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The numbers are clear.
Employee engagement is at an all-time low – while employee stress is at an all-time high.
To address this issue, many companies are turning to an old favorite – the employee engagement survey.
There’s only one problem…most employee engagement surveys suck!
Here’s why:
They Invite Vague Feedback
The first reason why employee engagement surveys suck is they are too vague or open-ended.
More often than not, companies ask questions like “How do you think the employee experience could improve at ABC company?”
While it’s great to get input, the reality is that employees won’t naturally give specific, actionable ideas. More often than not, you’ll get a lot of fluff and complaining, but not a lot of useful information.
Sometimes, companies purposefully seek vague input because they don’t want to hear the truth. Let’s face it, negative feedback is hard to hear. But it’s a vital step in improving!
They’re Too Infrequent
Another big problem with employee engagement surveys is that they are only conducted once a year. This makes it very hard to gauge your company’s current level of engagement.
What if you catch your team at a bad time…or an exceptionally good time?
What if you enact sweeping changes based on results of the survey, only to find out that your results were a fluke?
So How Can We Do Better?
There’s a few ways to concretely improve employee engagement surveys.
The first is to conduct surveys more than once a year. Employee engagement can fluctuate quite a bit in a year, so you have to take frequent pulse checks.
We recommend quarterly at a minimum, and even monthly if possible. To make frequent surveys more feasible, you could make the surveys as short as 1-3 questions.
Another great step is to ask more specific questions.
One great question is “What’s one frustration you have at work that you believe your leader could fix immediately?”
This question is great because it asks employees to identify a pain point and focuses the discussion on problems that you likely have the capability to fix.
You Have the Power to Increase Employee Engagement
Employee engagement may be low across the board, but that doesn’t mean your company has to accept poor engagement.
Forward-thinking companies around the globe are applying tried-and-tested strategies for driving engagement – from improving their engagement surveys to leveraging science with platforms like the Predictive Index and Perception Predict.
You can make a difference at your organization – so what are you waiting for?
