What is the State of Employee Opinion Surveys in 2024?
A lot has happened over the past several decades around collecting employee opinions, both live conducting focus groups, and through data collected in the form of an Employee Opinion Survey.
When I was early in my career, I don’t believe many were trying their own versions of an employee survey, but rather yielded to the big consulting houses to use their scientifically sound tools and methods! In fact we were somewhat in awe of the machine that developed the question regimen, how an “engagement” score was calculated, and the very secretive and proprietary nature of the instrument. As Thomas Dolby famously said “she blinded me with science”
As we moved through various iterations of the full length Employee Survey (regardless of the provider), three things became abundantly clear! First, it was expensive, with a mid size Company staring at a bill in the tens of thousands of dollars (I can only imagine the revenue streams created by these consulting house folks - Huge!) Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the process seemed to take a long time to analyze and produce reporting on the findings. Finally, once the output was received, it was an enormous amount of data, conclusions, recommendations, and then often followed by a suggestion for a follow up survey event within a year.
Once the report was received, of course everyone internally wanted to also complete their analysis, debunk what they don’t see as legitimate or useful, with the effect of slowing down the process further. Ego can play a part here as well - if results are not top quartile, operators and leaders are often less excited to jump on board and support the remedial work required to close the gaps in the employee experience.
So, now that (in most cases) months have passed since the average employee has completed their survey, the business struggles to determine how and what? will be communicated, and most importantly, what action plans are developed to close the gaps identified in the analysis?
Skipping ahead to about fifteen years ago, I was sitting in the office of my next CEO (my final interview before joining this particular organization) talking about the future of both the employee and customer experience, and sharing his passion and excitement for the evolving vision to significantly improve both metrics in his organization through a new leadership model. When I asked about his thoughts on using some form of a diagnostic tool (I should note I was already moving off the traditional survey as my go-to ) to establish a benchmark for the corporation, he pointed to a very thick document sitting on the corner of his desk. He indicated that the paperweight that was the document (perhaps 250 pages) was the last employee survey conducted. SInce he had arrived to work at the enterprise, he had asked many senior leaders what had been done with the results? Had they been communicated, were action plans developed and executed? The answer - crickets. He made it clear to me there would be no further money spent on survey work in any form until such time someone could answer his questions.?
I can’t imagine this was the only organization that could tell this story!
So if you have been following this saga through the decades, of course technology has evolved and provided some improvements to processing and analysis time, but the other challenges with the traditional survey set remain.
In response, much of the industry moved to a more agile alternative - the “Pulse Survey”, designed to be much shorter, more nimble and focus on a small subset of questions around the level of engagement in an organization (or off site locations). This evolution helped in terms of the length of time it took to process, but the hefty price tag remained.
领英推荐
This has led to further innovation. A lower cost, non proprietary, and nimble process to complete a pulse survey, or as we describe our model at Corrigan HR Consulting - a “Culture Assessment”, delivering many of the same outputs as the predecessors, without the high cost and awkward timelines.?
Effectively this process provides for confidential engagement benchmarking, employee experience gap identification, and an opportunity for two way communication with your team - conducted by a third party that ensures a high level of trust and rigor is in play, and a timeline established that makes sense and keeps the data current. More importantly, information and action plans are back in front of employees within weeks, not months.
A survey diagnostic, regardless of which one is employed, is a critical tool in an organization's ability to gauge the level of engagement in their enterprise, and whether or not their employee experience is providing a competitive advantage in the broader context of the business model. Ultimately if you have competitors, you want your workforce to be both more productive - and if they are consumer facing - more engaging with your customers.?
As businesses are challenged with the perception of value, innovation, and cost pressures (margin), the impact of an engaged workforce and strong culture can help address each of these elements and establish a strong point of differentiation.
Thinking about checking in with your teams? Reach out to speak with one of us at Corrigan HR Consulting - we would be very happy to help find the right options for your business!
Paul Mansbridge
Email - [email protected]