Engagement surveys…worth it?
The real truth about Employee Engagement Surveys and why you might want to ditch them in favour of an old-fashioned conversation.
Companies want employees to feel satisfied at work and often use engagement surveys to gain feedback and inform strategies. But such methods of finding out about engagement can be limited by a design that finds out what the company wants to know and not necessarily what’s relevant to individuals. They often fail to capture the real experience for employees. The most effective way to find out how engaged people really are, what is working and what isn’t, is via direct conversations. It is more time-consuming but it makes all the difference to find out what really matters: individual realities, hopes and expectations, and priorities and plans for development.
Keep in mind the bigger picture about your work culture
The Garner 2019 Modern Employee Experience Employee Survey shows that only 21% of employees feel comfortable being entirely truthful about the details of what they want from their work. This comes back to psychological safety that I have talked about recently – people will only be honest if they trust their manager.
Unless we ask people how they are feeling, we could be missing opportunities for them to fulfil their potential. But asking people in the workplace about what is really going on for them can feel tricky. We often utter the words ‘How are you?’ without really listening to what the other person says (or does not say). Yet we know that if we can address the barriers to people feeling their best at work, we enable them to thrive. So having a conversation with our employees about what is going well, what is getting in the way, how we will know, and what we can do to support them, can make all the difference to their ability to engage.
Help is at hand
If you’re a manager who really wants to ‘click’ with your team, get the best from them and create a workplace culture where your people can excel; the attached discussion guide might just help. Use the guide to steer your conversation, highlight some of the types of questions you might want to explore and gain useful insight into the next steps. It’s not about being perfect. It IS about being authentic and showing that you care about and value the individual. Invite a member of your team for coffee and begin a meaningful conversation.
The number one priority for managers has to be employee engagement – without your teams on board, your company is unlikely to survive, let alone flourish. But knowing what that looks like and how to achieve it is a challenge, particularly with the significant pressure of dealing with these changing times.
The success of employee engagement is all in the detail and that’s where I come in. We can support you to achieve employee engagement that really takes your business into the future.
Get people right, get business right.
