Employee Surveys.
Organisations spend significant effort preparing, conducting and evaluating employee surveys? The espoused purpose is primarily to understand how engaged their employees are, how healthy the culture is and how competent their managers are.
The premise is “happy and engaged” employees are more productive and consequently will ensure more company profits. This is good in theory, however do surveys provide accurate information? Does the cost and time outweigh the benefit? Do we rely too much on the data rather than on managerial competence? This article explores whether it is time to reconsider if employee surveys, in their current form have outlived their usefulness.
Cost is always an important factor in any business today and therefore estimating how much on average employee surveys costs is critical? To keep it simple, I accessed data from organisations of 1,000 to 1,500 employees and fellow HR professionals helped me estimate the costs. Estimates included the actual cost of the instrument and hidden costs, like time. The data is deliberately conservative and certainly not perfect, however the exercise did demonstrate a point.
If you take the original cost of an annual employee survey, which say averages $50,000 dollars for the instrument, combine that with employees taking thirty minutes to complete the survey, HR admin costs, follow that up with the feedback sessions and follow up pulse surveys this triples the cost of the instrument, at the very least. Let’s say the survey conservatively costs $150,000. The major cost is not with the instrument but the time it takes to implement it and communicate the results. Obviously, the more surveys you do the more the costs increase. Most organisations are obviously not constrained to only one annual survey.
For the amount of money and time that is spent on the surveys, are they accurate? Certainly the consultants who sell organisations the instruments can demonstrate they are. However for those of us who have worked in organisations and have completed many surveys over the years, what has been our experience? Do all employees take the time to consider what feedback they will give and fill out surveys honestly? Do employees have the time or do they do a quick tick and flick? How often have you heard employees be sceptical about the confidentiality of the survey? Have you heard a colleague express concern that when they actually said what they thought of their boss, they then worried about being identified? Have you heard comments that it is just best to keep your head low and fill out the survey positively irrespective of what you really think? I expect as you ponder these questions, your head will be nodding in recognition.
The surveys may cost a lot of money and time and there is a cloud over their accuracy, however does management value them? How often have you heard a manager challenge the time it takes for endless surveys? Have you ever heard the HR department being cursed for insisting on another “bloody” survey, particularly as another survey pops up on your screen or a feedback session is booked in your calendar? Have you ever though what else the organisation could be doing to add value, rather than another round of surveys or is the answer obvious to us all?
To obtain more information on the subject, I took every opportunity to ask a number of employees their views on surveys. For example, I was having breakfast with an acquaintance and her partner recently. The partner was head of a banking division and I asked him about employee surveys in his company. He told me that he received a part of his bonus linked to his employee survey results. He said he had it nailed. He took all his direct reports out to lunch a month before the survey and showed them a good time. I realised any system could be manipulated I just hadn’t thought of this one or believed it could really work.
Another comment, from a senior executive, was they thought the only value of employee surveys were the comments page. He said what was often enlightening was when a manager had no comments, or there were a similar thread to the comments. He also pointed out that although comments were interesting that was about the extent of their value.
When I talking to a senior manager recently about his views on internal surveys, he said he relied on the employee results to understand how his employees were travelling. He was too busy to spend time finding this out for himself and it gave him valuable information to act on. He also said everyone’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) were linked to a positive employee survey results and subsequent bonus payments. When I asked him what type of actions he took, he said that the results were always good. I thought, why eyeball anyone when you have data, KPI’s and bonuses. Is this the new era of “Data time Verses Face time”?
The drive to achieve KPI’s seems almost irrational at times. A client, who was a HR generalist, was at the time of our discussion, particularly frustrated as she was trying to manage the backlash from her internal retail clients and the OD department. The OD department was insisting a survey be completed by a certain date, which coincided with a major launch of a new product. The OD department would not take no for an answer and asked her to do what it took to get the results. The HR generalist asked why this was so important and the answer was this was a KPI that was listed to be actioned. This sounds ridiculous as you put this into words. Yet how often are we so action oriented, to achieve the results in our own KPI world, we don’t sit back and ask is what are we going to do really add value to the organisation?
Irrespective of the cost, accuracy and perceived value of the data, does positive employee feedback results help retain staff? A large recruitment firm recently informed me that their research showed that two thirds of employees who complete employee surveys don’t say what they actually think. They know the organisations are espousing positive employee surveys but the data doesn’t correlate with the amount of dissatisfied or overworked employees seeking other employment opportunities. They also said that the slower the jobs market the more positive employee feedback. Clearly a disconnect between the expensive data collection, the view of many employees and the recruitment firms information.
Surveys results are reported, but how often do we know what to do with the results when we have them? I was facilitating a strategy review conference recently with the top 50
managers in the company. The GM of HR put up the yearly culture survey results, which demonstrated a decline from the previous year. The senior management team was concerned and they were going to analyse the results with the consultants, who conducted the survey the following week. The senior management would then get back to them with an action plan on how to improve the culture.
As the facilitator, I suggested that this could be a perfect opportunity to have a discussion about the culture with the 50 managers that were there. I was given permission to facilitate a conversation in small groups and then the combined group. It was a healthy debate, which highlighted two key issues that were occurring in the organisation, which was affecting the overall moral. They also commented that the surveys had lost a lot of their value. They had completed the surveys now for six years and people knew exactly how to answer the surveys to get the required result.
What this discussion and subsequent activity confirmed to me, was there is an over reliance on surveys and data. It would be more informative to take the time to have robust discussions and talk to people directly. It would take less time and less money in real terms and help prevent the inevitable cynicism that I believe surrounds most surveys in organisations today.
So why do surveys? They cost a lot of money and more importantly time. The accuracy and value is suspect. Is it that we have conducted surveys for so long that we have not stopped to consider how they may add value to the organisation? They are just something we do around here. Is it easier and quicker to do a survey than take time to build relationships with employees? Irrespective of why, it is almost like in our pursuit of ensuring our employees are engaged, we are losing touch with them with every ding of the incoming survey.
Surveys are one tool, in a suite of tools available to HR. They certainly can be useful at times, however have they become so overused and commonplace in Corporate Australia, that they are included in HR strategy irrespective of their real value? It is time to review their value as a part of on overall review of HR strategy. I believe so.
The process of review needs to be a separate activity, completed prior to the annual HR strategy review to ensure quality time is spent on evaluation. It is often difficult to review something that you and your team has created, however there are several ways to do this. In another article I have written called The Blank Canvas, also on my web site, I have outlined my methodology for doing a HR review. Whatever your approach, I believe HR has a golden opportunity to review and challenge HR practice to identify what really adds value to the organisation. Survey’s is one example of why this is necessary.
Would love to hear your thoughts.
