As an employee, filling out employee engagement surveys can feel a lot like engaging in a heavy hint session with your significant other in the lead up to a big birthday or an important anniversary.
You keep pointing them in the right direction of that thing you really, really want, but you can never quite be sure if you will wake up on the day to find that #blessed gift you’ve been eyeing, or something else (read: meh) entirely.
If only there was a way to just, like, tell them, right?
As an employer, your goal should be to tailor employee engagement surveys that provide your team with the opportunity to do just that. It can be awkward to point out issues in the workplace, and there are still many employees who don’t feel empowered to ask for what they need, so a survey is a great way to open the floor for honest feedback.
Check out our YouTube channel for awesome videos on everything from the science of employee recognition to creating an internal communications strategy for enhanced engagement.
The payoffs can be huge when you get it right.
For instance, American credit union GTE Financial was able to improve the company’s overall billing accuracy by 22% in the mid-1990s when a workplace survey revealed that the performance of its different billing operations was closely tied to the leadership style of each unit manager.
Where control was authoritarian and overt, mistakes were more frequent. They addressed the situation by encouraging changes in leadership style through training sessions and their billing accuracy increased immensely.
Read more: Here are 7 ways collaborative leadership can improve your business
In the spirit of finding ways to pave the way for really valuable two-way communication with the people who keep your corporate boat afloat, here are a few of the benefits and drawbacks of employee engagement surveys:
THE BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEYS
An understanding of the workplace at grassroots level
Employee engagement surveys can provide an employer with the ability to measure how committed, satisfied, and content the employees are. It can also indicate issues like unwanted voluntary turnover even before it happens. When you know how employees view their working environment you can make plans to build upon the positive aspects and improve the negative aspects. After all, you can’t change something if you don’t know it’s an issue.
Instantly usable results
If surveys are conducted on a regular basis, the results thereof can be used to make adjustments to the work environment in real time. Additionally, when employees see that their feedback is valued and leads to positive change, they are likely to be more forthcoming and volunteer this kind of input of their own accord in future.
Anonymous feedback = honesty
It can be hard to be honest about the tough stuff in a work environment. At a time when the unemployment rate in South Africa has skyrocketed to a whopping 30.8% in 2021, employees can be hesitant to ‘sound ungrateful’ or ‘upset the applecart’. An anonymous survey platform makes it easier to speak up about underlying issues without feeling like you could be putting your job in jeopardy.
The ability to zone in on particular issues
Pulse surveys are a great way to take a sentiment measurement among your workforce. By tailoring survey questions to zone in on situational hot spots, management teams can get very valuable feedback that helps them to adjust their leadership approach, etc. in an ongoing fashion.
Sparking conversation
No matter how linear your organisational structure may be, there will always be people who are a little bit more in charge than others. Surveys give the less-in-charge individuals a way to make their voices heard without having to get on a metaphorical soapbox.
Sharing data securely
Digital survey platforms are designed to keep employee data safe and secure. The right kind of platform will also yield intuitive data insights that can be used to drive business advantage from the inside out.
Read more: A manager’s guide to an effective employee engagement survey
THE DRAWBACKS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SURVEYS
Some employees may be reluctant to take part
Even if you make it completely clear that a survey is anonymous, some members of your team may still be a little paranoid about the fact their feedback could be traced back to them. This is especially true in situations where they could be asked about input regarding their superiors.
It has to be done often to be effective
Surveys are only really effective if you do them often, and then go on to make changes to address the issues that cropped up. As such, an annual employee engagement survey is a nice thing to do, but it won’t really facilitate the level of change that can really make a difference in overall employee satisfaction.
As such, it can be a time-consuming tactic if you don’t have the right equipment to handle the job. On the other hand, an effective survey platform takes the sting out of the chore completely.
It often focuses exclusively on negatives
Because surveys are mostly designed to address problem areas within a business, it can actually have the effect of shining the spotlight on all the uuuugh, rather than being seen as an uplifting instrument of change. As such, care should be taken to balance the content of surveys to focus on positives as well. This way you can also establish best practices that should be nurtured.
It’s possible to manipulate the data to suit an agenda
If there are folks afoot who have a penchant for ‘cooking the books’ survey data can be very easy to skew or slant in management’s favour so it can be treated as a cop out or an alibi of sorts. E.g. ‘Our survey results show that 92% of employees are happy with XYZ, so your concern is not valid’. Obviously, this is terrible for morale.
There you have it – the benefits and drawbacks of employee engagement surveys, in a nutshell. In the end it all comes down to effective rollout and ongoing communication. If your team can tell that you use the feedback to create a better employee experience, you are likely to reap serious rewards. So, when you ask for their input, make sure to act upon it.
In the meantime, remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for short and snappy videos that address the future of HR by focussing on illuminating topics like the science of employee recognition, and so much more!