We speak to a lot of businesses that have done engagement surveys in the past and have had a bad experience. All understood the importance of employee feedback. But something went wrong in the execution.
Often they've done an annual survey that was an enormous effort to carry out. Administering the survey and getting the questions out was a big effort. Even more time was wasted getting results back. Then to make matters worse, very little action was taken as a result.
This well thought out action-plan is now languishing in a drawer somewhere. The results were never published. Nobody talks about it. And if they do they are black-bagged and escorted from the premises!
If this sounds familiar, the rest of this article should be helpful.
Measuring levels of employee engagement in your business is as critical as tracking profit and loss. It helps with operating and decision making. Without it, you are working blind. You have little understanding how your team feels or what is impacting their performance.
Here's a few recommendations to make sure you don't experience the same problems next time;
1. Make space in your business for employee feedback
Employee engagement should be a regular conversation in your business. It should be (at least) an agenda point in your leadership meeting. Data should be available and visible to view. Working out how it becomes built into the fabric of your everyday dialogue is vital. Find the time and space to discuss it and it will pay dividends.
2. Build employee engagement into every-day conversations
Having an engaged sales team will drive better performance and better figures. If a board member calls their Sales Director they will talk about sales figures. But if they also ask about the engagement of the team they will surface this as a priority. Asking about employee feedback will drive a different action from the Director. This will encourage better results.
3. Ask for employee feedback more regularly
Asking for annual feedback from employees doesn’t make sense. It isn’t often enough. Employee feedback is only powerful when used to tap into what is happening in the moment - as it’s happening.
Asking 'how does it feel to work in this business' once in a year, can do more harm than good. It can quickly fall into a “tick box” exercise. To make employee feedback a meaningful process, you need to ask regularly.
This is one of the reasons we're big advocates of regular pulse surveys.
4. Share findings quickly
This one is a biggie. After you’ve asked for feedback, share what you’ve learned with your team and what you’re going to do with it. Then go and do what you have said you are going to do!
Employees will feel a lot more excited about the process if they get the results quickly. Make it clear that their feedback was heard, valued and respected.
If employees have had a bad experience in the past, you might find they are reluctant to take part in your first few surveys. But taking fast action (regardless of participation rates) will quickly build trust. It will also add value into the process and should result in higher future participation rate.
... and if you can't or aren't willing to do anything directly with the feedback, be honest and say that! No communication will hurt the trust your employees have a lot more than acknowledging and declining to take action!.
5. Choose a tool that can make feedback easy for you
Technology helps when it comes to employee surveys. We’re making it easy for businesses to collect employee feedback and make it part of their business.
Here’s just a few ways we’re helping:
- Short surveys, carried out on a regular basis. Support with changing up questions as the type of feedback you need changes over time
- Email, WhatsApp, or even SMS to carry out surveys and ask for feedback - a quick and engaging experience for your teams
- A straightforward dashboard that updates with your employe survey responses in real time
- Customised dashboards that you can share with your leaders to help them understand what the team are saying
- An action planning tool so you can keep track of progress and accountability.
If you've had a poor experience of employee surveys and employee feedback in the past, don’t give up! Hit 'reset' and take a different approach. The feedback is incredibly important to your business and can have a huge impact.
Want to talk about how employee feedback can help your business and how we can help you try again? Get in touch.
