The Annual Employee Survey: Why They Fail and How to Fix Them

Over my career, I’ve participated in or administered dozens of employee surveys. And I can honestly say, I can count on one hand the number of times they have actually been really helpful.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with the idea of asking people for their opinions and formulating action plans based on the results. It makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, like so many other initiatives that start out as simple common sense, we tend to overcomplicate surveys to the point where the basic intent is completely overshadowed. As a result, the exercise often ends up doing more harm than good.

Considering that for most people reading this article, simply not having an annual survey isn’t an option, I intend to focus my observations and suggestions on what we get wrong about employee surveys and what we can do to get the most out of them.

Let's take a devil's advocate approach and look at this topic through the lens of the employee who doesn't see value in participating in the process, or one who has no faith that the survey results will produce any meaningful results. Why is it that they feel that way? Let’s imagine what might be going through their minds:

“So, you’re just interested in my opinion once a year?!” — The survey ought to be an organic part of a series of formal and informal methods for soliciting feedback and acting on it. If you’re not actively demonstrating your interest in feedback regularly and consistently, the survey comes across as a box you’re trying to check and it will not produce any real benefit. Suggestion: Ask for people's opinions on an ongoing basis and demonstrate genuine interest in addressing their concerns all year long.

“I’ve told you the same things for the past few years and you’ve done nothing with it. Why should I bother anymore?!” — For better or worse, people have an immense capacity to accept things they feel are not going to change. They do it in their lives all the time. They just want the courtesy of an honest answer relative to the issues that will be addressed and the ones they will just have to live with. Suggestion: When sharing survey results and action plans, be honest about which issues have been identified as lower priority and when they will be revisited.

“So, you want me to participate and give good scores so you don't look bad. Is that right?!” — Every organization encourages employees to participate in surveys in some form of fashion. Some do it the right way and some…don’t. I’m talking about the ones who go overboard and essentially coerce compliance. They make it abundantly clear that people’s low participation rates will reflect poorly on their bosses. They might also "teach to the test" and, in a roundabout way, suggest that certain questions are best answered in certain ways. These and other tactics don’t work because people are smart enough to know when their leaders care more about getting good scores than receiving honest feedback. Suggestion: Encourage genuine participation by making it clear that you’re interested in honest feedback so that necessary improvements can be made.

“Didn't we just do one of these? It’s time to do the survey again?!” — Employees often feel like this when we aren’t swift in our rollout. It takes us so long to prepare everyone, and conduct the survey, and send a few reminders, and get the results, and distribute them to top leadership and have them cascade to middle leaders, and analyze them, and share the results, and do action planning, and so on. By the time we start acting on what we heard in the last survey, it’s time to do another one! This is somewhat of an exaggeration, but you get the idea. Suggestion: Be quick and efficient. Treat the survey as just one of the many ways you receive feedback and not the end-all-be-all feedback event of the year.

“Can we focus on the feedback instead of who got the highest score or the lowest score?!” — Einstein supposedly once said, "Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted!" Unfortunately, our obsession with attaching a number to everything we do, which stems from a valid concern about quantitative results, may cause us to count and compare the scores instead of what the scores are supposed to represent. We must be very careful to avoid falling into the trap described by Goodhart’s Law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Suggestion: Once the results are in, focus on the substance of the feedback rather than discussing or publicizing the scores.

“Can we address the elephant in the room?!” — If the follow-up from the survey is limited to just the formal process but the informal conversations are missing, people will most likely feel as if you aren’t interested in addressing their concerns. Don't get me wrong; the formal process of acknowledging the message of the feedback is very important. However, the response to close the gap must not be limited only to the systems and processes that are already in place. Instead, actions must be taken immediately, even in the absence of a formal system or process, to address people’s concerns. If people say on the survey they don't feel their manager cares about them, the answer is not just a focus group and further probes into why they feel that way; it is to have their manager demonstrate genuine care in ways meaningful to them. Suggestion: Genuinely and authentically act on addressing the feedback you hear and take spontaneous and personal action to meet the unmet need.

In closing, I want to be clear that I’m not against doing surveys. I am against doing them simply to check a box. By the same token, I’m not against having a ping-pong table—or other recreational amenities—for people to use, as long as it’s not construed as a satisfactory substitute for addressing the causes of their dissatisfaction. If you care about people and demonstrate it on a regular basis, people will appreciate the gesture of making a ping-pong table available and they will happily participate in the annual survey and give honest answers. But if you don't demonstrate your genuine care, they will see right through the attempts to make it look like you do, and you’ll most likely end up worse than you started off.

So, for those of you with the authority to make this decision, my final suggestion is this: Either do the annual survey right or don't do it at all!

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Further Reading

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