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Before launching your employee survey, you should communicate the plans, goals, and intentions with senior leaders, managers, and employees. These communications are separate from the actual invitation to fill out the survey, and they should take place before the survey invitation is sent out. Communication and trust are two key topics related to employee engagement. You have the opportunity to set a positive tone in these areas before the survey even begins. Moreover, communicating and establishing trust will also increase the survey response rate as well as the candor of the responses. |
Communications Prior to the Survey |
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Senior Leadership Team and Management Orientation |
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Introductory Email to All Employees (see sample employee email below) |
Before sending the actual survey invitation to employees, the top leader should communicate the plan to all employees in a personalized email. The email should be sent out a week or so before the survey is scheduled to begin. It should:
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Sample Employee Survey Email (Prelaunch)
During the coming weeks, we will be conducting a company-wide employee survey. We are conducting this survey in order to get a better understanding of employee morale, satisfaction, and engagement at (COMPANY NAME). Your opinions are important to us, and this survey is your chance to express those opinions. We will use the survey results for three purposes: 1. to recognize skilled leaders who engage their people in a positive way 2. to improve our policies to make them more practical and effective 3. to fix problems that demotivate people, compromise customer satisfaction, or diminish performance The survey is being managed by an independent survey company. This outside company will host the survey on the Internet and collect your responses online. All responses will remain strictly anonymous. We will not be able to trace individual responses back to you. Management will only see combined data for groups of 4 or more respondents. Please be thoughtful, honest, and candid when you complete the survey. Once the data are in (APPROXIMATE DATE), we will share the results with the entire organization so you can see for yourself how we are doing. In the months that follow the survey, HR and management will meet with groups to discuss plans to improve our culture and performance and address any problem areas. The survey results will be acted upon. Policies that need changing will be changed. Leaders who lack skills will be coached. Leaders who create excellence will be recognized. The amount of communication, upward and downward, will increase. Overall, (COMPANY NAME) will be a better place to work. We would like to get 100% participation in order to ensure that each and every employee's voice is heard. When you receive the survey request (LATER THIS WEEK), please give it your prompt attention. Thank you for devoting your time and providing candid input. Communications After the Survey Results are InImmediately After the Survey | |
One of our standard employee survey questions is, "Senior leaders will take action based on the results of this survey." For those employees who agreed with this statement, don't let them down. For those who disagreed, now is your chance to prove them wrong!
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Sharing the Results with Employees | |
We generally assume that companies will share some of the survey results with employees. Not sharing at least some high-level results reinforces many of the things that have a negative impact on employee engagement and satisfaction. Sharing some of the results with employees signals trust, openness, and most importantly, respect.
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Communicating | |
We emphasize "the" action plan because it is important to create buy-in at all levels of the organization.
You will need to decide how you want to approach this. Some companies involve employees in the planning process to some degree. Other companies take a more top-down approach. There is no universal right or wrong answer here. The decision depends on your organization's culture, size, and the sorts of problems and actions that are needed. Regardless of which approach you decide to take:
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Ongoing Communications | |
Don't stop now! | Establish a pattern of regular communication about senior leadership's commitment to employee morale and satisfaction. Share progress toward goals, milestones reached, and other activities related to the action plan. Don't expect employees to automatically know everything that is being done or to simply observe the changes that are being made. Continue to celebrate successes and acknowledge when efforts fall short. Ongoing communications can also help drive accountability. When employees are reminded of promises that were made and goals that were set, the people responsible for delivering on those promises are more likely to follow through. It is as simple as peer pressure and can be a useful technique to impose on yourself and others. When and How Often to Repeat | |
Finally, at some point, it will be time to repeat the employee survey in order to measure progress and also to assess whether any new problems have emerged. For many organizations, repeating the survey after one year makes the most sense. It usually takes about a year for a company to analyze the survey results, implement an action plan, and for employees to observe the changes and shift their attitudes. | For companies that are undergoing significant changes (like a merger or a major restructuring), a follow-up survey can be conducted after three to six months. More frequent pulsing surveys are recommended for organizations that can handle the logistics and that want to stay on top of emerging engagement issues. If using pulse check surveys, keep the following in mind:
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