My Greatest Learning and Best Advice from the Annual Employee Satisfaction Survey
Inspiration for writing a blog post can come from all kinds of places. Sometimes there is a theme or topic that has been following me around for a few weeks and sometimes I come up empty so I go looking for inspiration. One of my favorite ways to overcome writer's block is from the latest HBR articles and today did not disappoint!
Tis the season for analyzing the results our annual Corporate America Employee Satisfaction Survey (ours is called the VOW - Voice of the Workforce) so clearly something relevant we must ALL be grappling with.
The Annual Feedback Cycle
Step One encourage your teams to participate (Goal is 100%)
Step Two reinforce that it is anonymous and how important it is to give honest feedback. i.e. If things are good - shout loud and proud....if things need improvement let your voice be heard
Step Three remind everyone to leave specific and constructive comments for improvement (refer to Step two for courage as needed). The comments come in as a melting pot of line items so don't assume the readers know what question you are commenting on
Step Four THANK everyone in advance for participating.....change comes from knowing where change is needed
Harvard Business Review (HBR) Sparks the Conversation
So now that everyone has participated comes the moment you have been waiting for...what were the results? Were you caught off guard or did things line up to the feedback you had been getting from your team all year long?
After YOU have had time to digest the results comes time to facilitate a conversation with the team and share the results. This is where the HBR article comes in and it has some great suggestions on...
How to Encourage Your Team to Give You Honest Feedback by Deborah Grayson Riegel
Just because the team participated... rated the questions...and gave quality comments doesn't mean we are done. We need to continue the conversation on how we capitalize on the areas we are doing well and how we come up with some demonstrable actions to address the areas that we can improve on.
My favorite spark for a conversation from the HBR article is addressing head on with the team the...
Suspicion that nothing will change as a result of the feedback
Lessons Learned From the Annual Cycle
So as you are having the conversation with the team and addressing all their suspicions... fears... uncertainty and doubt... here are a few lessons learned to navigate the dialogue...
Celebrate the Successes. Even though we tend to focus on the "areas of improvement" and get overwhelmed with the tougher comments...take a moment to celebrate as a team to give yourselves credit for those things that create a positive and productive working environment.
Say THANK YOU. For the areas of improvement...acknowledge and thank the team for their honesty and feedback. Encourage a dialog around their thoughts on the rating...did it surprise them? What is their perspective and can they shed more light on the subject?
Address the Themes. Look for "groupings of questions" that can help guide the conversation for themes...both positive and negative
Don't Dismiss Any Feedback. Acknowledge that there are areas that may be outside of the teams direct control but are still critically important and personal....i.e. compensation (a favorite across most companies I believe). Commit to following up with the team on any business unit or corporate initiatives that are being done to address the concerns
Listen...Listen...Listen. Ask as many clarifying questions as you can. Resist the urge to solve on the spot or to "convince" the team that those items are already addressed. Remember to embrace diversity of thought which includes different countries, cultures and backgrounds. This conversation alone may help to clarify and create shared understanding that the team was missing
Enlist the Team's Support. At a subsequent meeting...ask for help coming up with actions that could improve the lower scores for next time. Their feedback and help is critically important so the leadership team doesn't try to kick off initiatives that miss the mark or make things worse
Commit to Focus. Acknowledge that as a team we should only really focus on 2-3 things that can make YOUR company and team's experience the best it can be. Don't try and boil the ocean with a ton of initiatives and "get well plans"
In Closing....
I don't know about YOU but I have been participating and analyzing Employee Satisfaction Surveys for over 25 years. There has never been a place I worked where everyone gave top marks and said only positive things. If you ever got that... my conspiracy theory would be the team did that to get out of having to come up with action items to improve their own happiness.
I also find it highly amusing at this point in my career... because what else can you do... that leadership teams often admit prior to the annual survey "we know we are going to get some tough scores and feedback". Yet when it comes back....everyone is shocked and drilling in deeply to the lowest scores and the toughest comments.
My greatest learning and best advice...
...is to not to get wrapped up in the "highs and lows" of this process. In other words - don't buy into your perceived success around any high scores or great comments...and don't get despondent from the lower scores and tougher feedback. If you look at it as an opportunity to drive an authentic conversation with your team about ways to make their time at work more productive... enjoyable...and further their career aspirations than that is the win in this whole game.
Agree?
Leadership Questions of the week for YOU!
Did YOU just go through the annual Employee Satisfaction Survey? What are your thoughts as a participant? Were you as honest as YOU could have been and if not...why not?
Are YOU a people leader and currently analyzing YOUR results? What surprised YOU the most this year?
Out of the 5 HBR article points - do YOU agree that "suspicion that nothing will change" is the toughest one to address? What is YOUR favorite or observation?
What do YOU think of the lessons learned above...any you would add or change?
What is YOUR best advice to others about the annual process or benefit from it? Anything that has worked for YOU over the years that YOU would pass on to others?
Thanks for reading….and remember…YOU make a difference!
Please continue the conversation by liking…commenting or sharing this article. You can also follow me on twitter @marciedwhite
