Human Resources
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10
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I recently gave a presentation on the ‘five benefits of employee surveys’, to a group of General Managers at one of Xref Engage's clients. A common follow-on question from managers is often: “How can we get maximum value out of our survey results?”
It’s a great question. Responding effectively to survey feedback can be a crucial part of driving organisational improvements and change. And the good news is that the advice on the best way to maximise the value of your results applies to all types of surveys including employee, customer and 360 surveys.
Let’s be frank, you WILL hurt (feel defensive or depressed), hunt (want to know who said what) and hide (find reasons why the results aren’t accurate or don’t warrant acting upon) when you see your results for your team or organisation. It’s human nature. Even if you get great results, there will always be some feedback that you’ll find surprising, disappointing or frustrating.
But if you can accept this will happen, be aware when it is happening, then you can move past your emotional response, and do all you can to focus on hearing, understanding and acting on the insights. If you can do so in a balanced way, consider sharing your disappointment or frustration with your staff; if your emotion is too strong then hold back and focus on listening and try to put yourself in their shoes. Read more here for tips on responding effectively to feedback.
One of the most powerful parts of a survey is the conversation that occurs after results come back. You can run a perfect survey, produce beautiful reports, but without the post-survey conversation you won’t extract maximum value. Indeed, especially with employee surveys, if you run a survey but don’t feedback results and take action, there’s a good chance you’ll have a negative impact on engagement. This is because employees will feel they’ve wasted their time and you’re not taking them seriously.
The conversation need not be complicated or so long that it gets in the way of implementing actions. As a leader, focus on asking questions about the results and listening. Ask something like “This is what I understand from the results, is that correct?” or “This result surprised me, can you help me understand it better?”
Surveys will give you LOTS of data. 100 staff completing 100 questions gives you 10,000 data points, and that’s before you look at all aggregated, sliced and diced results across different respondent groups, and before you even look at text-based responses. It will often feel like too much.
To make the most of survey results, focus on the big picture. You will of course need to dig into the detail to better understand some of the summarised results. But don’t dwell there, keep returning to the big themes that are supported by multiple points of data, and explore the root causes behind any important problems uncovered. Don’t get caught on any one number or any one comment. Look for the patterns and consistencies in the feedback.
It somehow feels better to try to solve five problems raised in a survey rather than one. But one action, effectively implemented, can produce more value than five actions that aren’t fully resourced, monitored and completed. I get nervous when I see clients coming up with more than three to-dos from a survey.
It is useful to bear in mind that each problem you identify is usually thornier than you expect, and each action will typically take more time and resources than you initially plan. Be kind to yourself and realistic. Select three, two, or maybe even have the courage to select just one problem to solve. We often see that when organisations nail one problem exceptionally well, they see unexpected improvements in other work practices as well.
Think of surveys as a cycle rather than having an end point. You haven’t finished just because you’ve come up with actions. Those actions need to be project-managed with progress regularly reviewed. The most effective organisations we’ve worked with will regularly reference survey results alongside all their other KPIs when planning and making critical decisions throughout the year. And they will regularly give staff or customers updates saying 'You said X so we’ve done Y.” Without these communications, survey respondents may not feel their feedback was heard, valued and acted upon.
Finally, at a point when you believe you have achieved some change, go back out and survey again. Once a year can be a useful rhythm because this slots into the annual business cycle, and survey data can be incorporated alongside all your other yearly KPIs. A yearly cycle also keeps leaders accountable for driving change. Some particularly agile organisations will be able to survey more frequently, perhaps with pulse surveys in between bigger surveys. The broad principle here is that speed at which you can achieve change should guide when you go back out and survey again.
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