done to create merit-based systems, which would then be harmed by any efforts to create equality at work.

In the meantime, we also find that use of any of these terms is raising concerns that organizations are favoring one group over another.

When diversity is discussed, for example, the majority have concerns about their own place within the organization, especially as things promise to change.

Additionally, companies, universities and communities are working to ban the use of diversity, inclusion and equity departments, personnel and more.

So…do we need to change our language about diversity?

Given that the goal of all these DEI/HR efforts is something other than favoritism, maybe it’s time to change the language to a term that is more over-arching and business focused.

It is important to note that I am not trying to suggest a lessening of the importance of diversity, but merely a change in language that really does denote fairness and equal opportunity for everyone. The goal is creating level playing field language.

The story of business capital

So what could this new language be?

Well, for starters there is an abundance of research focused on understanding various types of business capital and how to leverage this capital to create competitive advantage.

For example, most companies have financial capital, technology capital, and human resources capital. Additionally, every organization has relational capital, and although most never measure it (thus, they are not managing it), relational capital is perhaps the most important for strategy, long-term competitive advantage and for differentiating the business from their competition.

Maximization of relational capital means improving relationships internally and externally with ALL types of people.

So is this not what we are trying to do in all the diversity-related initiatives?

Leaders want to create an organizations that understand their diverse client base, employee base, potential client base, potential employee base and potential community partners.

One measure of optimized or maximized relational capital value is the types of groups in which an organization has relationships, and the second measure is the quality of those relationships. A third measurement exercise would involve assessing which relationships are strong and which are weak, and then develop strategies for fixing problems.

If this were the job of a department, the Chief Relational Officer would be responsible for more than just diversity.

This job would be focused on looking at relationships with different subsets of employees, examining resources provided to these people, and making sure relationships with everyone (majority and minority groups), are positive and helping the company grow.

They would also help employees learn how to sustain strong and positive relationships with each other, as well as with partners, vendors, suppliers, community members and customers.

Language used by the chief relational officer language would serve to put all people and employees on the same playing field.

It does tend to focus more on equality, but not in a way that alienates anyone, because the focus is on equal opportunity, equal access, and equal relational value.

Relational capital is powerful

Relational capita l is not a new concept.

I have done research looking at relational capital vis-à-vis other sources of capital in numerous studies, and the research continues to find that higher levels of relational capital have positive effects on organizational outcomes.

What is new, I believe, is that now is a time for making some radical changes in how we think about diversity.

The current model of creating various compilations of the same terms (and changing out which one comes first, second or third – least from the perspective of the employees and perhaps other stakeholders – will likely not herald in the type of new attitudes, behaviors, measurement systems and more that are needed.

I invite comments on making some bolder changes, starting with how we label the groups responsible for relational capital – beyond diversity.

Also, if anyone would like to engage in measuring relational capital and understanding organizational strengths and weaknesses in this area, you can join our ongoing research initiative by reaching out to me at theresa@eepulse.com .

Is hybrid entrepreneurship (side hustles) a training opportunity?

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 04:27:32 GMT

CHROs and managers instinctively like to discourage staff from having side hustles. But should this mindset shift to them seeing the benefits it brings to the business?

Whether its due to the rising cost of living; dissatisfaction staff have with their current job, or the desire to start something for themselves (or a combination of all three), it seems there is something of a boom in the numbers of people with ‘side hustles’.

Data suggests a staggering 34% of Americans now have a side-gig of some sort (rising to an even more staggering 70% amongst millennials) – and all told, the US side hustle market is valued at over $2.58 trillion.

The more grown up phrase we sometimes see for describing people with side hustles is the more exciting-sounding ‘hybrid entrepreneur’ – which is defined as someone who is trying to start a new business while still working full time and keeping their insurance, salary and relationships.

Some of the biggest business people we know started off as hybrid entrepreneurs – everyone from Steve Wozniak at Apple, Pierre Omidyar from EBay, and Jack Dorsey at Twitter to name but a few.

But whatever name we give to these people, CHROs and management more generally have always had a strained relationship with these people.

Business always says it craves innovation and entrepreneurship – but (understandably), they want it internally focused.

When it comes down to it, do business owners support or want their employees striking out on their own?

This was a question I wanted to find the answer to,

In a survey that I recently finished as part of Leadership Pulse™ (a project that started in 2003) we specifically explored this question. More than 300 managers answered the survey over the summer), and the results are interesting to say the least.

Do organizations support hybrid entrepreneurship?

The first question we asked was directly whether their organization’s management team supported hybrid entrepreneurship.

Using a 1 to 5 scale, where 1 is they fire people that they know are doing it, 3 is they tolerate it and 5 is they enthusiastically support it, the average score was 3.12.

The bar chart below shows the responses to each answer:

Do businesses know how many of their staff are hybrid entrepreneurs?

We next asked what percentage of the employee population they thought were practicing hybrid entrepreneurship, and the mean was 19.40; the chart below shows that distribution:

What impact do you think hybrid entrepreneurship has?

The last quantitative question we asked was “what impact on the day job performance do you see in practicing hybrid entrepreneurship?”

The mean for this question response, with 1 being very negative, 3 being neither positive nor negative and 5 being very positive is 3.22.

A total of 41% responded positive or very positive; 39% responded with neither positive nor negative, and 20% responded negative or very negative.

What do the numbers tell us?

This quick pulse survey seems to indicate that hybrid entrepreneurship is something managers are seeing in their workplace. It’s being done, and opinions are showing that only about 30% of companies are supporting it. In fact, 24% seem to have policies discouraging employees from doing it.

However, the big question is whether this type of experience brings value to an organization.

It certainly provides employees with valuable learning focused on creating value from a new idea. Given the high need of most organizations to innovate, one could make a case to encourage this type of experience.

The hybrid entrepreneur dilemma

The manager dilemma is obviously that they may worry employees spend less time on their day jobs, or that they will be successful and leave.

Also, is this the type of role model they want in their organizations?

We asked respondents to the survey to elaborate on their responses via open-ended comments, and below are a few notable pieces of feedback from these managers and senior leaders:

“Within my organization, working on your own is not discouraged. However, this is not generally viewed as something value added to the organization. This is unfortunate, however, just today I spoke to a colleague who does work outside of the organization. He mentioned that his motivation to do so was due to his feeling valued by the organization, however, this motivated him to be successful within his entrepreneurial career.”

“We are all entrepreneurs and we encourage members of the team to pursue outside as well as inside innovation.”

“Jobs have become bigger and more demanding. A side entrepreneurship is highly likely to have a detrimental impact on performance.”

“I think there are benefits to the organization but at the same time it can sometimes distract from company matters so on balance impact is neutral.”

“Productivity has increased as well as performance.”

“The leadership of my organization understands the benefits of hybrid entrepreneurship and fully embraces it.”

“People cannot concentrate on the job in hand if they are trying to build their own businesses. Also there may be a conflict of interest.”

“It encourages employees to perform better.”

What about the learning?

What was interesting about these responses, was the fact I reviewed more than 200 comments made by respondents, and only three addressed the topic of learning.

As an educator, I was very surprised because hybrid entrepreneurship brings so much potential to an organization.

Hybrid entrepreneurship teaches employees how to not just innovate; they also learn what it takes to do something with their ideas and innovations.

The comments I did see in the data on this topic are below:

It takes away attention from our business, but the bigger picture is your employee learning skills, improving their happiness, and you will benefit from it that way.”

“They may learn new skills but other projects may be a distraction.”

“New skill sets can be learned and implemented across jobs to further development.”

How should we feel about this?

Hybrid entrepreneurship may be a new concept for many people; thus, it’s possible we are at a time where fear over conflicts and workers not doing their day jobs is overcoming the potential opportunities of these arrangements.

However, the benefits of learning innovation and from participating in actions that employees are passionate about should be considered.

I teach entrepreneurship at The University of Alabama, and students who really care about their ideas do a much better job on their business planning, research and presentations.

The same will happens when employees learn about innovation from their own work as a hybrid entrepreneur.

Having employees charged up about the topic of innovation can lead to much higher learning and retention, which they may use later with their current jobs or in other ways may benefit their current employer (e.g., referring customers to the company, partnering with your organization).

My call to action:

First, find a way to positively talk about hybrid entrepreneurship with your employees. Then engage in the conversation without punishing in any way the people who admit they are doing this type of work.

Second, think strategically about how embracing hybrid entrepreneurs can help benefit your organization and employees through learning and new skill development.

Third, merge your ideas about hybrid entrepreneurship with your goals about growth and innovation in your organization. Help managers and other leaders in your firm embrace the idea and focus on the positive outcomes to both your employees and to your organization.

There’s a saying that I think applies to this topic: “This train has left the station.”

With the onset of Covid-19, and so many people working at home, they have the skills to engage in more than one project or job at a time.

Employers can help and embrace these changes or potentially be left behind.

If nothing else, start a conversation with your management team about this topic and find out what they think and know about the level of hybrid entrepreneurship in your organization.

If you want to become part of the Leadership Pulse, you can sign up at: www.leadershippulse.com .

Side Hustles – the stats:

34% or one in three Americans have a side gig
Side hustlers who dedicate 12 hours per week to their business earn a median of $1,122 per month
Almost 50% of people with a side hustle do it because they want to, not because of financial constraints
At the same time, one-third run a side-hustle because they need to supplement their income
32% of side hustlers spend just 5-10 hours per week on it
50% of millennials have a side hustle
70% of Gen Zs have a side hustle
The U.S. side hustle market is valued at over $2.58 trillion
83% of Americans will perform gig work by 2027
Three-quarters of people love their side hustle

Take the Anti-Scrooge Pledge for 2023

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 20:03:00 GMT

Take the Anti-Scrooge Pledge for 2023

HR Strategy Tops Priority List for 2022

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 22:17:00 GMT

YOUR ORGANIZATION IS MADE UP OF MORE THAN ONE ASSET

Click to get the technical report

Organizations, whether small or large, global or local, old or new - are not simple. They are not made up of just one type of asset. For example, your organization is not made up of only financial assets; however, the way we study organizations lends itself to a simple measurement process. Leaders tend to focus on one asset at a time, maybe because the people who report to them manage individual groups of assets. One person leads finance, another focuses on human resources and yet one more individual manages customer relationships. This silo approach tends to help people focus, but when it comes to understanding a business, it can be dysfunctional or at the least misinform leaders.

The Business Drivers Pulse attempts to correct this problem. Rather than focus on just one business driver, we put together the core assets each company manages into one study. This work has been done by our team for numerous years and in many different settings. We have run the study in the Leadership Pulse, and we used this analysis in client organizations. Lastly, it has been a core piece of work in my work on initial public offerings, providing me with the ability to study how these assets combined predict short- and long-term business outcomes such as stock price growth, revenue growth and long-term firm survival.

Business Drivers: The business drivers study covers a range of organizational assets or areas of strength, from ability to manage profits and cash flow, to brand and pricing strategy, strategic planning process, employees, culture, leaders, internal technology and more. The business drivers uniquely focus on multiple assets vs. doing a deep dive on just one line of inquiry (e.g. study of just leadership issues).

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): This year we added something new to the study. We included DEI as an additional asset category. Given the changes happening in the DEI area, we thought it was worth studying as a unique and separate asset area. Thus, in this research we asked leaders to tell us how important all these different assets are to their company’s performance. This allows us to study DEI not as a single piece of research, but instead, as one of a bucket of assets and allow leaders to think about DEI compared to things like cash, technology, leaders, people overall and more.

Why Study all Assets at the Same Time? You may wonder why take on this approach or why am I suggesting this methodology is better or at least different from how you would normally approach a study. The reason is because leaders are making decisions about which assets to pay attention to all the time – which asset classes get more money, which get more time, which get more people. Leaders compare one asset to another, so we think the more potentially useful approach to studying assets is to evaluate them together. That is what we do in this project. Over the years we have been able to show which assets lead to short vs. long-term gains and which assets are flashy but not necessarily helpful in driving many organizational outcomes. I welcome you to review this work, and if you are part of the study, you will receive your own personal reports to review how you responded compared to the benchmark data. If you did not participate and are interested in learning more, please contact me or the eePulse team.

Strategic HR May Win the Culture vs. Strategy War in 2022: Over the years we’ve seen the business drivers data support the culture eats strategy notion, but then in subsequent studies the data suggested that strategy was more important or “eats” culture. This year is an interesting mix. When we ran the analysis plotting the business drivers against firm performance, we found that strategy again won, but it was strategic HRM. The data suggest that focusing on strategic HR as a priority may have the biggest impact on improving firm performance in 2022. We also uncovered that diversity, the newest entry to the study, is showing high potential to also impact firm performance as well as individual employee energy, which is a measure of employee productivity and wellness.

YOUR ORGANIZATION IS MADE UP OF MORE THAN ONE ASSET

Theresa M. Welbourne

Risk Management Strategy as Part of the Employee Energy and Engagement Work

Sun, 04 Jul 2021 17:33:00 GMT

2021 may become known as the the year of the employee.

2021 is characterized by more employees having more choices about where they will work. This has led to a barrage of help wanted signs and ads along with the offering of sign-on bonuses in unlikely places. It also leads to firms focusing more on retention strategies to avoid unwanted turnover.

In addition, leaders in many firms have had to think differently about how their employees work as they have been held up at home, not immediately available to managers or open to on-demand meetings or one-on-one sessions. Dynamics have changed, and using the learning from the last year to continuously improve will be important.

The lessons learned from the team at eePulse have important implications for ways to change traditional management practices to meet the challenges of 2021 and beyond. We continued to use our pulsing processes to drive change and help both individuals and businesses. Some lessons learned include:

1) Using pulse surveys to ask smaller versions of an annual survey is a very simple use case of what's possible. Instead, we find that implementing pulse surveys in a strategic manner can reduce risk, energize individual employees and engage the workforce so they focus on the right behaviors and work.

2) When we created weekly pulse surveys over 20 years ago, we developed a very different approach to pulsing. We learned how to create metrics strategies that supported business strategies; we learned how to implement horizontal metrics strategies (stretching out the questions over the year vs. sending out piles of questions infrequently, or using a vertical question strategy).

3) We also learned that the individual employees have to be an active player in any ongoing pulse strategy. Employees need to own their own data, and be part of the action taking strategy. In fact, our experience is that employees being more involved is a key risk management tool and energizing process.

4) We developed not only technology but an implementation process and an ambassador program, training teams to support the data- dialogue -action - results methodology.

We changed how pulse surveys are done by changing the roles of the manager and the employee. This work has led to benefits beyond traditional annual or pulse surveys.

Our process shows that the role of the employee in any sort of survey, data-driven or pulsing strategy can be changed. Give employees their own data so they can own their own actions. Give employees the ability to review group data and innovate actions that they then help implement. Change the managers role to being a coach vs. managers perceiving that the data is just one more performance assessment tool.

Last summer we did an experiment rolling out a daily energy pulsing process. We learned a lot, and we are taking that learning and providing clients with a 3-week daily energy workout process. Our research shows that it takes 3 weeks to personally learn what's affecting your energy at various levels. The 3-week daily pulse builds on the work we have done since inventing the pulse survey many years ago.

If you are interested in testing out this unique offering, contact the team at eePulse: info@eepulse.com or call +1-734-429-4400.

Optimization, Trending and Reflective Learning for Better Employee Analytics

Sat, 09 Feb 2019 17:46:00 GMT

Continuous Leadership Learning

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 14:00:00 GMT

Employee-Centric Engagement for 2018

Sat, 13 Jan 2018 18:43:00 GMT

Learn about Employee-Centric Engagement for 2018 here at eePulse, Inc.

Innovate, Disrupt and Improve Your Survey and Engagement Tools

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 16:31:00 GMT

It's time to Innovate, Disrupt and Improve Your Survey and Engagement Tools with eePulse, Inc.

Lessons for any Growth Firm

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 16:54:00 GMT

Learn about Robert Felton's Road Show Diary and how it helped overcome challenges of growth.

What are ERGs?

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 00:28:00 GMT

Learn about Robert Felton's Road Show Diary and how it helped overcome challenges of growth.

Leadership Confidence: Measure it, get it and improve it for a great 2016.

Sat, 21 Nov 2015 22:07:00 GMT

on LinkedIn Share on Facebook Share on Twitter It's getting to be that time -- when you take stock of what 2015 has brought and work on plans to make 2016 an even better year for you, your team and your business. If you have been involved in the Leadership Pulse over the years, you know that we provide leaders with real-time data on key business indicators; the kind of metrics that can make your 2016 better. Participants can use the data to help develop their teams and improve their businesses. The Leadership Confidence Pulse opened on Friday, and I am inviting you to take part by spending between 3 and 5 minutes of your time to share your insights on a few key business topics including confidence (key leading indicators we have trended since 2003). CLICK HERE TO START Participating gets you access to on-line bench marking reports, webinars and technical reports as well as articles and case studies. You also can add up to 100 members of your team for confidential team reports, all at no costs. The Leadership Pulse has been and continues to be an important real-time learning process. We share the results with everyone who helps us learn. The Leadership Pulse is a partnership between the Center for Effective Organizations, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California and eePulse, Inc. Confidence Building Employee Engagement Leadership

Employee Resource Group Leaders Summit 2016

Mon, 26 Oct 2015 19:23:00 GMT

You can find more information here

Click here to learn more.

Leading with Energy and Focus for High Performance, Growth and Innovation

Fri, 03 Oct 2014 00:42:00 GMT

Learn how to Lead with Energy and Focus for High Performance, Growth and Innovation with these insights from eePulse, Inc.

Sat, 13 Sep 2014 16:45:00 GMT

HR LEADERS NEED HELP WITH THEIR WORKING AND OPTIMAL ENERGY LEVELS Yesterday (September 12, 2014) I presented to a great group of HR professionals at the annual Nebraska State SHRM conference (Omaha, NE). I talked about energy at work, and I asked the group to rate their current working energy and the degree to which they were at, above or below their optimal energy level. ALL BUT TWO PEOPLE WERE BELOW THEIR OPTIMAL ENERGY AT WORK. Employers - this is a problem!!!! When working energy is below optimal energy, you are losing productivity. Learning how to manage and direct energy is a skill set that employers, managers and all employees need to learn - well, that is IF the organization wants to grow and innovate.

Employee Resource Groups (ERGS) are Good for Business and Great for Employee Engagement

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 01:00:00 GMT

Improve performance management

Sun, 26 Jan 2014 18:44:00 GMT

How do you improve performance management? Find out at eePulse, Inc.!

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 15:01:00 GMT

Beyond the Fairy Tale of Employee Engagement.

The Culture Crutch

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 17:56:00 GMT

Company Culture It's one of those words that conjures up all sorts of images. I used to think it was a very cool word. I'd picture the cultures in many of the start-up companies I worked with, and then I remembered the high energy, the people learning, and the ability to move or pivot, as they now say, very quickly. Culture was the thing that allowed us to get things done. Today, after working with many larger and mid-size companies, I find the culture word something that makes me want to throw up. Culture is fun in small companies, and it's used to get work done. But more and more I find that culture in both mid-size and large firms is the thing that everyone uses to STOP CHANGE. Why? Because culture is the excuse used to describe why new things won't work, why things can't get done, or why the company is stuck. Here's the line I run into ALL THE TIME: "That would never work here because of our culture." Then I ask what the culture is, and I don't get much of an answer. That's because culture is sacred, culture is the thing that everyone understands but can't describe, and what I really think is happening is that: CULTURE IS A CRUTCH Culture has become an excuse. So let's quit using the word. As often as possible, and as quickly as feasible, move the dialogue to one about HABITS. Let's talk about the way people work, their habits or their behaviors and then dig into which habits will get in the way of the 'new thing' being successful. When we talk about habits, we start down a path of success. Most people know that habits can be changed. They think of pets, children, breaking their own bad habits (e.g. smoking). There are ways to change habits, and once the conversation moves in this direction, success is not too far away. CULTURE IS A CRUTCH HABITS CAN BE CHANGED NEW HABITS CAN BE LEARNED

Building Start-up People for New Jobs and Economic Growth

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:18:00 GMT

Check out some or our students blog posts

or join our LinkedIn group

click here to and learn more about our work

Stop benchmarking employee survey data

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:40:00 GMT

I am doing some reading on the blue-ocean strategy work, and as I go through the various articles and books I continue to see references to the negative effect of benchmarking on corporate strategies and growth. The authors of the book "Blue Ocean Strategy," W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, note that companies that benchmark are basically letting the competition dictate their strategy for them. They are working to be like everyone else rather than jumping ahead and creating competitive advantage. In the world of employee surveys, HR is doing the same thing. By taking the results of your survey data from today, using in most cases, the same questions that everyone else is using, you are just pulling down your HR strategy to be like everyone else. How is that helping an organization get ahead? Also, is being better at all questions really the best strategy? The exercise is like taking your stock price from today and comparing it to the stock price of your competition from last year. It's an ok thing to do, but what actions would anyone take?

New venture creation is non linear

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:30:00 GMT

Discover why new venture creation is not linear in this blog from eePulse, Inc.

The CEO of eePulse on her newest award.

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:42:00 GMT

Learn her thoughts on being the first women recognized for this prestigious award.

Once again why benchmarking does not help with employee survey work

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 21:05:00 GMT

Mark Effron's short video on benchmarking

A smart piece with tips for boosting employee morale

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 21:39:00 GMT

http://www.the-hr-blog.com/2012/10/employee-morale.html So which tip do you think is the most effective?

Optimize and Direct Human Energy at Work

How to Use Employee Survey Software to Build Ownership and Urgency

Step-by-Step Guide to Building Ownership and Urgency with Employee Survey Software

Overview of the Steps ﻿

Step 1: Define What Ownership and Urgency Mean for Your Organization

Step 2: Conduct Employee Pulse Surveys Using Employee Survey Software

Step 3: Measure Energy, Ownership, and Alignment Signals

Step 4: Identify Gaps in Ownership and Urgency Across Teams and Managers

Step 5: Turn Employee Feedback into Meaningful Action

Step 6: Continuously Monitor Engagement Through Ongoing Pulse Surveys

Pro Tips: Dos and Don’ts

Key Takeaways

Next Steps: Turn Continuous Feedback into Consistent Execution

FAQs

Strengthen Ownership and Improve Team Performance with Employee Survey Software

7 Signs Your Team Has Lost Energy and Urgency and How Employee Engagement Solutions Can Help

A Quick Overview of the Warning Signs

7 Signs Your Team May Need Stronger Employee Engagement Solutions

SIGN 1: Work Is Getting Done, But Momentum Feels Slower

SIGN 2: Employees Stop Taking Ownership of Outcomes

SIGN 3: Teams Are Unclear About Priorities

SIGN 4: Employees No Longer Feel Valued for Their Contributions

SIGN 5: Fewer Ideas and Suggestions Are Shared

SIGN 6: Burnout Starts Affecting Performance

SIGN 7: Engagement Levels Vary Widely Across Teams

Strengthen Team Momentum with Modern Employee Engagement Solutions

How eePulse Employee Engagement Solutions Turn Insight into Stronger Team Performance

Contact Us!

At a glance:-

FAQs

Q1. What makes eePulse's approach different from standard engagement survey tools?

Q2. Are employee engagement strategies difficult to implement in mid-sized organizations?

Q3. Can employee engagement solutions really prevent employee burnout?

Reignite Team Energy with Better Employee Engagement Solutions

Beyond diversity: Is it time to have ‘Chief Relational Officers’?

The language of diversity and inclusion is complicated and exclusionary argues Theresa Welbourne PhD. She says HR needs a new definition -one that embraces everyone and which is easier to understand:

Researching diversity language ﻿

So…do we need to change our language about diversity?

The story of business capital

Relational capital is powerful

Is hybrid entrepreneurship (side hustles) a training opportunity?

CHROs and managers instinctively like to discourage staff from having side hustles. But should this mindset shift to them seeing the benefits it brings to the business?

Do organizations support hybrid entrepreneurship?

Do businesses know how many of their staff are hybrid entrepreneurs?

What impact do you think hybrid entrepreneurship has?

What do the numbers tell us?

The hybrid entrepreneur dilemma

What about the learning?

How should we feel about this?

My call to action:

Side Hustles – the stats:

Take the Anti-Scrooge Pledge for 2023

HR Strategy Tops Priority List for 2022

Risk Management Strategy as Part of the Employee Energy and Engagement Work

Optimization, Trending and Reflective Learning for Better Employee Analytics

Continuous Leadership Learning

Employee-Centric Engagement for 2018

Innovate, Disrupt and Improve Your Survey and Engagement Tools

Lessons for any Growth Firm

What are ERGs?

Leadership Confidence: Measure it, get it and improve it for a great 2016.

Employee Resource Group Leaders Summit 2016

Leading with Energy and Focus for High Performance, Growth and Innovation

Employee Resource Groups (ERGS) are Good for Business and Great for Employee Engagement

Improve performance management

The Culture Crutch

Building Start-up People for New Jobs and Economic Growth

Stop benchmarking employee survey data

New venture creation is non linear

The CEO of eePulse on her newest award.

Once again why benchmarking does not help with employee survey work

A smart piece with tips for boosting employee morale

Overview of the Steps

Researching diversity language