Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Fact or Myth: Employee surveys and honest employee feedback

Employee surveys can provide some useful information about employee attitudes and aptitudes but are a poor substitute for engaging face to face with people. For one thing, not everyone believes that employee surveys are anonymous. Unless people are so dissatisfied they are ready to run the risk of repercussions they probably won’t be totally truthful, at least not in writing.

This means that companies that conduct employee surveys may get plenty of innocuous feedback on what kind of soft drinks people would prefer at the next company meeting and maybe even the odd toned down criticism or suggestion. Surveys may also be a useful tool for analyzing general skills or preferred types of compensation or benefits by demographic group. However, they probably won't result in full disclosure about poor management practices, inefficient processes or slacking coworkers.

Talent management is a human problem first and a software problem second. A company of any size generally needs some sort of technical solution to support performance and compensation processes and employee surveys may be part of a comprehensive talent management solution landscape. But regardless of company size, also important is the good old-fashioned, non-technical art of conversation.

It’s only natural: people will share more with another person who is really interested and listening than with an online survey tool. And potentially, it’s the information that people hesitate to document in a survey that may be used against them that you really want to know.

Another point to consider is that people who are not in the direct communication path of decision makers may have great ideas worth tapping into. A case study that demonstrates this point was recently presented by the editors of HR Executive Online, in which a company invited employees to form teams and come up with a 10-minute, three-slide presentation for a new product idea and its marketability. Two finalist teams were chosen and given six months to prototype their ideas with paid time off from their regular work. Today, one of the products stands an 80% chance of going into full production, while the other holds a 50% chance.

Not a bad result just for listening to people who don’t normally get a chance to share their thoughts and ideas with executives.

Some people may prefer the possibly anonymous, in-your-own-time format of online surveys. And there may be some generational differences in preferred approach. But generally speaking, companies that want to connect with people and create a team culture won’t get very far without talking with people.

4 comments:

  1. When you hire the services of independent survey experts from websites such as SurveySolutions.co.uk, you provide a better way for your employees to voice out their concerns since they won't fear that their standing within the company would be affected due to their honest answers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of course, one of the reasons why this area of Ohio has remained so persistently branded as a pocket of joblessness is its failure to recover from the
    death of the steel industry and also because of automotive production lines outsourced to foreign
    lands. The mobile news service facility is very new and unique concept that has created a
    buzz among every citizen. On you left you will notice list of content providers and on the right is the advanced search option where you can search video clips by typing in the exact phrase (in quotes),
    or at least one of the keywords to narrow down your search.


    Visit my web-site - Latest Daily News

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi there it's me, I am also visiting this website regularly, this site is really fastidious and the viewers are truly sharing good thoughts.

    My webpage :: This Web-site

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey! Someone in my Facebook group shared this website with us so I came to
    check it out. I'm definitely enjoying the information. I'm book-marking and will be tweeting
    this to my followers! Outstanding blog and superb design.



    My homepage http://www.biotechnologyreview.net/ar/food-biotechnology.php

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...