Pointless Employee Surveys – I Don’t Think So!

It is true that many employees believe their annual staff survey is just a tick a box exercise for the HR department, or the organisation is looking for trouble, or that the results will be skewed, or results won’t be acted on, or its waste of their time, or all of the above! In fact, employee surveys are often looked upon quite negatively, and not just by employees, but senior management too.

However, if managed properly, employee surveys can yield incredibly valuable information about the organisations performance and more importantly, provide a means of listening to all employees and understanding their concerns.

Organisations tend to conduct their employee survey every 12, 18 or 24 months, but quite often employers will also carry out ‘pulse’ surveys, surveys which are designed to take snapshots of employee opinions, satisfaction, attitude or engagement.

Conducting an employee survey on a regular basis will enable organisations to spot problems at an early stage and track trends using benchmark data from their previous surveys. This benchmark data becomes a resource to monitor changes, track progress and highlight new areas to concentrate on.

Information gained from carrying out a survey is usually, quantitative, but can be supplemented with qualitative information obtained from open feedback questions in the survey and follow-up focus groups and workshops.

Employee surveys are becoming more and more popular as organisations realise the value of the data and feedback, once acted upon.

Organisations that regularly survey their staff to systematically investigate what is going on in the business, understand what lies beneath other issues such as low productivity, high staff turnover rates or high absenteeism, understand the difference in attitude and behaviour between the demographic makeup of the organisation, and establish levels of employee satisfaction, commitment, morale and engagement.

Employee surveys and the results that they produce can be particularly beneficial in seeking opinions and feedback before or after a merger or other major change within an organisation.

On the whole, these regular surveys act as a ‘health check’ for an organisation and provide the means on which action can be taken to bring about any necessary and appropriate change to increase employee engagement and enhance an organisations overall success.

If you need any help in developing your employee survey, we can help. You can contact us on +44 (0) 1255 850051.