Is your employee engagement survey really making a difference to the strategic direction of your business? If the answer is no, fear not as you are not alone.
The problem is the focus of employee engagement surveys. There is still too much emphasis on the cottage industry of response rates and data collection. If your survey is ever going to deliver genuine business value and strategic insights, a fundamental change of focus is needed.
Engagement surveys should be more business relevant, as I explain in HR Magazine. Your organisation will get far more from the survey if it is designed around your business strategy. Tailoring the questionnaire in this way will mean you get greater insights and feedback from employees on real business issues.
In many respects though, it is managers that hold the key to survey success. Don’t concern managers with response rates – they need to be supported to focus on results and what they do with them. Help managers to identify strategically relevant insights and create relevant action plans.
If we can help bring about this change of focus, the future of employee surveys will be much brighter.
Guest blog post by Samantha Arnold, Business Psychologist at ETS
