Top 5 employee engagement elephants ??

Sometimes doing our job can be a little bit like being in the movies.

You see the same story lines, plot twists and elephants rampaging round the room.

So let’s go behind behind the curtain and point out these top 5 elephants that often get ignored but can be solved.

Elephant 1 ??

"You want the truth? You can't HANDLE the truth"

Situation

Everyone wants the truth until they hear the truth. The truth about your culture is uncomfortable in every single case.

Every single company has issues within their culture and a well designed employee engagement and happiness survey will highlight them.

Solution

Listening to the whole truth and nothing but the truth is the only way out.

Think of cultural issues like a 2 tonne elephant in the corner of the room. You can ignore the elephant as much as you want but it will still be there.

Elephant 2??

“If Those Things Get Loose, It’s Gonna Make The Lacerta Plague Look Like A F**king Square Dance!”

Situation

Some organisations get over the fear of collecting data and next stage is fear of talking about the truth.

The data is collected and it reveals some uncomfortable truths but the leadership worry that by acknowledging it they will make it worse.

The facts are even if you ignored the elephant in the corner eventually it’s going to cause some serious damage.

Your people know the truth as they live and breathe it every day.

Your employees are likely to already see, hear, smell and sense these elephants as clearly as you can see my words on this page.

Acknowledging what your employees already know (they are the ones that told you) will not make it worse.

Solution

Acknowledge the problems in your culture and fix them together.

Elephant 3??

“If you build it, they will come”

Situation

No one in the world including me the Co-Founder of a survey platform likes filling out surveys.

Every survey program that is simply a survey program is doomed to failure. Even an advanced survey platform like The Happiness Index built on the latest neuroscience is doomed to fail if it is simply seen as a HR survey by your employees.

Solution

A survey must become part of a bigger program where 2 way feedback is seen as a normal part of every day life.

The goal is for it to become a way of life where everyone understands their feedback is part of a virtuous circle that helps improve the culture for everyone.

Surveys need to be about employees needs and not company needs

Elephant 4??

“Liar liar pants on fire”

Situation

People lie in surveys.

- Senior leaders lie to up the average score

- Employees lie because they are worried their manager will know what they said

Solution

- Stop obsessing over the score. The Happiness Index has the word INDEX in it for a reason.

- You can learn as much from the low scores as the high scores.

Encourage people to share when they feel unhappy or not engaged. Make sure they know the results are anonymous and you are working with an Employee Engagement provider like ourselves that can ensure that (other survey platforms exist).

Listen to people and respond to their concerns and people will start sharing the truth.

Over time your scores will increase as you fix the problems but only if you encourage people to tell the truth first.

Elephant 5??

“Ground hog day”

Situation

Even the best programs have mid season fatigue where people doubt the program. That can be both the HR team and / or the employees.

Remember there is a direct correlation between survey fatigue and action fatigue.

Solution

There are only 3 solutions to this problem.

1. Communicate

2. Communicate

3. Communicate

Communicate what you have learnt and what you plan to do in the future

Bonus point

The Oscars ??

I’m often asked what comes first, engaged employees or awards for engaged employees.

If you are doing it to win an award don't bother.

Build a great culture and the awards will come.

Bonus insight ??

Here is some advice from our customer expert Jacqui Weeks who’s sitting next to me as I type this.

“When starting an Employee listening program take your time and don’t try do too much all at once.

It’s key to build trust with your employees slowly and don’t over promise and under deliver”

Next steps

Once you have acknowledged these elephants rampaging round your office you will be faced with 2 simple options.

1. Don't do something about

2. Do something about it

I will leave you to decide the best course of action…

Matt Phelan

Co-Founder The Happiness Index

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About The Happiness Index

The Happiness Index is an Employee Engagement and Happiness Platform.

For those interested here is some more information

Platform information

https://thehappinessindex.com/platform/

Book a demo

https://thehappinessindex.com/demo/