Employee surveys: Insights that matter

Written by: María Eugenia Raffaele

Employee surveys are one of the most powerful – yet underestimated – tools companies have to open portals of discovery and create opportunities for people to express themselves, reinforce the connections with their co-workers, and become more engaged.

Employee engagement is the result of a combination of many factors such as organizational culture, effective communication, and the actions HR professionals take to ensure people’s well-being initiatives. Especially, nowadays, when remote-leadership is one of the HR trends for 2021, the big question is: how can HR leaders make distance leadership truly work?

In this scenario, employee surveys can become an essential vehicle for HR to gain insight on the people who make up their workforce, and thus foster their engagement, well-being and productivity by providing a space of collaboration and active participation. If you are an organization with a people-centered culture, or you’re on the way to build one, you should probably read on to find out the way you can enhance people’s engagement and satisfaction through surveys and make the most of your culture.

Why surveys matter

The numbers speak for themselves. According to Gallup’s World Poll, only 15% of employees worldwide claim they feel engaged at work. Lack of engagement in your workforce means your employees don’t feel their job enhances their professional growth, they are not motivated to work hard and are probably on the lookout for better opportunities. Disengagement and poor performance can cost companies between $450 and $550 billion a year and this represents the lack of a solid and healthy organizational culture.

Conducting employee surveys can help HR identify the areas that the company needs to improve in order to increase employee engagement. Plus, they are an opportunity to provide a space where people’s voices are heard and valued, which is essential to build a healthy and human culture. The benefits are many and we list the most relevant ones below.

Encourage employees to share their voice

Would you keep up your level of engagement if you didn’t have the chance to express your ideas with the people you work with? No, and neither would your employees. To empower people across the company, the first thing managers have to do is to give everyone a venue for open feedback. With the implementation of employee surveys you’re giving your employees a space to express needs, and feelings – which allows you to keep the pulse of their sentiment and mood – and share their ideas across the company. They are the best way to reinforce your organization’s pillars of active listening and efficient communication, and they allow you to measure the degree to which people feel valued at your company.

Keep a better pulse on people’s satisfaction

More than ever, managers have to make sure they get real-time information about people’s views, attitudes and perceptions of their organization. A short and quick employee satisfaction survey – also known as “climate surveys” – sent out to all your employees on a regular basis, will basically provide you with a pulse check on topics such as employee’s level of happiness with their job and work environment, and their general emotional state. This way you can detect areas that need special attention. For example, an agile employee satisfaction survey can help managers tackle signals of stress and prevent work burnout on time, or plan strategies to improve performance based on people’s manifested needs.

Measure people’s engagement

Employee Engagement Surveys can help you find out how passionate people feel about their job, and the extent to which they are making their best to succeed because they feel committed to the organization. Planning effective engagement surveys can give you valuable information about people’s level of commitment, motivation, sense of purpose and passion for their work and their organizational culture. HR can early diagnose key areas of improvement and carry out action plans to foster employees’ engagement and performance.

Allow employee-driven initiatives

Employee surveys are also fundamental to establish a two-way communication where people are provided with a space to propose initiatives and ideas of their own, and share them with all the organization. An employee with an active voice, whose opinions and ideas are valued, feels he has a stake in the company and is more likely to feel actively involved and committed with every objective and decision made because they are allowed to be part of them. Getting insight on people’s ideas and initiatives gives managers the chance to create follow-up opportunities to boost people’s professional growth and retain the talents of their company. Remember: If your employees get the chance to grow professionally, so will your organization.

Surveys should be conducted on a regular basis – not annually, as many companies do. Bear in mind that requesting regular feedback shows employees they are at the center, and that the company cares about how they perceive their work environment.

Conducting effective surveys

The more thought managers give to the planning of their employee survey questions, the more significant the results will be. Effective surveys generally inquire on people’s views concerning:

Especially nowadays, when people are going through so many changes in their personal and professional lives, companies need to embrace technology to implement innovative and easy-to-use solutions that would help them understand the day-to-day company’s dynamics, employee’s feelings, ideas, and performance in real time, to attend people’s needs and constantly improve their experience. An employee engagement platform like StarMeUp, for example, is a more comprehensive solution that allows HR to ignite passion in their employees by allowing them not only to express their voice through surveys, but also to give and receive recognition, strengthen bonds with people across the company, and feel part of every decision made.

We hope you’ve found this article useful. And, if you’re looking forward to improving the experience of your employees and measuring the impact of their initiatives, we can guide you on how to make your business grow with behavioral data coupled with survey insights to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement.