Much as they’d like to be, when it comes to staffing matters, most business leaders aren’t mind readers. Too often, good staff leave an organisation and – by the time leaders realise there were issues – it’s too late to try and keep them. Team/staff engagement surveys can give you a great feel for the employee “vibe” in your business and help you to identify and address potential issues before they become a bigger problem.
There’s been plenty of research over many years that supports the fact that engaged employees improve business performance. Aon Hewitt’s model of employee engagement demonstrates this very effectively: in a nutshell engaged employees:
Say – speak well of the organisation to people inside and outside of it – like customers and potential employees
Stay – remain with the organisation – they don’t think about leaving, and it would take a lot for them to leave
Strive – willingly go “above and beyond” to do their very best work, and to help the organisation succeed.
Why do a Team/Staff Survey?
1. Understand and quantify current engagement levels
The primary reason for completing staff surveys is to measure the current engagement level of your employees. Measuring the key drivers of engagement within your organisation will allow you to assess whether your employees are engaged or disengaged. While there are no standard drivers of engagement, some commonly assessed factors include employee satisfaction with recognition, pay & benefits, job role, training & development opportunities, leadership, work environment, etc.
Too often, managers assume that they already know / understand the issues their teams are facing and move into “solution-mode” without stopping to analyse or properly evaluate the root cause. A team/staff survey can assist to identify and clarify these issues.
A survey will also to identify issues that may be impacting organisation performance and/or exposing the organisation to excessive risk, and to identify opportunities and gather suggestions to improve performance.
2. Give Employees a Voice
Team/staff surveys are crucial because they give employees an avenue for open feedback, in a “safe” way. Inviting team members to contribute to a survey helps them realise that they have a stake in the company and that their opinions are valued.
3. Increase Employee Engagement
Once you’ve assessed how engaged your employees are you can then create an action plan to maintain or increase engagement. The information obtained from the survey will allow you to identify strengths and opportunities for improving engagement in your organization. You can develop a company-wide engagement plan or focus directly on action areas for each section in your business. After you’ve identified the changes to apply, you can set priorities, consider any resources required and create an implementation schedule.
Like to know more?
Our Success Through People Team Survey uses our exclusive Success Through People(c) Model as the basis for gathering qualitative and quantitative information relevant to key aspects of your staff’s workplace experiences.
Click the link above for further details and/or call us today to discuss your needs.