Unlocking Employee Engagement Surveys: Mastering the Do’s & Don’ts

Best Practices for Employee Engagement Surveys

Employee Engagement Surveys aren’t just about collecting dataᅳthey’re key for organizations to discover what’s impacting employee satisfaction, find ways to improve, and build a culture of open communication. At Flex Surveys, we know how important these surveys are for a company’s success and growth. As experts, we’re all about helping businesses harness employee satisfaction to improve their long-term outlook. In this guide, we cover the ins and outs of employee engagement surveys, giving you the lowdown on what to do and what to avoid to make sure your surveys hit the mark.

Setting Clear Objectives

Before launching an Employee Engagement Survey, you must define what you are aiming to achieve.

– Are you seeking to gauge overall employee satisfaction?
– Identify specific areas for improvement?
– Measure the impact of recent changes or initiatives?

By establishing clear objectives, we can help tailor your survey questions to promote relevant and actionable feedback.

Keeping Surveys Concise

While detailed feedback provided by employees is very valuable, completing a long survey leads to survey fatigue and reduced participation. It’s essential to strike a balance between gathering sufficient data to inspire efforts moving forward and respecting employees’ time.

We will help you focus the survey on key areas of interest to prioritize the most critical aspects of Employee Engagement. By utilizing a combination of Net Promoter Score (NPS), multiple-choice, and open-ended questions we can increase the value of both quantitative and qualitative insights. By keeping the survey concise and targeted, you will experience increased participation rates and obtain more meaningful feedback.

Employee Confidentiality is Key to Success

Confidentiality is at the forefront of a successful Employee Engagement Survey rollout. Employees should feel comfortable providing honest feedback without fear of reprisal or judgement from leadership. By assuring employees that their responses will remain 100% confidential, and emphasizing that by using a 3rd party survey provider, HR and leadership will have no access to their individual responses. Their feedback will only be provided in summary form and used to gather insights to drive positive change within the organization.

By utilizing Flex Surveys for your Employee Engagement Survey, you will be able to assure employees that no individual responses will be shared with leadership. In comparison, using a DIY software that is managed internally will reduce employee trust as HR will have access to the individual responses and could potentially share them with leadership. Using a trusted third-party survey platform, like Flex Surveys, can further reinforce that confidentiality will be maintained, fostering a sense of trust with employees.

Effective Communication and Follow-Up

Our recommendation is to ensure that you effectively communicate the survey process to employees by utilizing a range of communications throughout the survey process. Flex Surveys provides you with templates to communicate the upcoming survey launch (posters & emails), and customizes your post-survey follow-up with pre-drafted communications aimed at increasing employee trust in the process. By communicating the survey’s purpose, objectives, and timeline to employees prior to launching the survey, you will effectively emphasize the importance of their participation. Another important part of the communication process is to clearly articulate how confidential the survey is and what their feedback will be used for. Following the survey, it is important to promptly share the results with employees and outline a go-ahead plan for action plans based on their feedback. Within the months following the survey, it is important to ensure that HR/leadership continue communicating about the survey results & action plan progress as it demonstrates the organization’s commitment to listening to employees and implementing meaningful change.

Acting on Feedback and Implementing Change

The true value of an Employee Engagement Survey lies in its ability to drive positive change within your organization. Upon receiving the survey results, identify the key areas for improvement and meet with your teams to develop actionable strategies to address the feedback. By involving employees in the follow up, you can increase their trust in the survey process by demonstrating that their feedback is being listened to. This not only ensures that action plans are aligned with your employee’s needs, but also fosters a sense of ownership and accountability among your team members. We encourage you to regularly monitor action plan progress and adjust your strategies as needed to ensure sustained improvement over time.

Don’t Neglect Acting on Survey Feedback

One of the most significant pitfalls you can encounter in the survey process is collecting feedback from employees without properly communicating or taking action. By ignoring survey results or failing to follow through on promised changes, employees will begin to lose trust in the survey process which directly correlates to lower employee morale.

Ensure that when you receive the survey results, you carefully review and develop actionable plans to address areas of improvement. Once you communicate these actions to employees, it helps demonstrate your organization’s commitment to listening and responding to their feedback.

Staying Ahead of Emerging Trends

Employee Engagement is a dynamic landscape, which continually is evolving in response to societal trends, technological advancements, and shifting employee expectations. To ensure that your organization stays relevant and offers effective Employee Engagement Surveys, we will help you stay abreast of emerging trends and adapt your survey strategies accordingly.

As a practical example, the rise of remote work has led to new opportunities in Employee Engagement, which has increased the need for questions related to remote work satisfaction, virtual communication effectiveness, and work-life balance. By ensuring that you address emerging trends proactively, your organization will be able to maintain high levels of engagement and drive continuous improvement.

Don’t Assume One Size Fits All

Every organization is unique, with its own culture, values, and challenges. As such, a one-size-fits-all approach to Employee Engagement Surveys is unlikely to yield meaningful results. Our recommendation is to avoid using generic survey templates or questions and instead, work with our team to tailor the survey to address the specific needs and priorities of your organization. This advanced customization ensures that the survey is relevant and resonates with employees to help generates actionable insights that drive positive change.

In conclusion, Employee Engagement Surveys are powerful tools for your organization to understand, measure, and improve employee satisfaction. By following the best practices recommended by Flex Surveys, such as setting clear objectives, ensuring confidentiality, and acting on feedback, your organization can leverage these surveys to foster a culture of open communication and continuous improvement. We are committed to helping your organization navigate the complexities of Employee Engagement and drive positive change within your organization. Contact us today to learn more about our customizable survey solutions and how we can support your organization’s Employee Engagement initiatives.