HR Unfiltered - brought to you by SOPEOPLE E19 - Employee Engagement is HR Archaeology
Apr 7, 2026
They argue engagement surveys often measure symptoms, not causes, and have become stale rituals. Discussions cover manager influence, leadership systems that create engagement, and shifting investment from platforms to leader development. Practical alternatives include stay interviews, measuring psychological safety and basic needs, and focusing on accountability and daily work conditions rather than chasing a single score.
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Time Spent Running Surveys That Led Nowhere
- Sue recalls spending hours orchestrating engagement surveys, giving out incentives and presenting decks that organisations then didn't act on.
- That experience turned her from an advocate into a critic of survey-led engagement programs.
Ask Daily Meaningful Work Check-Ins
- Ask immediate, lived-experience questions like were you able to do meaningful work today and if not what got in the way.
- Dean says that one conversational question, asked consistently, trumps a Q10/Q12 survey for actionable intelligence.
Invest In Managers Not Platforms
- Invest in managers' relational capability: train them to have genuine one-to-one conversations and stay interviews.
- Sue O’Callaghan highlights stay interviews as underused and actionable for retention intelligence.