At the start of a new year, many people, personally or professionally, spend time reflecting on the past year - the things that went well and the areas that they could improve. This can also be an important element to your people strategy - what were your staff happy with and what ideas do they have to improve their work environment or the business?
This is even more critical with workplace legislation changing and new and different systems being introduced. How do we do this so that staff are not anxious or nervous?
When managed well, staff surveys can assist in increasing staff retention rates, lowering absenteeism, improving productivity, enhancing customer relations, and increasing profitability. When staff survey results are acted on, it can reinforce to employees that their input is valued by the organisation and help improve morale and loyalty - all valuable outcomes in today's candidate-short market.
The staff survey process often presents a number of challenges; high costs, a time consuming process, poor response rates, and administrative challenges around producing quality reports and charts. So how do we overcome these hurdles to implement an effective employee feedback program?
· Conduct the staff survey using a mixed methodology of online and traditional paper based approaches. Online surveys save money and respondent time and paper surveys are essential in meeting hard-to-reach groups who don’t have access to the Internet.
· Market the staff survey internally via email, notice boards or the Intranet and promote the benefits of taking part to increase response rates.
· Make sure you have buy-in from team leaders and that they own the results. Appoint a staff survey coordinator who will liaise closely with your senior team.
· Protect and communicate the anonymity of the employees’ responses and you are more likely to receive honest feedback. Using a 3rd party to conduct and manage the staff survey can assure the employees of confidentiality.
· I have found that using a third party to conduct your staff survey also increases response rates, provides objectivity in the report and more quality in questionnaire design.
· Communicate the results to your workforce whether they are positive or negative. This should be done quickly to show you’re being serious and then get them involved in working out what the actions will be.
· It’s not enough to just conduct staff survey! You and your senior team needs to make sure you act on the results and communicate your actions to their employees. A positive plan of action needs to be put into place to address some of the key issues.
· Finally run the staff survey at the same time every six months or so to gauge the difference in satisfaction levels and highlight any problems. Together with performance reviews, team workshops and exit interviews, this can build a picture of staff satisfaction and ensure that you retain your most valuable resource – your employees.
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