The end of the year is quickly approaching, which makes it the perfect opportunity to conduct an organization-wide employee engagement survey.
In fact, even here at Wonderlic, we are going through our annual employee engagement survey. In this process, employees can reflect on all that has happened over the past year—successes, setbacks, and failures—without performance appraisals and raises clouding their input.
When administered correctly, employee engagement surveys can be used by any business to solicit candid, constructive feedback from their employees.
To get the most out of your Employee Engagement Survey, follow these tried-and-true tips:
- Include everyone. It’s critical that all employees participate in the survey. Some organizations may only want to sample a subset of employees or particular departments . However, employees often talk to one another within the company. Of those who have received the survey invitation, some believe their jobs are in jeopardy. Alternatively, those who did NOT receive it may believe that they are not a potential candidate for an upcoming opportunity. In addition, inviting all employees to complete the survey gives you a representative picture of your organization. An email notification from upper management seems to do wonders for higher participation rates. Afterwards, have department heads or managers follow up personally with their employees for an extra nudge. Lastly, send out weekly reminders until the survey collection is over.
- Communicate the benefits and anonymity. A blanket statement that states, “We value your feedback” is simply not enough to have employees take precious time out of their busy workday to complete a survey. Instead, you should be communicating the benefits: what exactly will employees get out of taking the survey, and how will you use their feedback? Moreover, it’s important that you ensure employee anonymity. Some people are afraid to give honest feedback if it can be linked back to them. Having an outside vendor create and administer the survey, as well as disseminate the results, gives greater confidence in the confidentiality of employees’ responses.
- Consider incentivizing. Although incentives aren’t necessary, they sure do help. One of our clients entered survey respondents into a drawing for a paid vacation day. Their participation rate was one of the highest we’ve seen among hundreds of organizations. A good incentive helps reinforce the backing of the organization to its commitment for honest feedback and improvements moving forward.
- Deliver results. Whether positive or negative, your employees should know about the results. All too often, results are simply filed away to collect dust. Moreover, your participation rate for future endeavors is likely to fall over time if results are never shared with employees.
- Take action. After you have a greater sense of your organization’s strengths and weaknesses, do something about it! Focus on your most pressing issue, and put time, energy, and resources into turning it around. Most organizations also tend to solely focus on weaknesses or threats. It is equally important to shed light on strengths and opportunities. Marketing your strengths could help retain current employees and attract future prospects.
- Repeat. You should administer employee engagement surveys around the same time each year. Given that business changes so rapidly these days, it is important to track how outcomes, perceptions, and culture changes as employees, size, and objectives of the company change and grow. Also, don’t you want to know whether the steps you took to remedy previous issues were successful?
If your organization has never launched an employee engagement survey or if you are unhappy with the current tool you are using, Wonderlic has you covered!
