There has been a lot of focus on employee engagement in recent years. More and more companies conduct employee engagement surveys. Some of them use their own know-how, while others hire professionals in the field of psychometric testing. However, even the best and most expensive expert or methodology won't help if you don't ask yourself the following questions highlighted by Tlnt.com. If you don't answer each of these questions with a clear yes, the only result of your employee engagement survey may be a loss of employee engagement.
1. Will you do something with the survey results?
This question is fundamental, but many companies ignore it. Asking about something you are not going to change is useless and, moreover, it will hurt you in the eyes of your employees. They may feel that what they say and do has no value, and stop trying.
2. Will you processes the survey results in the foreseeable future?
Evaluating employee surveys often lasts for months. During that time, employees may wonder fruitlessly why the survey took place. Negative emotions get stronger and in the end, the feeling is the same as in the first case: Why should we bother?
3. Will you conduct follow-up interviews with employees?
Written surveys are not able to uncover the deeper context of employees' opinions. In personal interviews, which follow the survey, you can ask additional questions and obtain specific examples of good and bad practices.
4. Will you help managers do their jobs?
Managers play a key role in the levels of engagement their employees experience. If you don't invest in the managers' development and don't help them do their jobs better, the entire engagement survey may be useless. Again, there is no follow-up action.
5. Will you approach engagement on an individual basis?
Employee engagement is an individual matter, not the comprehensive result of a survey. Therefore, it is necessary to focus more on developing managers and their individual work with subordinates on the basis of specifics from the survey. Are you ready for it? Then you can start the survey.
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