Challenges with Employee Surveys and Addressing Individual Feedback
Employee surveys have served as useful tools for organizations to gain insights into what motivates their employees while also elevating employees’ voices and input. The employee survey has promised individuals voice in their organization and a chance for them to have their desires and frustrations heard. But after several years of completing a survey, sharing their individual feedback, and then getting results back that do not address their feedback, employees can begin to grow frustrated and feel unheard. You may be asking yourself, “How could gathering their input make them feel unheard?” (If you are not asking yourself this, let’s just act like you were for this exercise). I am happy you asked! This is often due to a misunderstanding of the intended use of the survey and limitations of addressing individual feedback while promising confidentiality, which I have detailed further below.
The employee survey is generally not designed to identify and respond to every individual situation or complaint.
Surveys are intended to address group themes, not individual situations. One reason for this frustration stems from a lack of understanding of the purpose of the survey. An employee survey is a tool that is typically used to identify overall themes of what is going right in the company as well as what could be going better. The survey is generally not designed to identify and respond to every individual situation or complaint. Trying to address every employee’s concern or dissatisfaction can often lead to a tumultuous company culture where the organization is constantly changing to fit the desires of their employees. While this is good to do at the group level, it is simply not feasible to address the specific desires of every staff member, who may have contrasting perspectives and desires. Therefore, responding to overall themes that will increase satisfaction for as many employees as possible is typically the best course of action.
Promises of confidentiality can limit what is reported in the results. In addition to the general purpose of the survey being a limitation to addressing individual concerns, the promise of confidentiality creates another challenge. Employee surveys often promise confidentiality to staff to increase their willingness to be open and honest with their feedback. While this is effective at improving open feedback, it also makes it very difficult to raise individual concerns that were not said by more than a couple of individuals. The purpose of only sharing top themes in the result is to not only maximize the level of impact by addressing the top concerns of staff, but to also help protect employee confidentiality. If we were to include a complaint that was only mentioned by one or two people, we run the risk of leadership being able to identify who shared the complaint. Perhaps the complaint may be relevant to more employees, but unless it is mentioned by more, we have no idea how identifiable the comment may be. While we do have techniques to limit how identifiable the feedback is when presenting results (e.g., removing overly specific details), we do not want to run the risk of failing to maintain the promised confidentiality.
So, now you may be saying, “Okay, fair enough. How do I avoid this outcome and ensure my staff feel heard?” (Again, humor me if you will). Another great question! Below I have shared a couple of points to consider, including setting clear expectations of the purpose of the survey as well as offering additional opportunities for staff to communicate their individual feedback and have their voices heard.
Set accurate expectations of what the survey will address. The first step you should take is to ensure accurate expectations are set from the beginning. Let employees know that the survey will be used to gather their input and feedback, and based on all the feedback that is collected, top themes will be identified and shared with leadership. Once results are compiled and shared back with the organization, you should again mention to staff that key themes were identified and included in the results. During this time, you can let them know if they do not see any of the feedback they provided through the survey in the results, which means that there were not enough other people who shared similar feedback to amount to a theme. If they wish for leadership to still hear the feedback they had provided, they should look to another feedback channel to share their feedback directly.
Offer additional feedback channels for individual feedback. In order for staff to utilize another feedback channel to provide their specific input, there must be other feedback channels available. Take some time to determine which feedback channels make the most sense for your organization and then make sure these channels are clearly communicated to staff, either through an employee handbook, organization operating manual, or an internal communication plan. Some feedback channels we would recommend considering include quarterly conversations, annual reviews, biannual all staff meetings, annual townhall meetings, a comment box, or an online feedback form. In addition, staff should also be informed of how to reach out to Human Resources should there be any major concerns. Staff should also be able to schedule a meeting with their manager to discuss their concerns. These feedback channels should allow for more direct conversation and for employees to receive a response to their specific concerns.
At C1C, we love to help organizations with the design and implementation of their employee surveys as well as helping organizations to create systems and policies that maximize the effectiveness of their organization and communication. If you would like help with employee surveys or communication channels, feel free to reach out!