At this time of year, many organizations run large-scale surveys to assess employee engagement and learn more about the current state of play.
The results of this survey could have a huge impact on your approach to the coming year. Budget planning, strategic alignment, resource allocation—these are all key decisions that could be influenced by the results of your employee engagement survey.
But can you really trust those results?
Hopefully, yes. However, organizations often run into issues that can skew the results or fail to reveal the full picture. In this article, we’ll talk about the best way to approach employee engagement surveys. First, let’s look at some of the most common problems.
The biggest problems in employee engagement surveys
The goal of any survey is to give you a meaningful insight into your organization. This applies to pulse surveys, customer surveys, focus groups, or any other method of gathering feedback.
If your survey fails to provide useful insights, you have probably run into one of the following issues:
- Unclear goals: It helps to start out with clear objectives, such as learning more about your workplace culture or employee stress.
- Poor communication: Employees need clear information about how to complete the survey, what the deadline is, and how their feedback will be handled.
- Inappropriate tools: While there are plenty of free survey tools online, these might not be appropriate for your purposes. It is important to pick a survey tool that supports your goals and that your team finds easy to use.
- Lack of context: Survey data doesn’t tell you anything by itself. You need to compare it against an appropriate benchmark, such as previous results or industry averages.
- Failure to follow through: You have your survey results, but now what? Each survey exercise should have a follow-up strategy that allows your team to act on the survey insights.
These problems are common, but they are also quite easy to avoid. Let’s talk about the best approach to implementing an employee satisfaction survey.
5 steps to a successful engagement survey
Planning and communication are the keys to a successful engagement survey. Here are the steps to follow:
1. Develop an implementation plan
Implementation planning exercises usually involve HR and senior leadership, plus any external consultants who might be assisting with your employee engagement strategy. The goal of implementation planning is to agree on key project details, such as:
- Scope: What will the survey focus on?
- Design: Which questions will provide the data you need? Will you ask employees to answer on a standardized scale or encourage individualized responses?
- Strategy: The specific details of implementation, including your timeline, your survey tools, and assigning ownership of specific tasks.
Implementation planning sets the foundation for a successful survey. When your plan is completed, you are ready to start talking to your team.
2. Communicate with employees
Employees need clear information about the survey, including details like how to complete it, what’s the deadline for completion is, and why the survey is happening. Your people will also want to know if the responses are anonymous or not.
- Make it easy: Provide your team with all the information they require, including details on how to access the survey and answer questions. It’s a good idea to offer support contact details, just in case someone needs help during the process.
- Explain the why: Make sure that your people understand that this survey will have a big effect on plans for the coming year. Emphasize that their honest feedback is invaluable.
- Clarify anonymity: Employees provide more candid feedback if they know their responses are anonymous. That said, some people might prefer to have an opportunity to discuss their survey responses with their manager. Either way, be clear about whether the survey is anonymous.
Remember, the goal is to get maximum participation from your team. The best way to achieve this is through clear, continuous communication.
3. Monitor the survey process
Once the survey is live, your implementation team can observe and ensure that everything runs smoothly. This includes tracking response rates, addressing any technical issues, and following up with employees who haven't completed the survey.
Here’s how you can monitor the process effectively:
- Measure response rates: Monitor the number of employees who have completed the survey. If response rates are low, consider sending reminders or extending the deadline.
- Provide support: Ensure employees know where to go if they encounter any issues with the survey. Whether it's a technical glitch or a question about the survey itself, having a support system in place will help ensure a smooth process.
- Analyze Preliminary Data: While the survey is still open, you can start looking at early trends in the data. This can give you a sense of whether certain areas are emerging as significant concerns.
By actively monitoring the survey process, you can address any issues in real-time and ensure that you collect the most accurate and comprehensive data possible.
4. Benchmark results
Once you’ve collected the survey data, it’s time to analyze the results. A key part of this exercise is putting the results in context by comparing them with relevant data. Benchmarking allows you to put your results into context and identify areas where you’re excelling or falling behind.
There are two primary ways to benchmark your results:
- Internal Benchmarking: Compare your current survey results with previous surveys to track progress over time. This will help you see if your engagement initiatives are working and where you still need to improve.
- External Benchmarking: Compare your results with industry standards or competitors. Helios HR’s Employee Engagement Survey System allows you to instantly benchmark against other companies, giving you an objective insight into the current state of play.
Benchmarking provides valuable context for your survey results and helps you set realistic goals for improvement.
5. Communicate results to leadership
Finally, you need to turn these insights into actions. Senior leaders need to understand the key takeaways from the survey so they can make informed decisions about organizational strategy and employee engagement initiatives.
Here’s how to effectively communicate survey results to leadership:
- Summarize key findings: Focus on the most important insights from the survey. Highlight areas where the organization is performing well and areas where improvement is needed.
- Provide actionable recommendations: Don’t just present the data—offer concrete recommendations for addressing any issues that were identified. For example, if employees expressed concerns about career progression, suggest specific initiatives like mentorship programs or additional training opportunities.
- Tie results to strategic goals: Help leadership understand how employee engagement impacts key business metrics like productivity, retention, and overall performance. This will make it easier to secure buy-in for any engagement initiatives you want to implement.
By clearly communicating the survey results and their implications, you’ll help leadership make data-driven decisions that benefit employees and the organization.
Get the most from your next employee enagagement survey
Working with an external partner is one of the best ways to deliver meaningful result from your next employee engagement survey.
Employees will give more honest feedback when they know their feedback will be handled confidentally. Your partner can then process this feedback, benchmark against industry standards, and help you plan your next steps.
If you'd like to learn more about working with an employee engagement specialist, book a call with Helios HR today. Let's talk about how you can build an engaged team that's ready for success.
