Sarah R. Johnson, PhD, VP of Enterprise Surveys and Analytics at Perceptyx, works with global clients to create people analytics strategies.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the staying power and value of employee surveys. Recently, senior executives in major corporations have shown a high level of interest in the survey research that our company has conducted. The best leaders insist on knowing what their employees need to be successful. Survey findings during this time of rapid change and uncertainty have driven, and continue to drive, immediate action as companies take quick and visible steps to implement solutions. The information gleaned in the findings has helped deliver flexible work arrangements and tools that have supported collaboration and virtual connectedness. Having a clear understanding of what employees need, based on data and not speculation or assumptions, can save companies time and money while helping increase morale and engagement in their employees.
Well-designed surveys measure not only engagement but also the critical elements of the employee experience that can potentially increase or create barriers to job performance. When you ask survey questions that evaluate the current needs of the organization, conducting a focused analysis of results can pinpoint where it is most critical to act. Survey results enable leaders to address retention concerns in critical employee populations, diagnose leadership challenges and identify where decision making is breaking down. While fixing pay dissatisfaction across the entire company seems like an impossible task, a simple demographic analysis may reveal uniquely high pay dissatisfaction among the company’s research scientists who are working on important strategic development projects. The C-suite should certainly be interested in this information, and a path forward to addressing the issue can be established. These insights, not so coincidentally, improve retention of critical skills — and ultimately organization success, too.
This isn’t to say that every survey program is perfect. Some lack internal customers to own the results, and at some companies, managers don’t report the results or plan follow-up actions with their teams. Neither of these challenges is difficult to overcome, and there is great value to be had by addressing them. AI and nudge technology used by many survey firms can ease the job for managers, identifying critical issues and appropriate actions. In my experience, I've found that employees welcome and respond to survey programs that drive meaningful and positive change in organizations.
So how can you create a survey strategy that drives meaningful and important change?
- First of all, recognize that surveys are about more than just listening. Listening is great, but acting is better.
- Ask about what is important to the organization today, whether that is the return to the workplace, innovation, efficiency, manager capability or building an employee experience that attracts the best and brightest. The most successful surveys are driven by organization and HR strategy.
- Write questions that are behaviorally based, clear and action-oriented. Give your managers and leaders data that they can work with to make necessary changes.
- Enable employees throughout the organization, from first-line managers all the way up to the C-Suite, to take action. Give all people leaders the tools to enable conversations and plan actions.
- Conduct a focused analysis of the results using key demographics and business performance metrics to pinpoint where actions are needed and will have the greatest impact on the organization.
What about other methods for understanding employee behaviors and needs? Couldn't organizations use passively collected data, such as scanning Slack exchanges, emails, calendars and biometric data tell us as much? It may be too soon to know the answer to that question because these methodologies are new and evolving. But what these methods lack is the human element — the conversations, connections and relationships that are critical to organizational success.
If nothing else, the pandemic has reminded all of us that we are human. That feels odd to write, but during the last six months of Zoom meetings, I have been invited into the homes of my colleagues and clients, met their pets and heard their children in the background. We talk about their challenges in managing work and child care and eldercare, as well as their concerns about their health if they return to the workplace. These same concerns are mirrored in the survey data we have collected in the last six months and are now front and center with leadership teams, driving significant actions. Survey respondents have commented that they are thrilled and touched that the company asked for their input during a very difficult time. The ability to connect directly with employees, to ask, “How’s it going? What can we do to help? What are you experiencing that we need to understand?” has shown employees that they are not in this alone and that their company cares enough to reach out. When we act on their feedback, we help make them, and consequently all of us, successful.
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