Designing and Implementing an Employee Engagement Survey
1.As a leader is your ‘gut’ telling you that something’s not quite right with your team? 2.Have you been using this “down economy” as the excuse that your team is underperforming? 3.Do you have a manager whose team is struggling, but won’t admit there is a problem? 4.Do you hear snippets of griping and complaining, and are wondering if there is more? 5.Have you made changes and want to know how they’ve been accepted? 6.Do you want to show your boss how well your team is performing?
If you’ve answered YES, to any of these questions it might be time to do an employee questionnaire or employee engagement survey to get the facts.Whether you’re looking for documentation that your team is doing great or trying to determine why your team is struggling, its best to have facts.A properly designed and administered employee questionnaire can give you those facts in an easy to understand format. Today’s workplace is different than just a couple of years ago. Your employees may now be the only source of income for their family.With this can come a lot of pressure and fear.Fear limits abilities.It also limits creativity.Do you want people on your team that aren’t performing to their abilities and afraid to be creative?
An employee engagement survey can help you determine if you have those folks on your team.
Here are some suggestions on what to do prior to implementing an employee questionnaire. ·Be completely honest about why it’s being done.If you aren’t upfront about your reasons, the rumor mongers will circulate all kinds of outlandish reasons for you. ·Commit to the team that the results will be shared.You won’t try to protect certain leaders or teams.You’ll let the facts speak for themselves. ·Commit that you and/or the team will address issues that are uncovered.
How to implement an employee engagement questionnaire ·Use a qualified, 3rd party to administer the instrument.If your team is truly discouraged, the level of trust will be low.Having the survey done by a 3rd party will help calm some of that mistrust. ·Have the completed surveys sent off-site either by email or snail mail ·Make it easy for your staff to complete the survey by limiting the number of questions.20 questions will usually provide enough information. ·Formulate questions that will give you information in specific areas.For example, I use a questionnaire that gives results in the following areas: oDo they have the ability to do their job oDo they want to do it oDo they have what they need to do it oAre they organized to do it ·Except for knowing the department or area where the employee works, keep the results anonymous.People answer more freely when their name is omitted. ·I prefer having people respond on a 1-5 scale.Some folks get too anal with a larger scale and it really doesn’t give any additional information
How to summarize and interpret the results ·Present the results in a bar graph with the questions on the bottom and average of the responses going vertically.Don’t forget to start the responses at 1 and not zero. ·Look at the results for individual questions and for the groupings I listed above. ·It’s desirable to have responses 4 or higher.My experience has been that a team that has responses for 10 or more questions higher than 4, is performing well ·Conversely, teams that have few averages at or near 4 are struggling. ·Very useful information can be obtained by looking at the fringes of the data.In other words examine the percent of people responding to each question with either a 1 or a 5. ·To me any response of a 1, even if the overall average is ‘okay’, is troubling.People responding with 1s are typically discouraged and discontented, and they’re trying really hard to get others to join them. ·The reason for their low response must be addressed quickly.
What to do with the results ·Have the outside agent that administered the questionnaire present the results at a team meeting. ·Let him/her give their ‘take’ on the results ·Go slowly with the explanation.You may be familiar with looking at the questions and the results, but remember, your staff only answered the questions. ·Ask for their input and what they think the results mean.Remember, this is their information.Don’t assume you know WHY they answered the way they did. ·Revisit the results with the team in a day or so.Some people are slower at processing information and if they’re not asked later for their input, they may feel resentful. ·Set up a system to celebrate where your team is doing well and to address the areas where improvement is needed. ·Prepare to repeat this process at a later date to monitor progress.
What to do after you have the facts. Now its time for you to take action. If you've uncovered areas of concern, it is your obligation as a leader to take prompt action. Your staff has done their part. They opened up and told you how they felt. Now its time for you to lead. If what you learned is not easily fixable, be honest and tell them that it’s not and why. However, more often than not, your team has jumped to conclusions because they don’t have all the information. Give them the information, be transparent.
There are times when you’ll find you’ve got a person that is not leading effectively. Coaching is an effective tool if this person wants to improve. When I’m coaching with a leader I’m also working on his or her team, so it turns out to be a win/win/win.
To learn more about how to fully engage your staff maximize their human potential, contact me at kay@teamsonpurpose.com