I may be channelling my inner geek, but I do love a good survey. The design, the analysis, the varied intricacies in the data, the insightful commentary…I am ready to admit that I find it all truly interesting. While understandably this may seem odd from a ‘people person’, the hook for me is the powerful information surveys can provide to inform and enable leaders to take targeted, meaningful action.
A survey can tap into the hearts and minds of your people. When folks take the time to respond, it is usually with feeling and hope for change. So, it’s really important not to undertake a survey lightly. If the feedback isn’t acknowledged meaningfully and action taken swiftly, you risk creating a sceptical and disengaged audience.
Here are a tips from a long (and satisfying!) history with employee surveys:
Do an employee survey if you…
Are a new leader and want to get to the heart of the issues and strengths quickly
Truly want to hear from the people in the your organisation
Intend to implement quick, clearly connected actions from the feedback
Would like a baseline data to measure progress of your initiatives over time
Do not do an employee survey if…
You have run other surveys recently
As a ‘tick the box’ exercise
If you’re not committed to communicating the results and taking visible action
And...
Keep it simple and as short as possible. It doesn’t have to be war and peace to provide targeted, valuable information.
Customise it (unless you really need benchmarked data). The information you need is completely different to another business. It’s important to measure what matters to your organisation - particularly the extent to which people and perceptions are aligned with your strategy and target culture.
Ensure confidentiality through effective design and external management. People will simply not be honest if they are worried about being identifiable.
Employee surveys don’t have to be a stupidly expensive exercise. We pride ourselves on adapting the survey solution to our client’s needs and budgets.
If you’d like to talk surveys, please contact me directly or book a time to talk here.