Making it Work : Recruit and Retain Resource Pack

How to Implement

Success Factors

Annual staff surveys are said to have a beneficial effect, when the survey procedures are used to encourage sharing of views about the organisation, which results in a degree of cultural change. Surveys can also be useful to management, as the results may provide information underlining what has already been identified by managers. This assisted management in having the confidence to address any issues, and assess appropriately, the action that might be taken.

Challenges

Many employees feel that annual staff surveys are an outdated method of engagement. Annual engagement surveys only provide a gauge of engagement at a set point in time and miss opportunities to monitor the employee experience on a more regular basis.

Surveys are often tedious to fill out. As a result, employees are not motivated to participate. Organisations can make participation mandatory, but if employees don’t find that the exercise is engaging, they could see skewed results. Engagement should be frequent and consistent, not just once a year.

Although a survey may be detailed, they often lack depth. Organisations need to explore the factors that contribute to employee satisfaction and determine why those factors matter.

If a survey is inappropriately applied, or the results misinterpreted or undisclosed, then the actual act of undertaking a survey may rebound on the organisation. The data extracted from the survey needs to be assessed and actions implemented. After employees fill out annual surveys, engagement often ends there. When companies don’t fulfil the feedback ‘loop and act’ on survey results, employees don’t see the benefit of their participation, discouraging them from participating in the future.