Are Employee Surveys Powerful Workplace Tools to Increase Employee Engagement?

Are employee surveys and employee survey apps effective resources at the workplace?

Typically, they tell you how strong the driving force behind your company is — that strength is your employee’s job satisfaction, by the way.A high mark in this area is a positive thing. In essence, research by economists at the University of Warwick found that happier workers are 12% more successful and that the unsatisfied ones are 10% less productive.

If that is the case, the outcomes of surveys from employee survey apps can be necessary measures of whether or not the company can meet its goals in the coming quarters. Sure, the idea of getting workplace surveys sounds like a fantastic idea, but to be frank, your employees aren’t crazy about them. Most of the time, they either mindlessly answer the questions on the employee survey app or, worse, give dishonest responses. This gives you false findings that invalidate the whole point of the survey.

But how do you build employee surveys that expose real job problems and assess real employee happiness? Read on to take advantage of the real power of workplace surveys.

Develop a plan for the survey.

Since projects in business start with a feasibility plan, employee surveys call for a survey strategy, too. There should be a clearly outlined strategy behind this survey.

Employee surveys can require time and money. Plus, they have the potential to have a positive effect on the sector, so careful planning should be dedicated to it.

Here are a few questions you could ask to guide you in formulating an effective survey strategy:

• Why are you doing the survey?
• What are you going to do with the survey findings?
• How are you going to carry out the survey?
• Will you be rolling the survey out on an employee survey software?

Collect employee’s true responses with strategic questions.

It’s pretty tricky to get the facts out of employee surveys. For example, the United Parcel Service was hit by a costly strike because they failed to discover bitter grievances from workers even though their employee satisfaction score was very high ten months before it happened.

Bearing that in mind, you need to ask the right questions. Don’t lose sight of your why, as you think about the questions. Develop around that. The Harvard Business Review has developed a detailed framework for the study of these topics.

Share a few:

• Generate questions regarding habits that have a recognized connection to success.
• Ask questions about measurable actions.
• Avoid strong words that can contribute to prejudice.

Do something about the input

One reason workers consider workplace surveys pointless is that nothing changes in the office after the survey. Has the leadership listened to the employees’ concerns? Will they do something about it, or do they even acknowledge it?

For workers to take your survey seriously and to respond to it honestly, you should show them that you are going to do something about it. At Google, the managers know how to prevent 5% of their top workers from leaving and how to help the bottom 5 % to develop, based on the results of their surveys.

As workers see that you’re doing something about it, they’ll be motivated to express what they feel the next time you send out the survey.

Last note:

Are you ready to enjoy the benefits of an effective employee survey in your organization?
The Ezzely employee survey app has a workplace survey feature that is easy to use that will instantly improve employee engagement in your organization.

Just click here to see how it works or sign up for a free trial here.