MightyRecruiterIt should be a simple rule of any business that if your employees are happy, then you will be happy. That does not simply mean that you should offer your workers special perks in order to get them to work harder. A certain dynamic needs to be at play where your employees are happy to work for you, but they still understand the importance of working hard and delivering stellar results. An easy way to engage your workers and see what areas of the business need to be improved is to hand out employee engagement surveys. Take the time to understand what makes your workers tick so that everyone has a much more enjoyable office culture.
Be Committed to Listening to Feedback
The whole point of conducting a survey is to see what needs to be done to create a better work environment. If an overwhelming number of your employees say that a specific problem needs to be fixed and then you do nothing to fix it, then you are only going to foster resentment. Your workers will think that you did not actually care about the results, and it will make them skeptical of the effects of any future employee engagement surveys. Only send out the surveys if you are willing to take constructive criticism and be open to making changes.
Create Cross-Sectional Committees
You have choices regarding who you want to interpret the results of the surveys. You can absolutely hire a professional consulting firm to review your surveys and offer your valuable data. These companies are highly regarded for their confidentiality, so they are worth considering. However, you could also create your own in-office cross-section committee. This team should be comprised of people who hold leadership roles within the organization and more low-level employees you trust. This will convince the rest of the company that you are devoted to engaging every level of your business. This group will inform you of what actions need to be taken most, according to the results of the employee engagement surveys.
Prepare for Follow-Up Surveys
A follow-up survey should be sent out in order to see if general employee attitude has altered in any way. These follow-ups will only be fruitful if you have implemented the changes recommended by your committee. You need to actively carry out certain actions that indicate you listened to feedback the last time. If you do not, it will only make your employees think that this new survey will not yield any tangible results.
Keep Plans Simple
Similar to people running for office on either the middle school or national level, many employers have a tendency to promise too much and then deliver too little. Again, you will only create cynicism within your company if you say you are going to do something to fundamentally change the company culture, only to not deliver. You can prevent this by creating a comprehensive plan once you receive the results. If an issue if going to require finances to fix, then you need to ensure you have enough money in the budget to carry out this action while not compromising the quality of any other aspect of the company.
Invest Properly
Depending on the size of your company, conducting a survey can be costly. However, you should do your best to not focus on sending out a pretty survey. Instead, you should focus on interpreting the data provided by those surveys and then spending the right way to ensure that everything is implemented correctly. While there are numerous survey vendors out there who will cost you a bundle, you should pay more attention to ensuring you interpret the information provided by the employee engagement surveys the way they were meant to be.
Look for Variances
Are there specific problems that are pertinent to people who work in a certain department? Are there any generational differences between your employees? This will show you if there are specific groups of people who are having problems. Some areas of your business may be more highly engaged then others, and this lets you know where to devote more time, money and energy. Studies have shown that companies with more engaged employees are more successful. While engagement and happiness do differ slightly, there is some overlap. Generally speaking, employees who are engaged in their work perform better and are more satisfied. Distributing employee engagement surveys will show your workers that you are dedicated to keeping the business running smoothly and that you care about everyone’s input. For more tools and resources on running a profitable business, see what else Mighty Recruiter has to say.