Employee Engagement Dictionary | 2023

Ever wondered how to define employee experience? What about explaining the meaning of target culture, or the difference between diversity and equity?

We know how easy it is to slip into jargon when talking about how you recruit, engage and keep quality talent. So, we thought it was time to create the ultimate employee engagement dictionary. Below we define all the related terms you need, with comprehensive resources to help you learn more. Bookmark this blog and dip back whenever you need to.

Employee Engagement terms defined

1. Agile listening
2. Always on feedback
3. Belief in action
4. Burnout
5. Community wellbeing
6. Culture of accountability
7. Diversity
8. Employee engagement
9. Employee engagement action plan
10. Employee experience
11. Employee listening
12. Employee retention
13. Employee voice
14. Employee wellbeing
15. Flexible working
16. Inclusion
17. Key Drivers
18. Pulse surveys
19. Psychological safety
20. Quick quitting
21. Quiet quitting
22. Target culture
23. Transformational change
24. Work from anywhere

What does agile listening mean?

Agile listening is a feedback approach that allows you to listen to employees quickly and with ease, using a combination of in-depth annual surveys and shorter, ad-hoc pulse surveys. It helps organisations keep up with change and respond to employee feedback faster than a traditional survey programme.

• Taking your employee survey from annual to agile
• Q&A: Everything you need to know about agile listening
• Webinar replay: Moving from annual to agile listening

What does always on feedback mean?

Always on feedback is a form of continuous listening which allows employees to share feedback or suggestions at any point, usually via an online survey platform. The difference between always on feedback and annual surveys is that rather than only being available for a set time, an always on survey is there for employees whenever they have feedback to share.

What does belief in action mean?

Belief in action is a score which measures how employees responded to the survey question ‘I believe action will be taken as a result of this survey’. It shows how much employees trust your organisation to act on their feedback. A low score for belief in action makes your employee engagement action plan more vital than ever.

• Why your belief in action score matters

What is burnout?

Burnout is a state of exhaustion that happens when an employee feels mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. The amount of work is too much, there isn’t enough time, and the stress is too great to cope with. As a result, burned out colleagues might come across as cynical, detached or very negative. They may lose confidence and feel incapable of doing their job but unable to ask for help. 

Our article explains the difference between stress and burnout 

What is community wellbeing?

Community wellbeing means initiatives and actions taken by organisations to help the communities around them. It extends typical employee wellbeing programmes to consider how organisations can care for their employees outside of work. For example, an organisation might provide free fruit for employees in the office. Community wellbeing would extend this to subsidising grocery vouchers so employees can access the same produce at home.

What is a culture of accountability?

An organisational culture of accountability means a working environment where everyone, whatever their level or role, takes ownership for delivering results, and holds themselves and one another to account. Instead of focusing on individual motivations or tasks, this type of company culture prioritises outcomes for the organisation. When done well, this leads to high performance, high growth, and high engagement. People feel clear about what is expected of them, see behaviours role-modelled across the business, and understand how their role supports the company’s goals.

What does Diversity mean?

Diversity and Inclusion, often shortened to D&I, are terms often used together however they have separate meanings. Diversity means considering the differences between people and placing value on these differences. In the context of employee experience, diversity is defined as representation from people of different backgrounds, identities, and abilities.

• The difference between equality, diversity and inclusion
• How Crown Agents Bank are taking action to promote equality and diversity at work
• BELONG – a robust framework for measuring Diversity and Inclusion

What does employee engagement mean?

Employee engagement means the emotional commitment an employee has to their work, the organisation and its goals. It is typically measured via an employee engagement survey.

• The ultimate guide to employee engagement
• How to measure employee engagement
• Why does employee engagement matter?

What is an employee engagement action plan?

An employee engagement action plan is a plan that identifies and prioritises actions in order to improve or maintain parts of the employee experience, usually following an employee survey.

• Essential guide to employee engagement action planning
• Action planning for positive change
• Empower managers to lead post-survey action planning

What does employee experience mean?

Employee experience (EX) means taking an employee-centric approach to how employees see, hear, believe and feel about all parts of their work life. In contrast to employee engagement, employee experience extends the approach to consider every interaction during the employee journey, how well these reflect your company’s culture, and how they make employees feel about their work.

• Employee experience vs employee engagement
• Use pulse survey insights to improve your employee experience
• Complete guide to employee centric culture

What does employee listening mean?

Employee listening means how organisations gather employee feedback across the employee experience to inform organisational planning and improve how people feel about working for your company. It goes beyond running an annual survey so usually includes different activities which gather insights from different employee groups. Your employee listening schedule, for example, could include annual surveys, quarterly pulse surveys, focus groups, and joiner and leaver surveys.

What does employee retention mean?

Employee retention means how long employees stay at an organisation and is usually measured as the percentage of employees who have been with the company for one year or more. An employee retention survey can indicate retention rates by using the question ‘I would still like to be working here in two years’ time.’ A low score for this question, or low scores within a demographic, should motivate organisations to act.

• Study reveals secret to staff retention
• Will the Great Resignation change how we hire?

What does employee voice mean?

Employee voice is defined as the ways in which employees can express their feelings, experiences, and opinions about working for your organisation. An employee voice partner can help reassure employees about anonymity so they feel confident to give honest answers. Your employee voice strategy usually includes a variety of feedback activities, run at a pace that you can act on. Employee survey platforms provide insights and analysis on these activities, giving you a quick temperature check of how people are feeling.

What does employee wellbeing mean?

Employee wellbeing means the overall health of your employees, including mental, physical, financial, and emotional health. It can be measured using an employee wellbeing survey, which also identifies the factors influencing wellbeing levels such as health benefits, working environment, stress at work and relationships with colleagues.

What does flexible working mean?

Flexible working means an employee can choose how to manage their working hours, the days they work, and where they work from in order to improve their work-life balance. Examples of flexible working arrangements include flexi-time, compressed hours, and job-sharing.  

What does inclusion mean?

Above, we defined Diversity. Inclusion and diversity are separate terms and should not be confused. While diversity refers to the differences between people, we define inclusion at work as an environment where everyone feels welcome, of value and like they belong. In recent years, inclusion has emerged as a key driver of employee engagement so is important for leaders to focus on.

• New data about inclusion at work in the UK 
• Beyond Pride month: Working inclusively all year round
• Webinar replay: How to improve D&I in the workplace

What do key drivers mean?

In employee survey results, Key Drivers are the survey items with the strongest influence on your overall score (for example, your score for employee engagement). These items are ‘driving’ how people feel about being part of your organisation, so by improving them you have a good chance of improving your overall score.

What are pulse surveys?

Pulse surveys are short check-in surveys to collect employee feedback, usually used to measure progress between longer employee surveys. While an annual employee survey may cover all aspects of how to improve employee engagement, a pulse survey typically focuses on specific or high-priority issues.

• Complete employee pulse survey guide
• Which is better? Pulse survey vs annual survey
• How pulse surveys help keep engagement on track

What does psychological safety mean?

Psychological safety means an absence of interpersonal fear. In a workplace or team, this means colleagues feel comfortable speaking up with ideas, calling out exclusionary behaviours, admitting mistakes or sharing difficult topics without risk or repercussion. The term was first coined by organisational behavioural scientist Amy Edmondson in 1999.

• How does radical candour support psychological safety? 

What is quick quitting?

Quick quitting is a term used for employees who quit their role within one year of joining. It can cause a headache for HR who are left with a high turnover rate, and new roles to fill. Often quick quitting is down to an employee engagement issue. New research shows that employees spend an average of 18 months in a role, meaning that onboarding processes must be designed to engage employees from the start with joiner surveys to check in how people are doing.  

What is quiet quitting?

Quiet quitting became popular on TikTok in early 2022 as employees began to reject a ‘hustle culture’ mindset and reclaim their wellbeing. In simple terms, it means that employees are doing the bare minimum required of their role. They are turning up on time and doing the job they are paid for but refusing anything that goes ‘above and beyond’. Popular with Generation Z, the trend sparked a debate about whether quiet quitting should be seen as employees setting positive boundaries, or a warning sign of disengagement. 

Read our thoughts on what quiet quitting means for employee engagement. 

What does a target culture mean?

Your target culture is the way you need to do things in order to deliver on your strategy. This includes the values, behaviours, systems and workspaces that will be required to achieve your goals as an organisation. Look at your target culture as the anchor against which your employee experience is designed and measured. It should run through everything you put in place, and be evident to employees across the organisation.

• How can we define organisational culture?
• How a culture programme is supporting strategic change at Nottingham Building Society
• 10 motivating quotes about workplace culture

What does transformational change mean?

Transformational change are changes made that completely reshape your organisation’s structure, processes or strategy, usually in response to extreme or unexpected external events. This can often lead to a similar shift in workplace culture, so needs to be carefully managed.

• 7 lessons: How to bring your people through transformational change

What does work from anywhere mean?

Work from anywhere policies allow employees to work from a location of their choice for part of the year, usually up to six months. The rest of their year is split between working from home and working from their company’s office. A popular employee benefit, it gives employees flexibility and freedom to combine a desire to travel with a full-time role.

Read our thoughts on what this trend means for HR planning.

Updating our dictionary of employee engagement terms

Have we missed anything? We will be keeping our glossary updated throughout 2023 so it can be your ultimate aid to define employee engagement and all the associated terms.

Drop us a note if you have a suggestion or would like a term added – we’d love to hear from you.