To Survey or Not To Survey Your Employees

Employee engagement training can improve motivation, commitment and productivity.  Surveying your workforce to measure employee engagement can be a good move to assess what is working and what is not. But here are three reasons NOT to survey…

1. When you are driven by curiosity and not by a genuine commitment to take action. Employees are guaranteed to disengage if, after answering the survey thoughtfully and honestly, management makes no move to change the situation for the better.
2. When you whitewash the results. If your most disengaged employees don’t respond to the survey, you could be misled into thinking your employees are more satisfied than is true. Be sure you encourage responses from those who seem most dissatisfied with their jobs.
3. When the employee has already decided to leave. The exit interview is too late to survey why the employee is unhappy. Be proactive…ask critical questions when you still have time to resolve issues before employees choose to walk.

Surveys should be administered only if you sincerely intend to gather honest feedback and take appropriate actions to improve the employee environment.  Otherwise you inappropriately raise expectations and create unnecessary unrest.