When Employee Surveys are Completely Useless
Very often, at the end of an employee survey, we end up with a big, big phonebook style listing of all our results. And this is great, but we have to make sense of it all.
Photo by Gabriele Stravinskaite on Unsplash
The Problem with Data Overload
You have designed a great survey, all these smart questions that are going to give you lots of interesting data to get answers to what you want to know.
The survey launches, two or three weeks pass and the survey is a great success! 75% participation rate (maybe higher!) - people have taken time out to share their views and respond, 7/10 said they definitely would recommend! There are so many good comments (oh so many comments...)
Another two weeks pass, you are reviewing the results, again. In front of you is a document that runs to pages and pages and pages of numbers and lots of charts (maybe donut charts - rows of donuts, they look good don't they?) All compiled into what looks like a massive phone book - remember them? If you print this out better check the paper tray is fully loaded and open the window.
The sheer volume of data, all these ways of looking at the data, everyone is expecting answers. What do you do with the results? How do you distil clear, actionable insights from all the survey data? This is the main challenge for so many employee surveys and it happens more than you think.
Thunk! As the report landed on the table, the shockwave echoed through the conference room mic. It was then that everyone in the meeting realised the survey results discussion was not going to run to time.
The success of a survey shouldn't be based on its participation rate, or the engagement score or other KPI being 'best-ever'. What happens with the data, the survey results and the insights that help inform whatever comes next - determines how effective the survey really is.
How can we ensure all the great feedback isn't wasted?
Boiling Down to the Essentials
There is "comfort in quantity".
You've asked all these questions and collected all this data, it's easy to feel you need to justify all the work that went into running the survey. I used to feel the same, "our client has paid a lot of money, we need to demonstrate our value."
But it's impractical to discuss all 50 or 60 questions in a meeting or presentation. Whether it's senior management thinking about the whole company or a small team digesting their results, no one else has the time, or even the bandwidth for combing through this type of report.
When sharing the results, the focus should be on identifying the main themes, the key insights. These are your headlines. They should include addressing the survey's objectives (what you were looking to answer from the start). These headlines are the most significant findings.
Whether you're presenting or sharing a report, if the audience / readers only take away two things, what do you want them to know? Give that to them up-front. Don't make them work for it.
This is where the value is found in the survey.
When sharing results with the senior management team, we distil the information to draw out the major takeaways. This approach saves time and ensures the most important insights are highlighted and communicated effectively.
Sharing Results with Employees
When sharing results with departments and smaller teams across the organisation, people also need to know what they're looking at.
Maintain focus on the headlines.
It's usually helpful to share a summary of the overall results. For teams, keeping the results relevant by presenting their results and how they relate to the overall results may be useful. Scorecards are fine but include context and guidance on how to use the report / what the numbers indicate.
Emphasising the main findings can enhance involvement and understanding, and most importantly, support the activity that follows the discussions and planning that the survey informs.
Are you getting the insight you need from your survey?
Surveylab helps a range of organisations design, run and make sense of their employee surveys. Our surveys are always tailored to the client - tweaking our framework to deliver real human insights that help inform and guide their plans.
If you are looking for advice or expert support, please get in touch - or book a free 1:1 survey insights call with Dan.
This post was first published on LinkedIn, inspired by a video I made with the same title - when employee surveys are completely useless.