The “Why” Of Employee Engagement Survey

Keeping employees engaged and committed to your organization is an ever-growing challenge for any organization. The value of having employees psychologically invested in a company transcends the growth trajectory of an organization and also is a major driving force behind the growing need for employee feedback platforms. With the coming in of cool, quick & easy, always-on, new instant feedback tools, do we really need the expensive, lengthy, time-consuming employee engagement surveys? Yes, we do! Conducting regular employee engagement/employee opinion surveys is still considered among some of the high-performance HR practices. Here’s why:

1. Employee Engagement Surveys cover it all

Employee Engagement Surveys are your best opportunity to gain the entire employee population’s feedback on a wide variety of initiatives that your organization may be working on. These surveys generally include themes like:
• Organizational strategy
• Culture and values
• Leadership
• Compensation
• Thoughts – what they think about their work, colleagues, and management
• Employee Sentiments
• Key Engagement Drivers, etc.
Employee Engagement Surveys provide a wealth of data enabling deeper and wider analysis of invaluable insights, which might not be possible through the instant feedback mechanisms.

2. The Challenge of Survey Fatigue

One major challenge with the new age “always-on feedback” program is handling the continuous flow of data. Does your management have time and the resources to act on the feedback they keep receiving on a continuous basis? Maybe not all the time; and in some cases, you could even end up alienating your employees if you can’t respond to this regular stream of feedback. Additionally, while giving employees a platform to express themselves, what’s important is to make sure the whole process does not become too overwhelming. There should be a balance between doing this regularly without it being overkill. An overdose of such exercises often leads to survey fatigue among employees and they tend to take such exercises less seriously.

3. Employee Engagement Surveys are still proving to be great indicators for employee behavior

Facebooks’ people Growth & Survey Analytics team explained why they still rely on using employee surveys to measure engagement. They talk about such surveys being a proven indicator of employee behavior, giving them an insight into future trends. Running employee satisfaction/employee engagement surveys give an insight on what your employees truly think about their work, organizational culture, etc. and why they do so. Asking your people questions like how long they intend to stay with the organization or how likely are they to recommend their company as a place of work, tends to bring out certain underlying factors behind employee behavior and performance. Not only this, but the non-participation of employees also helps. Employees not participating in such surveys are generally more likely to leave soon. As per a study People who don’t fill out either of our two annual surveys are 2.6 times more likely to leave in the next six months.

4. Employee Engagement Surveys give employees a chance to be heard

Employee Engagement survey cultivates the culture of open dialogue aand honest feedback, which might not always happen in case of one to one instant feedback, as the tendency to shy away from giving honest feedback or ones’ personal bias might creep in. Also, there’s always a possibility of these mechanisms replacing a conversation/relationship between manager and employee, making it more mechanical. Employee Engagement Surveys offer employees a platform to express their views, ideas and concerns in a professional manner and that too anonymously, which means they’re more likely to be honest and transparent about why they are/aren’t enjoying their work. Filling out a survey form gives employees a specific platform to voice their opinions and concerns. Employees feel like actually being heard by their management and thus feel more valued and motivated at work. Indirect or passive feedback programs lose on the employee feeling of active ownership. “Employees value having a say even if they don’t get their way”.

5. Employee Engagement Surveys act as catalysts to bring about change

Action Planning iis about turning feedback into actionable results. Be it organizational culture, compensation, leadership, etc. employee surveys provide companies with actionable feedback on many-core areas by highlighting the key drivers of engagement and disengagement. Such surveys help in constructing a timeline to convert information into positive change. Research indicates that employees who participate in employee surveys and who witness the positive change from the post the surveys are twice as likely to be highly engaged versus those who do not.

6. Employee Engagement Surveys are the best endorsers of Employee Advocacy and Loyalty

Employee Engagement Surveys, make it easy to spot staff who are proud of where they work. Typically, they set very high standards for themselves in the quality of their work. They believe in your mission and want your business to succeed. With the right set of questions, an employee engagement survey can reveal just how loyal, focused, committed and ready your employees are to tackle any challenge that might come their way.

Conclusion

All said and done, employee feedback is crucial for every organization. Adding features like instant feedback, interactive dashboards, and other cool features do look like the need of the hour. It’s always great to offer a better experience to your clients and have them better equipped with people management. However, organizations should also focus on supporting managers to act on the feedback and take up effective action to improve employee experience, engagement and boost your business, for which employee engagement surveys still remain just as relevant today as they were earlier.

Author

Garima Sharma

Lead – Talent Assessments & Employee Engagement

GreenThumbs

garima.sharma@greenthumbs.in