Surveys are certainly nothing new. From manual forms to internet websites, entire organizations have been created with the sole purpose of gathering information and distilling it into usable data. In fact, the value of surveys is so widely recognized that many organizations offer incentives to encourage feedback based responses. Employee surveys are gaining traction and the question becomes, why are some managers still reluctant to use these in their own organizations? One possibility is that some supervisors may believe they already know what their employees are thinking. Others may believe that their employees already have numerous venues in place to voice their opinions and matters of importance. Finally, some may simply believe that the cost outweighs the benefit. Unfortunately, more often than not, the reasoning behind each of these is flawed and here is why.
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[contact-form-7]1.) The relationship between employee and supervisor is a weighted engagement. In the vast majority of organizations, an employee’s performance review, salary increase, and resource access can be influenced if not completely determined by their supervisor. While a strong leader may develop an open and honest line of communication, it is difficult to imagine that dependency and personal bias will not influence feedback. In addition, fear of retaliation or a sense of futility may leave an employee to disengage from the hope of creating real and positive change. Not only do annual surveys give employees a voice, they frequently offer the advantage of anonymity.
2.) Along with numerous other responsibilities, Human Resource representatives are tasked with facilitating the working relationship and performance of all employees. To assume your HR representative will have the available time to engage all of your employees simultaneously may not be reasonable. Surveys allow for both uniformity of questions to be asked and answered as well as the advantage of volume and timely feedback. While informal engagements can offer more fluid and detailed responses, surveys insure fairness, equity, and transparency. Furthermore, surveys often provide results in a format that readily translates into statistical data which can be compared year over year.
3.) Knowledge is power when averting problems or resolving issues that will impact your bottom line. Guessing at the cause of an individual department’s high turnover or assuming that every company experiences the loss of top talent can be a costly mistake. The sooner an issue is acknowledged and addressed the sooner it can be corrected; resulting in less damage to your profitability and reputation. Surveys offer an opportunity to assess your current employee engagement as well as understanding the real reason your valued employee has elected to work elsewhere.
So what can your organization expect to learn from employee surveys? On a broad basis, annual surveys can be broken into three primary areas: satisfaction, culture, and engagement. Although each of these categories ask differing questions, they all offer a baseline of the current state of employee morale and a benchmark by which to measure changes and the impacts that result from shifts in leadership dynamics. It is critical to understand what you are doing right as well as what areas need to be addressed. For more information on how to get started with employee surveys, reach out to one of our HR experts. We can help you get started on a path to greater engagement and a healthier culture today.
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