Poll Vault: The Most Important Question In An Employee Survey

Copyright © 2004 by Don Blohowiak
Don@LeadWell.com http://www.leadwell.com/

Surveying employees (whether you call the poll a climate or Work Life survey, or a 360 review) can provide valuable—and sometimes depressing—insights to you as a manager.

Every consultant, every survey vendor, has their magic mix of questions that they swear is the right way for you take the collective attitudinal pulse. Without question, here's the most important question you must ask. And it's one that you'll never include in the actual survey.

What decisions will you make, what actions are you willing to take, in response to the survey results?

If you can't answer that question in a meaningful way, save your time, effort and money. Don't survey anyone.

Here's why. Every employee survey raises expectations. Your associates assume that if you ask them about matters such as whether they have the information, direction and tools to do their job effectively; whether the various departments in your organization cooperate; whether their manager is approachable and supportive; whether pay and benefits are satisfactory…, that you'll actually do something to address their concerns.

If you poll your payroll essentially out of idle curiosity or impotent good intentions, brace yourself for a backlash. Morale does not improve because asked about it. In fact, associate motivation is more likely to degrade if you don't address the concerns your colleagues shared with you. (Often, employees respond to your survey only after they've mustered their courage to overcome their fears of being personally identified and suffering repercussions for their candor.)

You may think that issuing the employee survey communicates to your associates that, We care about you. It may. A little.

The reality is that employees are waiting not for memos or articles about the polling data but for responsive action quickly following the survey. If they don't perceive decisive changes after you solicit their heartfelt opinions, they take your message to really be: We're pretending to hear you. And we're ignoring you.

Surveys—especially short, focused ones—can be a superb management tool. (And that's why I do use them, selectively, to help clients address internal issues.) The true power of an employee survey lies not in the clever construction of proprietary "killer" queries. But rather in the earnest, swift actions you take to positively address the concerns raised by the polling data.

Any questions?

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Copyright © 2005, Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute

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