Are Employee Satisfaction Surveys Worth Taking?
- July 7, 2010
Employee Satisfaction SurveysEmployee satisfaction surveys can seem like a waste of time but in the right hands, they can be valuable tools for implementing change. In the wrong hands, they can be weapons of mass frustration. The consensus of recent query respondents, who either participated in or helped conduct employee satisfaction surveys, is that they're only as effective as the people responsible for acting on the results.
Followup is key, along with implementing what you find out from them – otherwise [employees] will begin to dismiss it each time they take one, said Chad R. Collett, vice-president of marketing for WOW Logistics. If someone has a comment, suggestion, etc on a survey and that gets implemented, it really lifts his/her spirit. He/She can say proudly, 'I had a suggestion and my company listened.'
All respondents, like Kellie Auld of Simply Communicating and Janna Binder, director of marketing for Professional Research Consultants, Inc., agreed that for any employee satisfaction survey to work, employees must feel that
a) it will be anonymous and
b) the powers that be will act on the results in some way.
Others like registered interior designer, Holly Meadows Baird agree. If the data from the survey goes unaddressed, the survey becomes worthless and actually can demoralize the employees who were hopeful for change.
I always advise clients NOT to ask about programs or changes they are unable or unwilling to implement, said Ann Middleman of ADM Marketing & Research Consulting.
Some query respondents also believed, like Auld, that the surveys should be conducted by a disinterested third party to ensure both the quality and the accuracy of the results.
Survey questions should include qualitative ones and an outsider should be tasked with calling random employees to learn more about what they wrote and impact, suggested Beverly D. Flaxington, author of Understanding Other People: The Five Secrets to Human Behavior and of the 7 Steps to Effective Business Building for Financial Advisors.
Query respondents all agreed on one other point: disclosure.
If there are going to be changes implemented as a result of the employee survey results, the priorities would need to be clearly communicated and a plan in terms of what changes would take place, over what period of time and, most definitely, the rationalse behind the changes, said Auld.
Freelance consultant, John Barnes recommended that companies with fewer than 30 employees forgo employee satisfaction surveys because below that level you will never be able to preserve anonymity and without anonymity, the value is zip. For companies of that size, Flaxington's idea of having the employees come together with an outside facilitator to have a group discussion about what is or isn't working might be a good idea.
Employee satisfaction surveys, like peer reviews and annual performance appraisals, are more effective when everyone involved is committed to making them succeed. If employees lack confidence in their employers or if employers are cavalier about their employees' concerns, then surveys, reviews and appraisals are about as useful as an air conditioner in Antarctica.
Being visibly committed to making changes where it is feasible to do so, and saying why where change is not possible at this time. An action-planning process team that includes all stakeholders – managers, supervisors, employees, and unions – must be put in place with a commitment from the organization, to act on their findings. The process will include deciding on the need for further information, e.g., through focus groups, identifying a manageable number of action items, deciding how action will be taken and how progress will be tracked. Though progress may take years, rather than months, accountability is important, said Daniel Martin, assistant professor in the department of Management at California State University, East Bay. Martin is among those respondents fotunate enough to say that concerns he acknowledged on an employee satisfaction survey were duly addressed.