Do you want to increase employee productivity? Do you want to change your organizational culture and/or improve your bottom line? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you should consider and embrace the idea of using an engagement survey.
Leaders ask their customers for feedback all of the time. They do this so that they can improve their product or their services. So, why shouldn’t you do the same thing inside your organization? Employee engagement affects morale, productivity, employee retention, absenteeism, as well as sales, customer satisfaction and much more. Disengaged employees prevent your business from doing it’s best. If you improve employee engagement, you improve your bottom line.
For best results, take the time to design an engagement survey specifically for your organization. The survey should ask company-specific, direct questions about issues that drive employee job satisfaction. It should attempt to determine how satisfied employees are with things such as leadership development, training, HR support and recruiting systems. It is also important to give employees a voice. Surveys should include two or three open-ended questions asking employees what they like most/least about their company and what they would change if given the chance.
Creating the survey and collecting data is your first step. The second involves analyzing the data you collect. Spend the time to interpret the information your employees provide to you. Use your analysis to tie the engagement survey feedback directly to the bottom line. Once you have all your data, determine how effective processes are in your company and compare the effectiveness with how important they are to your business. If you get consistently low scores in one given area or low scores on processes that are critical to your business, then you are ready for your next step: creating an action plan.
The engagement survey and feedback are only as useful as what you do with the information. To make a real difference, you must create a game plan with actionable steps to improve and maintain employee engagement levels. It’s important to use the information you’ve taken the time to collect and not let it collect dust on a shelf.
Utilizing engagement surveys, measuring your data and implementing actionable steps is an investment in the health of your organization. Your interest in your employees will affect their performance. It will lead to a higher level of employee satisfaction and greater job commitment, which will in turn improve the bottom line.
So take the time to survey your internal customers – your employees. Your business will benefit!
