NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR COMPANY? ASK EMPLOYEES.

An Employee Opinion Survey can be an extremely valuable organizational improvement tool, or a total waste of time. The success of the effort depends on whether it successfully stimulates positive change.

Properly conducted, a confidential employee survey can provide management with a detailed road map for solving problems in employee morale, communication, teamwork, work organization, quality, and customer service

Improperly conducted, the survey can be a useless exercise which does more harm than good. It can create unrealistic expectations among employees and highlight management's inability to address their concerns.

Is your organization ready for an employee survey? An employee survey should be a catalyst for change. If the organization is not ready to change, the survey results are sure to end up on a dusty shelf. Here are some examples that illustrate a lack of organizational readiness.

• Analysis paralysis

  Oftentimes, management already knows what the problems are, but doesn't want to do anything about them. Conducting an employee survey merely enables management to postpone or avoid productive problem-solving activities.

• Pseudo action

  Management may be under the false impression that they can pacify employees by merely asking for their opinions.

• Unrealistic employee expectations

  Employees who feel an employee survey will enable management to address all their concerns may be setting themselves up for disappointment. They must realize that the survey will identify some problems that can be solved immediately, some which will require time, and still others which may be impossible to solve.

• Employees adopt a "show-me" attitude

  Employees in many organizations have grown tired and extremely skeptical of management fads that are supposed to rid the organization of its problems. A survey program is sure to fail if employees just sit back and wait for management to try to solve all the organization's problems. Instead, they must be committed to work with management to understand and jointly solve problems.

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Strategies for effectively using survey results

There are four basic approaches which can help bring value to employee survey programs.

1. Plan the end before the beginning.

   Too often, organizations give little thought to what they will do with the survey results. Instead, they should ask the following questions even before the survey is created. How will we tackle any concerns identified by the survey? How will the results be communicated? How will action-plans be developed? Will senior management alone be responsible for developing action plans? How will employees be involved in the solutions?

   For example, a major New England-based communications company was planning to revamp its employee benefits program. In order to involve employees, they used an employee survey to gather employee views about their benefits. They wanted to make certain that once they had gathered detailed insights from employees they would be ready to take action as soon as possible. Therefore, even before the survey was administered they decided which individuals would be on the benefits change committee, what role the CFO would play, what role the Vice President of human resources would play, and how the benefit design decisions would be made.

2. Make someone accountable.

   Assigning action-planning responsibilities to specific individuals can increase the probability that issues identified by the survey will be solved. They become responsible for developing plans, enlisting the help of others, implementing the plans, and achieving the desired results.

   For example, after each biannual employee survey the president of a major New England-based service organization makes each of his senior managers responsible for improving one specific employee concern. Measurable improvements are made part of each managers' goals for the year

3. Focus on a few key problems.

   When an employee survey uncovers a broad array of employee concerns, management is faced with the daunting task of deciding where to begin. Limiting action plans to only the top 3 or 4 areas of concern is key. The selected areas should be those that are most important to employees and most important to the success of the organization.

   For example, a survey conducted by a New-England based manufacturer uncovered strong employee concerns about many facets of their work life. Management was overwhelmed by the results but wanted to respond quickly and intelligently. They isolated three key problem areas central to the mission of their company, and then established employee teams to develop action plans in each of these areas.

4. Involve employees in developing solutions

   Problems in areas such as teamwork, interdepartmental communication, and quality improvement often are solved best by employees rather than management. To solve problems in these areas, mechanisms must be established to utilize the creative ideas of those employees who will have to implement the solutions.

Special employee teams can be established, supervisors can be trained to develop action plans with their direct reports, and existing quality improvement teams can be given the task of applying their problem-solving methods to address employee concerns.

With appropriate planning, Employee Opinion Surveys can be a valuable organization development tool. The keys to success are making certain the organization is ready to use the results, and that the appropriate mechanisms are put in place to ensure the results will, indeed, be used for positive change.