Employee Surveys – Using Feedback to Improve The Strength of Your Organization
By James Harwood – CEO, Total HR

Smart business owners recognize the tremendous impact employee attitudes and perceptions have on the success of an organization. Understanding how employees view your organization is the first step toward addressing a whole host of issues including employee satisfaction, productivity, retention, worker- manager relations, etc. Although larger businesses have long recognized the power of employee opinion surveys, small business owners often do not see the value it can bring to their organization.
10 good reasons why you should consider conducting an employee survey:

1. Useful, quantifiable information about organizational issues. Survey results can quickly isolate those areas—whether at the organizational or work unit level—where actions should be taken to generate immediate positive results.

2. Identify areas where your business is doing well. Understanding where your organization is doing well in terms of performance and employee satisfaction, can be as valuable as knowing where you need to make changes.

3. Become an employer of choice. What your current employees value most about their work place— and where they think you could improve—are most likely the same issues of interest to potential employees. By sharpening your focus on these issues, you can be more competitive in attracting key employee talent.

4. Reinforce your organization’s values. Most organizations claim, “Our people are our greatest asset.” There’s no greater evidence of your sincerity than when you ask for their feedback—and use what you learn to improve your organization.

5. Improve communication and trust. Employees are frequently frustrated by what they see as a lack of communication between management and the rest of the organization. A survey is a simple, direct method for increasing communication.

6. Promote greater employee commitment and reduce turnover. Involving your people in efforts to improve the organization gives them a greater stake in the ultimate success of those initiatives. A greater sense of involvement and contribution leads to a stronger commitment to stay with the organization.

7. Build better managers. Employee feedback helps managers see themselves through their people’s eyes. Survey results show a manager’s personal impact on trust, candor, creativity, teamwork and communication.

8. Measure change over time. Ongoing surveying allows you to quantifiably measure the impact of new strategic initiatives and programs on employees’ perceptions and attitudes.

9. Float proposed changes. An employee opinion survey can include questions on possible changes in work place policy. It can suggest ways to effectively prepare the organization for changes you are planning to roll out.

10. A reality check. Looking at your performance in a vacuum can be misleading. Using normative data for comparative purposes provides a context in which to interpret your results.

If you’d like to see how the implementation of an employee opinion survey could change your organization for the better, consider Total HR’s strategic Human Resources. Our employee survey consultation includes complete survey design and administration, results analysis, recommendation development and action planning.