We read an incredibly interesting debate about the relevance and value of the modern day survey on HR Magazine’s website this month. The article centred upon the poor way with which employee surveys are often utilised within business, and aired concern that in general it is becoming a useless tool.
The value of an employee survey though depends greatly upon how it is constructed, applied, managed, interpreted and subsequently communicated throughout the organisation.
No doubt some organisations conduct surveys just because they think they ought to, or because they can at least hide behind the false premise that they do in fact value employee opinions. But this is certainly not the case for everyone.
Cascade truly depends upon the commitment and hard work of its employees. Our culture is clearly defined and people are recruited not only because of the qualifications and skills that they can demonstrate, but because of their attitude and personality too.
If we’ve worked hard to appoint the right people, it makes no sense to ignore them once they have become part of the team. They should be involved in shaping the business going forward. They’re at the heart of everything we do, and we could not grow or deliver our desired level client satisfaction without them.
This is why we regularly run internal employee polls. They vary in complexity depending upon the theme, employees can be prompted and reminded to respond, feedback can be quickly collated and the results can be presented in a usable format and distributed straight away.
Our ever-increasing workforce seem to like our approach too, with new starters especially commenting upon their pleasant surprise at the level of openness, trust and engagement within the business.
When we were ‘in the thick’ of the credit crunch, research findings reported that some employees became less trusting of their managers. At the time we shared our views and commented on the importance of encouraging employee feedback and new ideas, but more importantly acting upon issues and suggestions raised. Employees need to know that it is worth making the effort to contribute.
Surveys are, of course, just one way to harness employees’ thoughts so line managers should also ensure they are accessible at all times so that face-to-face communication and engagement can also be fostered. But surveys haven’t lost their value within the workplace. It is the organisational attitudes towards them that need to change.
