Employee Engagement Surveys

The higher degree of connection that an employee feels with his/her organization, the more likely it is that the employee will be more productive in the work environment. Periodic deployment of an employee engagement survey (sometimes referred to as an "employee morale survey") is an excellent way to connect with employees. By seeking employee feedback, and asking the proper employee survey questions, employees can feel a greater sense of attachment to their work, their employer, and the overall goals of the organization.

What Is An Employee Engagement Survey?

Employee engagement surveys typically focus on asking employees for their opinions on different aspects of the job experience. Topics can range from overall strategic direction and work supervision to compensation and performance reviews. There is no formal rule of best survey length; however, unlike surveys of customers or markets, an employee morale survey is frequently longer in length and covers many different topics. The reason for this distinction is that the audience for customer satisfaction surveys has less of a connection with an organization than do its employees, and questionnaires are sometimes viewed as an imposition on a customer's valuable time.

In the case of employee engagement surveys, the more topics that are covered the greater the appreciation an employee might have for being asked for his/her feedback. As is the general rule with most types of employee surveys, this feeling of "appreciation" can be advanced through implementation of an anonymous survey. In so doing, an organization can communicate the importance it attaches to an employee morale survey and its desire to obtain candid and reliable feedback from its employees.

Most organizations choose to administer employee engagement surveys on a recurring basis such as every year or twice a year. This allows the organization to carefully review the survey results, thoughtfully implement intervention programs, and then measure the results of the interventions through subsequent survey administrations. In some cases, it is desirable to follow-up the main employee engagement survey with focus groups or a targeted employee morale survey to pin down the appropriate "next steps" for an effective intervention. The main survey instrument can also be modified as needed to "drill down" with several questions regarding the effectiveness of the intervention; although the main questions should remain in place for effective wave-to-wave measurement.

For example, let's assume that the results from an employee engagement survey indicate that many employees cover-up their mistakes from their supervisors. Armed with this information, an organization might take further action to determine the underlying causes such as private employee meetings and perhaps a follow-up employee morale survey with pointed questions concerning this issue. One of the conclusions might be that there is simply a general lack of open communication between employees and their supervisors, creating an environment where employees don't want to "rock the boat" by unnecessary engagement. A possible solution is more frequent one-on-one meetings between supervisors and their employees, and an open-door policy where employees can drop by and speak with supervisors during given time periods each week.

Once changes in the work environment are implemented, they should be in place for some period of time before closer examination of their impact is warranted. For this reason, many organizations choose to engage in annual employee engagement surveys so that there is sufficient time for intervention programs to get a fair review.