An employee engagement survey measures and assesses how motivated and importantly, engaged your employees are to perform their best at work. A well-defined employee engagement survey will give insights into employees thoughts, attitudes and overall wellbeing. 

The main purpose of an employee engagement survey is to understand what is driving engagement in the organisation and could potentially damage it. Understanding employee satisfaction and engagement gives insights into both future performance and the chances of long-term retention.  

Where the Connection Measure differs: 

Good employee engagement surveys help uncover strengths and weaknesses of how the organisation runs, or how the work is carried out, giving you feedback to help improve employee engagement. But results can take time to process, and by the time conversations happen, intentions and meaning may already be lost.  

The Connection Measure instead turns results around in under four minutes, so they are meaningful and timely – and the use of the six dimensions in results make it clear exactly where the problems lie. It allows both managers and teams to own their scores and their journey and the improvements made, increasing likelihood of success.

An employee engagement survey works by asking employees to fill out a survey. This should be designed to be individually tailored for each business and carefully thought out to reflect current work and any external factors that may influence responses (e.g. a global pandemic). 

Key to a good employee engagement survey is to keep things simple. One of the last things you want to do is to create a survey that appears daunting at first glance. Most people in your business are going to be busy and if there are lots of questions or they appear to be irrelevant to the organisation, this will lead to fewer survey responses or worse, the process not being taken seriously.  

A typical employee engagement survey should be short, focused and take 15 minutes or less to complete. The questions should be a blend of open-ended and closed-ended questions and provide you with a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data that can be used to assess the current engagement situation of your staff members.  

How the Connection Measure differs:  

The Thomas Connection Measure is formed of 36 statements. An individual must indicate the strength of their identification with each statement, before they are provided with immediate visual results which show their connection score across all dimensions, and as an overall percentage score.  

And individuals can take the assessment at whatever frequency they desire, and across a range of teams. This is particularly helpful for organisations who work in more complex team structures, and may have matrix-style management, cross-functional teams or even inter-departmental working groups. It is a much more flexible and detailed way of measuring employee engagement than a traditional survey. 

Employee engagement surveys typically include a mixture of qualitative and quantitative questions, to collect a range of data. This can make them less straightforward for employees to fill out, as the logic changes from question to question – particularly when bespoke options have been added. 

Typical questions in an employee engagement survey include:  

• Do you feel inspired to do your best work thanks to your team?
• Do you feel your team helps you to complete your work?
• Does your organisation maintain adequate communication with all of its employees?
• Do you feel that you can talk to someone in your organisation if you encounter difficulties?  

How does the Connection Measure differ? 

The Connection Measure uses a Likert scale (or agree/disagree scale) to explore similar questions, making it easy for employees to complete both accurately quickly. This takes completion time down to four minutes or less, so it can be done during or before a teambuilding session or one-to-one. 
 
It also provides immediate solutions along with results in the form of ‘Connection Habit’ suggestions for each dimension, along with interpretation guidance to make sure that everyone is on the same page.  

Knowing how your team or an individual is feeling is critical to overall workplace culture and success. But there are other advantages of using a survey with your team.  

Employee engagement surveys have give employees a platform to provide open feedback. Asking your people what they think is one of the simplest and most effective ways to establish two-way communication between the employee and the organisation.  It can also provide a channel for feedback to senior management, although a 360-degree feedback survey is probably a more effective way of achieving this.  

The information that you get from an employee engagement or connection survey should allow you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your organisational culture, and may help you identify issues with workload, loyalty, retention, and motivation. 

Highly engaged employees are three times more likely to stay in their role, and five times more likely to speak positively about their organisation. And when it comes to business success, retention matters. Research shows that strengthening engagement can reduce turnover by up to 21% in high-churn organisations — and by as much as 51% in low-churn ones (Gallup, 2025). 

Disengaged employees, on the other hand, are more likely to leave. In fact, our own research shows that connection alone accounts for 55% of a person’s intention to quit. And while salary matters, boosting pay alone won’t solve the problem - because disengagement is emotional, not just financial. What’s needed is cultural change. 

That’s where the Connection Measure can help you make a difference. By giving teams ownership of their own scores and opening up meaningful dialogue at the manager level, it empowers people to build the kind of culture they want - together. No more top-down initiatives that miss the mark. Just real connection, driving real retention. 

Thomas Connect is designed to strengthen both employee engagement and connection across your organisation - because when people feel connected, they engage more deeply. 

Here’s how it helps: 

1. Personal development that drives engagement: With Thom, our powerful AI coach, employees can take ownership of their growth, strengthen team relationships, and feel more supported in their day-to-day work.
2. Real-time insight into connection: The Connection Measure, included in Thomas Connect, gives employees and managers clear, practical insight into how connected they feel, and why. It supports better one-to-ones, more open conversations, and helps teams track and improve connection together.
3. Empowered managers, stronger teams: Thomas Connect equips managers with actionable insights and conversation starters, helping them lead with empathy and clarity. By focusing on interpersonal connection, they can create a culture where people feel valued - and want to stay.