3 Reasons Why An Employee Engagement Survey Isn't Enough...
Employee engagement has become increasingly important for businesses. It’s been clearly proven that increased employee engagement leads to better results, lower attrition and lower costs in maintaining and scouring great talent. So based on this, you would think the investment businesses put in to understanding employee engagement would have also increased-?Unfortunately, not so much.
Although our focus on employees has increased, the methods we use to understand these valued employees has simplified. In most circumstances it now takes the form of an annual survey. Technology has allowed for efficiencies, automation and cost savings. Great result right? Well actually it has become a false economy.
Now we aren’t saying you don’t need employee engagements surveys, but on their own they aren’t enough to truly understand what’s going on. Here are 3 reasons why an employee engagement survey isn’t enough.
NUMBER 1 - A survey tells you “what” is happening but not “why”
An employee survey allows you to reach a lot of people. That’s great as everyone gets a say. But do they actually get heard? Survey questions are designed to find out specifically WHAT is going on but that’s where it ends. There is always the promise that people will give you more depth by including their thoughts in the comments section - and this will give you a better understanding of WHY. But this rarely happens. I mean do YOU write in the comments section? So then we are left to guess.
Example:We were once working on an issue around Systems and Processes, essentially how technology and the IT department were falling down. In this example the score was considerably bad in a factory a good distance away from head office. When we probed deep with key factory employees the issue was very clear. The processes that suited head office were slowing the factory down. This was highlighted in a very clear example….the factory boardroom projector had broken and they needed a replacement. In the past they would go to the local appliance store, purchase a new projector and have it installed by an onsite electrician. However the process had changed and they now need to go through head office for such replacements. It took 3 months for head office to scope the project and purchase the best possible projector. Another 1 month passed before the projector arrived. When they went to install the projector it was too heavy for the roof struts and so was deemed useless. It sat in a box under the factory managers’ desk gathering dust and the factory team couldn’t conduct meetings the way they needed to. So the right meeting didn't happen and this impacted not just employee engagement, but also business productivity.
This was a simple example of an issue that stopped employees doing their job properly and reduced the engagement within the business. A simple issue that could have a number of easy solutions but a survey could never bring this to light.
NUMBER 2 - A survey is too open to interpretation
An employee survey often has to cover a number of topics within a short period of time. Nobody wants to answer a survey that is never ending. Therefore some big topics have to be covered with very broad terms and these terms can mean different things to different people. Terms like "leadership" or "communication" can mean a number of different things depending on a person’s level in the business. So we often find when doing analysis, the findings can be very ambiguous.
Let’s look at a common hypothetical: “Employees are disenchanted by the leadership”.A big problem holding you back from actioning this issue is greater understanding of the issue. What do they mean by “leadership”- is it their direct manager, middle management, the c-suite or even the head honcho? Without knowing this it’s very hard to create an action plan.
Only by diving deeper and speaking directly to employees can you find the real meaning behind these statements and uncover which specific areas you need to focus on. With the above example, which area of leadership is letting the organisation down?
NUMBER 3 - A survey doesn’t come with an action plan
We know one of the biggest problems employees have with engagement surveys is that the feedback isn't actioned. The business goes to great lengths to find out what employee sentiment is but don’t do anything with the information. That creates a rather large sense of disenchantment with the whole process.Why aren’t action plans created? Well a survey in itself is just a vessel to find out what’s going on. They don’t spit out a magic bullet that tells you what to do. This part takes solid analysis, greater understanding of the results and a breadth of expertise. Also there are often so many issues that it’s very hard to find out where to start. A solid action plan needs to have cross functional and multi-level representation. Different perspectives are key to building an action plan that delivers to the diverse needs of an ever changing workforce.Also an action plan that will actually work needs to have specific project owners who are accountable for the work and accountable to a time line. We’re not talking senior management here but empowered employees making an effort to change things for the better. So a survey gives you something but as you can see doesn’t give you everything. PPL Culture can work with you to transform your employee engagement survey into meaningful insights and actionable outcomes. Click here to get in touch today.
NUMBER 1 - A survey tells you “what” is happening but not “why”
An employee survey allows you to reach a lot of people. That’s great as everyone gets a say. But do they actually get heard? Survey questions are designed to find out specifically WHAT is going on but that’s where it ends. There is always the promise that people will give you more depth by including their thoughts in the comments section - and this will give you a better understanding of WHY. But this rarely happens. I mean do YOU write in the comments section? So then we are left to guess.
Example:We were once working on an issue around Systems and Processes, essentially how technology and the IT department were falling down. In this example the score was considerably bad in a factory a good distance away from head office. When we probed deep with key factory employees the issue was very clear. The processes that suited head office were slowing the factory down. This was highlighted in a very clear example….the factory boardroom projector had broken and they needed a replacement. In the past they would go to the local appliance store, purchase a new projector and have it installed by an onsite electrician. However the process had changed and they now need to go through head office for such replacements. It took 3 months for head office to scope the project and purchase the best possible projector. Another 1 month passed before the projector arrived. When they went to install the projector it was too heavy for the roof struts and so was deemed useless. It sat in a box under the factory managers’ desk gathering dust and the factory team couldn’t conduct meetings the way they needed to. So the right meeting didn't happen and this impacted not just employee engagement, but also business productivity.
This was a simple example of an issue that stopped employees doing their job properly and reduced the engagement within the business. A simple issue that could have a number of easy solutions but a survey could never bring this to light.
NUMBER 2 - A survey is too open to interpretation
An employee survey often has to cover a number of topics within a short period of time. Nobody wants to answer a survey that is never ending. Therefore some big topics have to be covered with very broad terms and these terms can mean different things to different people. Terms like "leadership" or "communication" can mean a number of different things depending on a person’s level in the business. So we often find when doing analysis, the findings can be very ambiguous.
Let’s look at a common hypothetical: “Employees are disenchanted by the leadership”.A big problem holding you back from actioning this issue is greater understanding of the issue. What do they mean by “leadership”- is it their direct manager, middle management, the c-suite or even the head honcho? Without knowing this it’s very hard to create an action plan.
Only by diving deeper and speaking directly to employees can you find the real meaning behind these statements and uncover which specific areas you need to focus on. With the above example, which area of leadership is letting the organisation down?
NUMBER 3 - A survey doesn’t come with an action plan
We know one of the biggest problems employees have with engagement surveys is that the feedback isn't actioned. The business goes to great lengths to find out what employee sentiment is but don’t do anything with the information. That creates a rather large sense of disenchantment with the whole process.Why aren’t action plans created? Well a survey in itself is just a vessel to find out what’s going on. They don’t spit out a magic bullet that tells you what to do. This part takes solid analysis, greater understanding of the results and a breadth of expertise. Also there are often so many issues that it’s very hard to find out where to start. A solid action plan needs to have cross functional and multi-level representation. Different perspectives are key to building an action plan that delivers to the diverse needs of an ever changing workforce.Also an action plan that will actually work needs to have specific project owners who are accountable for the work and accountable to a time line. We’re not talking senior management here but empowered employees making an effort to change things for the better. So a survey gives you something but as you can see doesn’t give you everything. PPL Culture can work with you to transform your employee engagement survey into meaningful insights and actionable outcomes. Click here to get in touch today.
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