Going Beyond Surveys - What do we do with the results?
Organizational or employee surveys are fairly common practice these days, but as an employee taking the survey, many will ask, “Where does the data go?” For employees in most organizations, it would seem like the answer is…nowhere. We take the survey, submit our answers, and the only response we ever hear back is the “Thank you for taking your (insert year here) employee survey! Your answers lead the path to our future.” response once you hit the submit button. Maybe, if your organization is really good, you get an all-employee meeting where the company executives stand up on a stage and highlight certain data points that will be “addressed”. At least you know they compiled the data, right?
EMPLOYEE surveys can be an incredibly powerful tool, but unfortunately most organizations squander the opportunity by making one crucial misstep once the survey results have come back. Not involving the EMPLOYEES. Here are two easy ways to involve the employees in the survey process, all the while increasing transparency and, in effect, increasing employee engagement.
Form a team of motivated employees and let them lead the employee survey section of the all employee meeting and deliver the results. By giving the control of delivering the results to the employees it shows immediately that the organization is serious about making a difference using the data given by the employees. This creates a first step for transparency and accountability. Also, we have seen overall engagement and connection to the results by the rest of the employees at a much greater level when presented by peers than when senior executives stand up and review a series of prepared PowerPoint slides. Yes, the executives should still be there, but their focus should be less about presenting results and more about discussing the future vision and purpose as well as fostering an environment where the employees can thrive and engagement flourishes.
Engage the employees in tackling the survey feedback opportunities. For example, a certain process identified in the survey results is giving a large portion of the organization issues. Charter an engagement team to research and bring options and recommendations. Are the employees wanting better organizational communication? Put together a team to understand why and where the communication disconnect is happening and recommendations for how it can be fixed. Having worked with many organizations, we have found that employee engagement teams can be your organization’s biggest ally. Bringing together a cross-functional team for a short period of time to help better the organization instills trust and builds an atmosphere where the employees truly believe (and are) making a larger impact within the organization.
There are certainly other ways for engaging and gaining greater impact from employee surveys, however we have found these two provide the biggest ‘bang for your buck’ ways to cultivate, or at least begin to build, the kind of performance environment most organizations strive for today.
Come back next week as we discuss how to take the change initiated by the survey and make it sustainable.
If you’re looking for help in administering your employee survey, or just need help in building an effective survey question list, don’t hesitate to contact us! We’re here to enable your success.