Effective Employee Engagement through Culture of Conversation

Peter Hawes, Head of Employee Engagement, CLS Group

I always used to struggle with employee opinion surveys - both as a respondent, and when I had to administer them. They sometimes felt like an attempt to treat what was more of an art as a science, and to apply numbers to something that was not easily translated into numerical values. The statistics they provided also seemed to inadvertently focus minds on pushing a percentage up (or down) rather than on making meaningful and worthwhile differences.

Employee voice channels are, of course, an essential ingredient of all good engagement models, and it is undoubtedly true that what gets measured gets done. That said, large-scale surveys always seemed like a lot of effort simply to devise a metric that could be used to convince senior leaders and budget holders of the importance of engaging employees.

As with everything in life however, it pays to have an open mind, and having worked with some excellent research organisations, I’m happy to say that I am a convert. Surveys absolutely have their part to play, as long as they adhere to a few basic principles.

Short and Simple

We are all busy people. A survey is an extra task that you are asking someone to do over and above their day job, which can be perceived as a bit of a chore. People need only the smallest of reasons to ignore such a request. You could make it mandatory, but that’s risky. You might get a good response rate, but how accurate will the input be? Better to make it as easy as possible to take part by removing the obstacles and potential excuses.

When a company I purchased a car from recently sent me a 20-minute feedback survey to complete, on paper, it barely made it out of the envelope before going straight into the recycling bin. By contrast, apps and other online functionality enable people to have their say with a couple of clicks, in a place and at a time to suit them. They also make survey administration a lot easier, as you can ask about relevant topics quickly and in real time.

Regular and timely ‘pulse’ or ‘temperature’ checks tend to yield far more accurate and immediate snapshots than hefty, and potentially over-engineered, surveys that attempt to cover a diverse laundry-list of topics.

"When creating a survey, never ask a question to which you don’t already know the answer.” I remember hearing this for the first time and thinking - then why bother asking in the first place?"

Not the only Channel

No good employer has only one channel for communicating to its employees, so surely it makes sense to have multiple channels for communication to flow the other way.

Surveys are great for a more introverted audience - people who like to stop and consider before sharing their thoughts. To reach everyone however, surveys ideally need to be part of a wider infrastructure. To build a fully rounded picture of what people are thinking and feeling, partner surveys with focus groups to dig deeper into certain issues, equip leaders with tools and techniques for gathering input from their teams, and find ways of joining in the conversations with employee groups such as diversity networks and social committees.

Part of an On-going Conversation

The only way you will get good participation in a survey, and with honest answers, is if people want to take part. They need to understand what’s in it for them. Incentives such as spot prizes or pizzas for the teams with the highest response rates have their place, but a far bigger motivation is the belief that I am being listened to, and that what I say will make a difference. This means drawing a clear and continuous link between results and actions.

The principle of ‘employee voice’ needs to be a fundamental part of an employee value proposition - and a visible one. Don’t let the annual employee survey come across as the single way for people to have their say and the only time in an entire year when management listen.

Take every opportunity through all internal communication channels to demonstrate that when a change is made it is seen to be initiated, or at least influenced, by what employees have said. ‘You said, we did’ might be a cliché - but it’s a good one!

A culture of conversation should be the ultimate aim of all internal communications and employee engagement professionals. Asking your colleagues about their thoughts and feelings is rarely a bad thing to do and can yield immensely valuable insight.

To slightly adapt an old communications principle however - it’s not so much what you ask, as how you ask it.