Skillset

The risk of your next engagement survey

28 July 2016

The risk of your next engagement survey

‘It’s important that we play down any reference to employee engagement’.

A learning and development manager made that comment during a planning session for a workshop. It turns out that the HR managers in the organisation had indicated that the employees were ‘over’ the topic of employee engagement.

Why would that be?

Repeated employee engagement surveys without any meaningful follow-through had resulted in survey fatigue and cynicism.

As far back as 2009 the McLeod Report acknowledged the risk:

‘..to carry out a survey and then not follow it through by implementing changes based on that survey’s results, is more likely to disengage staff than not doing a survey in the first place.’

An employee engagement survey can be a valuable tool. However, the old saying holds true that weighing the pig won’t make it fat.

What do you need to do as a leader if you want your employees to be enthusiastic, committed and focused on achieving your organisation’s goals?

There is a growing body of research that indicates the things that make the greatest difference.

Good line management sits at the top of the list. Employees need to experience supportive supervision, two-way communication along with effective performance management, coaching and development from the people to whom they directly report.

Equipping managers and team leaders with the skills of good leadership is a sure way to improve employee engagement and ensure that employees are in-to-it and not over it.

 

Interested in training in engagement for your leaders and teams?