7 Deadly Sins of Engagement Surveys

World over organizations have embraced a belief that engaged employees create engaged customers and produce better business results. This assertion has been validated through both statistical and qualitative research. As organizations become increasingly data driven the need to put a number to employee engagement has resulted in employee engagement survey’s becoming a critical part of organization’s people initiatives calendar. However, another survey highlights that almost 60% of employees underline being worse-off after such surveys. This realization of negative impact of employee surveys and worsening employee experience forced us to rethink and we were able to unearth 7 (seven) deadly sins which organizations were committing when undertaking such measurement exercises:

1. Too many questions:

Ever realized how employee surveys ask a lot of questions right from the canteen menu to transport policies which may have no direct impact on employee productivity and performance. A lot of organizations fall into this trap, which we call as ‘Impact Ignorance’. Since they don’t know what is impacting engagement they tend to measure everything which they think might be influencing “happiness/satisfaction” of employees and consequently their performance. By administering an instrument which contains 100+ questions, the message being conveyed to the employees is that the organization maybe so far removed from its employees that it needs to ask these many questions to understand the pulse of the organization. Furthermore, there are questions which the organization may already know the answers to and may also have a realization that it may not be in a position to address the concerns emerging from these results. For example, question on compensation yield predictable results.

2. Engagement is survey and survey is engagement:

Organizations tend to undertake engagement surveys for several reasons. Some do it as it is the latest ‘in’ thing to do in HR while others do it as it is an activity which was pre-decided in this year’s  HR activity calendar. This tick box approach to engagement coupled with the mindset that measurement itself is enough to create engagement is a clear indication of the doomed future of such employee engagement initiatives.

3. Analysis Paralysis:

The teams which own the process of conducting employee engagement surveys typically feel that the real value of a survey lies in the depth of analysis that can be done with the available numbers. With this assumption begins the process of undertaking extensive data analysis using sophisticated data modeling techniques. However, in this process they tend to forget the very purpose of undertaking an employee engagement survey in the first place. More than data analysis it is the insight, the story behind those numbers, which is of utmost importance from the point of view of positively influencing the employee experience. What the employees are feeling across the hierarchy, what needs attention at an organizational level, how do we make our manager’s interested in their people and accountable for their actions etc. are some questions that we may need answers to rather than focusing on the numbers alone. Without this intent any amount of analysis may become a drunken man’s lamp post, more for support rather than illumination!

4. HR is responsible for creating engagement:

Day in and day out, an employee spends most of his time interacting with his/her immediate team and manager. Still most companies believe that anything to do with people engagement should rest with the Human Resources team. It’s a commonly held belief that HR teams should be entrusted with ensuring engagement and happiness of all employees in the company. However, in reality the only time HR interacts with an employee is when an employee joins or leaves the organization OR when employees have some concerns which may be impairing their performance and progress. Hence expecting HR to drive the engagement agenda may be an exercise in vain.

5. Engagement is for managers:

Most organizations claim that people are their most critical asset and constantly tom-tom this belief through different mediums such as their website, during investor calls, company meetings, town halls etc. Leadership teams continually assert their views on why people engagement is necessary and how much it means to them. But when confronted with the question on what they have done themselves for their own team, pat comes the reply:  this (engagement) is something which the Managers must do with their teams; and we being leaders do not have a lot to do on this apart from voicing our support. Not surprisingly, without the active interest of the leadership team, the entire initiative may not yield desired results.

Image courtesy 123rf.com

6. Action Planning without action:

The purpose of an employee engagement measurement exercise is to give the organization a starting point for instituting a culture of employee engagement. What organizations choose to do with the measurement results is the most critical aspect. A lot of energy, time and money are spent by organizations in creating action plans based on these findings. Buzz around the initiative remains for a month or so and after that the entire focus shifts to ”business as usual”. Even the project team responsible for engagement may have moved on to other initiatives. And as time passes we may not have anybody monitoring the progress and reviewing these plans which might end up being well crafted plans for action with no real action being taken.

7. Engagement Index as KRAs of managers:

This is the deadliest sin of all.  Several organizations include employee engagement index as part of a key performance indicator for their managers. While it is critical to make managers accountable for creating engagement within their teams but without their buy-in and necessary support there are chances that this may backfire. With the pressure of improving employee engagement score as a critical indicator of performance and chances are that the intent of manager’s may move away from creating an engaging experience for their team to increasing the number which may defeat the purpose of the initiative itself.

As your organization embarks upon this journey to create an engaging experience for its employees it may be worthwhile to take note of these sins and avoid possible pitfalls.   Keep Engaging!

Author:

Ashish Ambasta,

Country Sales Head - Employee Engagement