Going Beyond Surveys - Tracking The Progress
As we finish out our Going Beyond Surveys series we discuss tracking the ongoing progress. Imagine if we didn't have organizations like the FDA to check ongoing progress of drugs through clinical trials and the drugs were just released to the public after the first trial. While things might look promising after that first one, something unforseen can easily pop up in the second or third trials that can be corrected before being released to the general population. Or, if you have ever had a new house built or done some remodeling, as the owners of that particular project we don't typically just write a check and say "See you when it's done!". No, we go and check-in on the progress, making sure that what was agreed upon is being done or, if changes need to be made, they are made before the work gets too far along and becomes very cumbersome.
Needless to say, check-in's and progress updates are important. A baseline gets established and then the work gets measured along the way. An important piece of employee engagement surveys that many organizations leave out is the ongoing measurement of how things are progressing. An annual employee survey sets the baseline. We find out what areas are strengths and what areas are opportunities and then action plans are devised (hopefully) to build on the strenghts and attack those opportunities. Pulse, or what we call QuickView, surveys measure those action plans along the way. Too many organizations wait for a whole year to pass to run another survey just to find out they haven't made any progress at all in the areas they were hoping to impact. QuickView surveys are short, targeted surveys to help measure specific success, making sure progress is being made along the way. If progress isn't being made, then a correction can be implemented before too much time and too many resources have been lost going down the wrong path. Then, progress can resume knowing everything and everyone is aligned.
One final note, and this may seem obvious but you'd be surprised, when the annual survey rolls around next year, don't forget about the previous years' data. Pull out the old numbers and match them up against this years data. Tracking year over year results should never be left out.
Next week we begin a new four-week series on The New Performance Environment where we discuss how powerful an employee-led organization can truly be, how each individual can (and should) be owning their own performance, how negativity can kill a culture, and how a new vision for the performance review can actually drive performance.
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.