How do you conduct Employee Engagement surveys like a pro?

The most effective engagement surveys I've run have not only had clear objectives but also an overall "hook". The hook should basically answer the question "engaged to do what?" Examples include "to drive our business transformation" and "to deliver our customer-first strategy". The best surveys are owned and shaped by the business, rather than HR, and have objectives that are aligned to your strategic priorities.

To conduct employee engagement surveys effectively, start by defining clear objectives. Keep questions concise, relevant, and aligned with company values. Use a mix of quantitative (rating scales) and qualitative (open-ended) questions. Ensure anonymity to encourage honest feedback. Set a regular schedule for surveys to track trends over time. After collecting data, analyze results promptly, share key findings, and most importantly, take action on feedback. Communicate the changes implemented to show employees their input matters.

To conduct Employee Engagement surveys like a pro, follow these steps: 1. Plan Strategically: Define clear objectives and questions aligned with organizational goals. 2. Ensure Anonymity: Guarantee confidentiality to encourage honest feedback. 3. Use a Mix of Methods: Combine quantitative metrics (e.g., Likert scales) with qualitative insights (open-ended questions). 4. Communicate Clearly: Explain the purpose and importance of the survey to boost participation. 5. Act on Results: Analyze data promptly, share findings transparently, and implement actionable changes. By focusing on these steps, you'll foster a culture of feedback and continuous improvement within your organization.

Employee surveys tend to have one of are four main objectives – Research, Confirm, Explore and Evaluate. If you have never run a survey before you might want to run an employee experience survey to do a bit of Research to find out where the main employee experience issues are in your organisation. Where you have run a survey before you may want to use your employee experience survey to Confirm the findings by repeating the previous survey. Alternatively you might want to use your employee experience survey to Explore specific issues that have been uncovered in previous surveys in more detail. As you start to implement change you can use your employee experience survey to Evaluate the impact of those changes.

Conducting Employee Engagement surveys effectively requires careful planning and execution. Here's how we can do it like a pro: Set Clear Objectives: We define the purpose of the survey, such as identifying areas for improvement, gauging overall satisfaction, or tracking progress over time. We choose the Right Timing: Select a time when employees are not overwhelmed with other surveys or high-stress work periods. Ensure Anonymity and Confidentiality: Assure employees that their responses will be kept confidential to encourage honest feedback. Use a Mix of Questions: Combine quantitative (e.g., scale-based) and qualitative (e.g., open-ended) questions for a comprehensive view.

How you administer your survey - the platform or other channels used should be dictated by one thing; how best to reach your employees. You must make employee surveys quick and easy to access and complete, while also assuring people over the confidentiality and security of the process. Issuing survey invitations by email is most common but, if like many organisations, you have lots of employees who are field-based and don't have a PC to access - like in retail or manufacturing - you may need to explore posters with a QR code (allowing mobile survey completion) or inviting them by SMS. With online surveys, finding a platform that enables you to send a 'unique link' access is invariably best - as it ensures only one response per person.

One analogy I learnt when I started employee listening journey quite some years ago- Survey design is like taking a picture of your desired future. You then compare that with the current reality and drive intentional changes. That has tested true till today.

I always recommend including an open-ended question to accompany a key metric. For example, an employee NPS question is always more informative with a linked open question for three reasons. First, it's surprising how many eNPS respondents score highly but provide constructive comments ("generous raters"), whereas others score low but express glowing sentiments ("critical raters"). Second, if an employee engagement survey only contains closed questions, there is far less opportunity for surprises (except if you undertake multivariate analyses). Qualitative data = more insights = better actionable opportunities. Third, open-ended questions give employees a voice, particularly if the survey is anonymous and its responses are acted on.

Be transparent about the survey's objectives and what the data will be used for. Survey results should be kept confidential, but it's important to also specificy to your audience whether the survey is anonymous or not so they can decide whether they want to move forward with taking it.

A very underrated part of the process is setting up and testing. There is nothing more underwhelming than clicking a dead or blocked survey link. They say you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression if you want respondents to have faith in the survey, do all your checks before you send the invitations to participate.

Don't just analyse and act on results but build in leadership accountability for progress. One way to do this is to bring survey metrics into business reviews so when a leader has to report on and explain their team's financial and strategic performance for the past period, so they should for action on the survey priorities they identified. It's got to be all three - strategy, financials, people.

Be as open as possible about the results. If you don't yet have a solution to a problem the survey identifies, you should say so. It's much worse to pretend the feedback wasn't given.

An important aspect when it comes to analysis and action-taking, is to have mapped out this process right at the start. Engage line managers and/or others who will be involved at this stage, and discuss what they will be given, the tools/support/resources available. By securing buy-in early from stakeholders, and ensuring you have in place the right level of support and resources, you will be far better equipped to ensure survey follow up and action-taking is effective, and crucially, that it focuses on the priority areas.

Contrary to a lot of material on surveys, I believe the more non anonymous discussions you have with employees, the better equipped you are deal with their feedback. I get people want a safe space to have their say, but when you start to show that you're making a difference on constructive feedback, the more open your employees will be in doing so.

It can be a "trap" to see surveys as key events in and of themselves rather than part of a broader strategy and process. It can be useful to think in horizons of 2-3 years. So what are the goals for Year 1? Where should you be by Year 2 and how does the approach need to evolve? (And so on.) A longer-term view helps you to be proactive in using insights rather than, e.g. reacting to specific survey results.

Before embarking on an employee engagement survey, be clear on the following: > Why you're conducting the survey > How will the results be used > What resources you have internally to support the design, rollout, analysis of results and action-taking Answering these questions can help inform the best route to take. While some SME businesses opt to run the whole survey process themselves, and you can of course use a free platform or even Google forms, this will command a lot of time. Likewise, with questionnaire design there are templates and best practice guides to follow, but you may benefit from expert help both here - and post survey with analysis to ensure your survey programme is most effective.

Everyone thinks they can run a survey, they can but will they do it well? It takes skill to decide the right questions that won’t lead answers yet give the insight needed. Conducting the survey itself can be a technical and political minefield, particularly with global surveys. Then at the end you need to analyse the data in a timely fashion to feedback results and strike while the iron is still hot. I’ve seen many surveys delegated down the chain of command or used for narcissistic purposes. My advice would be put some thought into the skills of the person running the survey. They need to be technically agile to cope with ever evolving survey tech and be of strong enough character to deliver honest and insightful results.

"Your team's engagement score is 65%" - so what? Analysing Employee Engagement data in the context of other data is much more enlightening, it should never be a standalone project. 2 ways to uncover insight to inspire improvements: 1) Compare granular data and trends in engagement with profitability, or location, or retention rates, or diversity, or skills development, or manager performance, or other meaningful data to uncover impacts / causes and the need for further analysis. 2) Always allow respondents a free text opportunity against each question. It's technically much easier to analyse, summarise and take action on this rich source of feedback than ever before.