The Employee Survey

Is it dead?

Absolutely not!

Employee surveys are not only a valuable weapon for getting financial support from senior management to fix employee engagement problems, they are also the only way to measure progress and benchmark success. Besides, how else would you know what your employees think unless you ask them?

Make it work for you and make it count with these essential tips:

1. Get the truth
The underlying goal in an employee survey is to get people to tell the truth. The catch-22 is that your disengaged employees are the ones least likely to complete a survey honestly, yet they are the ones you need to hear from the most. A double whammy also exists because the managers and supervisors of these same disengaged employees may be contributing to the problem. If these same managers create the survey they will be blind to the issues and won’t ask the questions that need to be answered. In this scenario the employee survey becomes less meaningful.

2. Don’t be the one to ask
The only chance you have of getting the truth and decent participation is through total and absolute anonymity. If you create the survey, there is risk that employees may think that you will have ways of finding out who said what.
If you contract a 3rd party survey company, however, that has a proven track record for delivering quality surveys and can guarantee anonymity, that is a big step towards making it count.

3. Lead the way
You have to motivate your people to help build your business. Be enthusiastic, be passionate, be sincere and be committed to saying “We want your ideas. We are ready to listen!”.

4. Taking Action is Non-negotiable
If you care enough to conduct a survey and expect your employees to take the time to share their opinions, then you have to take action based on the results. Prove it by taking action and responding to your employees concerns. That could be as simple as implementing weekly ‘new idea’ meetings or putting money into launching new initiatives. Employees will turn cynical very quickly if the employee survey gets put on the shelf, as another unfulfilled promise from management. That would be a waste of money and time and a real integrity buster.

Can’t convince your senior management to do a survey? Maybe they don’t realize that your employees’ ideas can result in cost savings and can improve your bottom line.We know that research shows disengaged workers cost U.S. organizations upwards of $450 billion but increasing employee engagement is a proven solution, as described in a recent Fast Company article.

A few of the key benefits of increasing employee engagement include:
• 37% lower absenteeism.
• 65% lower turnover (in low-turnover organizations)
• 48% fewer safety incidents
• 22% higher profitability

The employee survey is far from dead! It is where employee engagement begins and is a critical and essential ingredient for achieving a healthier bottom line and creating positive change.To learn more we invite you to read our guide to surveying employees  or  visit our website here.