Employee Surveys - the Emperor's New Clothes

Hello people. Folks who have been following some of my blogs will recall I had penned towards the middle of last year a blog where I had talked about “HR’s brave new world after the death of bell curves”. What then seemed like an “out there” provocation , has, within a short order of time, gained mass traction. Companies like Microsoft, Accenture, GE, Infosys and a raft of others have scrapped the Bell Curve, and are enthusiastically experimenting with new and arguably more effective, real-time and humanistic employee appraisal processes. Early days yet, but the movement has definitely gained significant traction, and I dare say it won’t be too long before “forced ranking” is totally consigned to the museum of anachronistic management artefacts giving company to the likes of the Quality movement – remember “Lean” and “Total quality” anyone?

And this got me thinking about another of “Emperor’s new clothes” in HR – the notion of employee engagement or employee satisfaction surveys.

No doubt, many if not most of you are familiar with this beast – every year, “top management” sends out a mail to all employees asking them to participate in a survey; HR follows up with instructions on what links to click to fill up, to take what is typically a half hour survey on the company. Among other things, the survey asks you who you are (demographics, employee level, years in company, that sort of thing), whether you like your boss, whether you are familiar with the company’s strategy, whether you think management is doing a dandy job, do you think processes are cool or whether they suck, how motivated are you, and whether you are seriously thinking of quitting the company..

No one can argue with  the intent of management asking folks for their opinions, and the notion of two way communication. There is no such thing as too much communication anyway. But here are 3 things that, to my mind, are fundamentally flawed with Employee Surveys:

1) Once a year is just too long an interval. All feedback needs to be here and now, real time. The old notion of gathering data, analysis, discussion and introspection, and then rolling out action plans just has too long a cycle time for it to be effective or engender the desired outcomes. There will be another version of the iPhone out by then! And 15-25% of survey respondents would have quit the company. 

2) It feels stilted and artificial. Employees tick or circle the number most likely in a reversion to mean phenomenon, it doesn’t lend itself to going deep and merely scratches the surface and importantly, it merely compiles the “what” - the symptoms, rather than ascertaining insights about the “why”. Yes, yes I know that there is a free format box in which employees can jot down their non- formatted thoughts but the efficacy and indeed useful data that can be gleaned from there is rather limited. 

3) It is dangerous when used as a parameter to reward and punish managers. First off, it’s not only a reflection on the immediate supervisor but also indicative of a host of other environmental, cultural and inter personal factors, that its downright simplistic to view from just one perspective. Second, how often have we seen employees giving the “desired” ratings because they are not convinced of confidentiality, or due to covert or overt pressure which the supervisor exerts and “encourages” employees to give the right answers. What gets measured gets “managed”. 

Don’t get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting employee input. Indeed, it would be downright foolish not to do so. However, I do take issue with the “how” of this HR process. Rather than rely on what is essentially a monochromatic and dumbed down exit poll or leader’s popularity poll, there is immense scope to be thoughtful about how we get our employees to tell us how they are doing, what they are feeling, and how we can help them get their best selves to work. How they can grow as professionals and human beings. And what role we can play in that journey. And this involves trust. And Open dialogue. And ongoing communication. But isn’t that what managers are supposed to do ? After all, if the first time you get to know your employees are “ seriously exploring other opportunities at this time ” is only through the survey, then you have yourself a bit of a problem don’t you!

And if we as managers, reflect, think about and act on how we can literally and figuratively throw open our doors and converse with our team members, and leave surveys to the psephologists and qualitative researchers, dare I say the workplace would be a little more open, honest and less patronising. And who knows – your employees may actually tell you what they really think!