Many employers use surveys to measure and improve employee engagement. Surveys give employees a way to voice their experience at work and can benefit staff and the organization. At CareerBuilder, we understand how important your team is, which is why we created this helpful guide that highlights key principles to consider when conducting these surveys. Continue reading to learn how to transform your team's experience.
What is an employee engagement survey?
An employee engagement survey comprises a series of questions that help companies assess employee motivation and engagement within an organization. They aim to gain insight into how employees are feeling during their time at work. The surveys highlight areas of improvement for a company and help to outline what a company and leadership team are getting right concerning employee satisfaction and engagement.
Importance of measuring employee engagement
The fundamental importance of measuring employee engagement is that this is a chance for you to give a voice to employees and hear about their genuine concerns and suggestions. The results of an engagement survey may lead to actionable steps a company can take to transform the employee experience or ways to improve their satisfaction. Here are some other benefits associated with conducting these surveys:
- Boosted employee satisfaction
- Increased retention and reduced turnover
- Strengthened bonds and a feeling of community
- Enhanced employee loyalty
- Upgraded employee safety
- Streamlined processes
- Improved performance and productivity
How to create an employee engagement survey
Giving a voice to your employees starts with a well-designed survey that encourages open communication. Here are some steps to help you create a comprehensive employee engagement survey.
Consider your audience
Will you send this survey to supervisors, leaders, managers, employee teams, or departments? Thinking about who is getting the appraisal can help you create meaningful and relevant questions, allowing you to get the most informative results. For example, if you're sending surveys to a specific department, you can ask whether they have all the necessary items to do their work effectively. You may also ask what items they want or need to accomplish their tasks.
Think about your insights
Considering what you and the company want to learn can inform you of the type of questions you should include in the survey. For example, you might consider goals, such as learning what employees think about their leaders or peers, their opinions on development opportunities, or other basic engagement questions. As there are countless questions you could include in an engagement survey, thinking about the end goal can provide helpful direction when creating questions.
Create open-ended questions
While yes and no questions can be quick for employees to answer, asking open-ended questions promotes conversation and dialogue. This might also result in employees being more forthcoming with their thoughts and opinions, which can better inform future business decisions.
"Employees are a valuable cache of opinions and thoughts, and getting their insight through an employee engagement survey is a helpful way to find ways to improve the organization."
Ensure employees know about the questionnaire
Surveys are only as good as those who know about them. Ensuring the survey is well circulated within the organization and gets to the target audience can help the organization get the greatest number of responses.
Rather than relying on word-of-mouth alone, ensure you circulate the surveys through internal communication methods and that teams have time to respond. This can help the company get the highest number of responses. Ensuring that teams have time to complete the survey can also improve the quality of responses, as they don't feel rushed to complete the survey and finish it with short and hasty answers.
Send out reminders
Talking about the survey once and then letting it fall into the void isn't doing the company, employees, or survey any justice. You should ensure to announce and circulate reminders regularly. For example, you might send an email a few days before the survey finishes to remind everyone that the survey is ending soon. Making an announcement during the team's lunch hour or at the start of a meeting is also a great opportunity to gently remind everyone about the survey.
Act on the results
Once you finish the survey and gather the results, it's important to find solutions to issues highlighted by your team. To better involve employees and promote collaboration, you could organize teams to brainstorm solutions. The important thing here is to act on the survey results. Show employees they have a voice in how the business operates and that the organization wants them to be happy and satisfied. This can boost employee satisfaction and dramatically improve retention, engagement, and loyalty.
Communicate the impact
Another way to show employees that their opinions and thoughts matter is to communicate the results of the survey, what the organization is doing to improve things, and the impact that those changes will have on the organization. It's easy for individuals to focus on the tasks they do every day, so demonstrating how their thoughts and voices positively impact the organization can motivate and inspire them.
Tips for conducting employee surveys
Here are some tips to consider to help you get the most out of your employee surveys:
- Keep it simple: While it's beneficial to include open-ended questions, it's equally important to keep the survey short and simple. This ensures employees have ample time to finish the survey and deliver high-quality, informative answers.
- Set aside time: Time is often in short supply for many employees. Allocating time to employees during the day to complete the survey can make a significant difference when it comes to receiving responses. This can give employees the time they need to complete the survey without feeling stressed to make up for lost working hours because they decided to take the survey.
- Ensure anonymity: People often feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts when they know their responses are anonymous. However, giving them the option to identify themselves can provide an avenue for leaders to connect and ask additional questions of those individuals.
Employees are a valuable cache of opinions and thoughts, and getting their insight through an employee engagement survey is a helpful way to find ways to improve the organization. Crafting your survey with intent and foresight can help companies gain highly informative responses that can inspire future problem-solving and decision-making. Allocating time for employees to complete this survey and keeping it anonymous are just two ways to increase the number of responses to a survey and can drastically improve the quality of those replies.
More tips for increasing employee engagement
Employee engagement doesn't have to come with a huge price tag, as there are many effective low-cost ideas that work on any company budget.
Learning some different ways to keep your team from quiet quitting can improve engagement and increase employee motivation and productivity.
