Employee Surveys

I was talking to the HR Manager of a medium sized manufacturer with a staff total of 150.  He was telling me that he and his fellow executives had been weighing up the pros and cons of doing an Employee Feedback Survey and that, on balance, he was not in favour as he questioned their value. Knowing that we had undertaken one many years ago, he asked me for my opinion.

It's not possible to provide a simple answer to this question because the survey itself is only one stage in a multi-stage process. The first of these is to appreciate the potential benefits of such a survey on organisational performance.

What do you want in your employees? 

Many organisations lay claim to being customer or market driven but few would vouch for being employee driven. Yet the reality is, the way in which your employees treat your external customers is a reflection of how you treat them. 

• If you want your employees to give great customer service, then you need to regard them as your customers.
  
  
• If you want your organisation to be known for its innovation, then you have to create the environment in which innovation can flourish.
  
  
• If you want your employees to be empowered, then you have to trust them.
  
  
• If you want them to make decisions, you have to give them the information to make the right ones.
  
  
• If you want engaged and motivated employees, you need to find out what engages and motivates them.
  
  

So the first stage is to agree on why you want to undertake an employee survey. And reasons such as "it shows we care" and "everyone else is doing it" don't cut the mustard!

What should an employee survey tell you?

Your survey should tell you whether your employees perceive:

• That your organisation has clear values, goals and the strategies in place to achieve them;
  
  
• That it displays a real and meaningful regard for both its external and internal customers;
  
  
• That management is committed to quality and continuous improvement;
  
  
• That communication flows up, down and sideways throughout the organisation;
  
  
• That all levels of employees are involved in decisions where they can make a meaningful contribution;
  
  
• That all jobs are made as fulfilling and satisfying as possible;
  
  
• That they are treated with respect and encouraged to acquire new skills and knowledge;
  
  
• Are fairly treated; and
  
  
• That management cares about their health and safety and the environment in which they work.
  
  

Interpreting the feedback

Although the statements to which each employee responds are tabled in random order, the feedback should be aggregated and sorted into nine areas. These are:

1. Organisational goals, values and strategy
   
   
2. Customer orientation
   
   
3. Quality and process improvement
   
   
4. Communication
   
   
5. Decision making and participation
   
   
6. Structure and work relationships
   
   
7. People performance
   
   
8. Equity and rewards
   
   
9. Occupational health, safety and the environment
   
   

In addition to analysing and interpreting the feedback under these functional headings, you should also analyse the feedback by dividing these functional headings into "satisfiers" and "motivators". 

Fred Emery identified twelve factors that influence job satisfaction levels.  The first six he called "satisfiers" - "fair and adequate pay" and a "safe work environment" are two of them.  These are the "must haves" as far as employees are concerned; they are also the "must provides" as far as the organisation goes.

The second six he called "motivators" two of which are "wholeness and meaning" or "being 'in' on things" and "elbow room for decision-making".  These are two factors that enrich an employee's working life - the understanding of the big picture - and his or her role in that and the feeling that one is entrusted with decisions that one is qualified to make and consulted or at least kept informed on others.

Generally I've found that feedback indicates a poorer performance by management on the motivators than the satisfiers.

Acting on the feedback

A proverb often quoted by consultants is that "you can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink".  If organisations that commission these surveys do not conduct them properly and, above all, follow-up on the feedback, they are much better off not doing them at all.  They will save themselves the money but above all, the credibility gap will not have increased in size.

So the decision to conduct an Employee Feedback Survey should not be taken lightly. 

These are the things you must do.

• You must explain to all employees the reasons for undertaking the survey.
  
  
• You must give employees a specific time during work hours to complete the survey.
  
  
• You must stress its anonymity.
  
  
• You must accept the feedback whether you agree with it or not. Perception is reality.
  
  
• You must react to the survey's findings and directly involve your employees in the planning of the initiatives that address those findings.
  
  
• You must re-run the survey at regular intervals to measure the impact of the initiatives taken.
  
  

One final comment.

It is significant to note that senior management has no direct influence on external customer satisfaction levels. Customer satisfaction is in the hands of operatives that build things properly, order pickers that pick conscientiously, clerks that invoice accurately, customer service people that attend to complaints expeditiously and representatives that fix problems even if they are not of their making. 

You can have the best systems and best machinery in the world but that in itself is no guarantee of customer satisfaction.  They have to be complemented by an engaged and motivated workforce. 

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