(Guest article by Jayne Blake)
Enhancing employee engagement has always been a crucial element in any workplace, and that remains true today. An employee who remains engaged throughout the year will be better motivated, more productive, and more dedicated to their company than those employees who aren’t. By using continuous feedback surveys, you let your employees know that their opinions do matter, and you also gain useful insight on things like employee morale. Utilizing the survey results to better meet the needs of your employees is an excellent way to enhance overall employee engagement.
In recent studies, it was discovered that some 70% of full-time workers in the country don’t consider themselves to be engaged at work. Another study showed that the most prevalent and consistent factor regarding why people decide to leave their jobs is dissatisfaction with management. When these two statistics are combined, it becomes obvious that proper management directly translates into properly engaged employees. Let’s have a deeper look into the vital role that continuous feedback plays in terms of employee engagement.
Why is it important to use continuous feedback surveys?
Research shows that almost all employees, at all employment levels, prefer to receive management feedback on a consistent basis. When employees can give as well as receive feedback with their management, it lets them feel more valued, less stressed out, and helps to build confidence as well.
The main duty of management personnel is to ensure that their team’s goals are all properly and consistently met. In order to make this happen, more time needs to be spent with their employees, and that time needs to be directed towards understanding the employees’ needs. The problem is that managers often find it difficult to engage with their employees on a frequent basis due to the demands of their role and the huge amount of work they have to do each day. It takes time to properly understand what each team member and what the team as a whole needs. Before these surveys, it was rather difficult for managers to systemise a good process of employee engagement as well.
This is where continuous feedback comes in very handy. Things in the workplace are constantly changing, so it is vital for managers to keep their finger on the pulse of their organisation and of their employees. However, each person is unique, is motivated in different ways, and has different types of needs. This is also true of teams. Therefore, management can’t just use a one-size-fits-all solution.
First, it was the HR departments that came up with what they felt was an effective solution – the annual reviews and annual survey. This worked for a while, but with the continual changes occurring in the workplace and the fast pace of those changes, annual solutions were not sufficient to meet the needs of employees as well as managers in real time. By implementing continuous feedback surveys on a frequent basis, the pulse of the employees and of the organisation as a whole can more easily be captured and evaluated. This, in turn, gives managers the information they need in order to improve both employee engagement and overall productivity.
What benefits do continuous feedback surveys have?
Firstly, these types of surveys are small and very easy to answer while still providing managers with a wide variety of information regarding the state of the organisation and its employees. While continuing to conduct continuous feedback surveys might appear to add more items to the managers’ already large “to do” list, it’s actually just the opposite. Surveys like these actually help the managers to save time.
Additionally, managers can obtain all the data they need and can do so in a timely fashion. This empowers them to be able to make more proactive decisions and less reactive ones. This, in turn, allows them to maintain control while enabling them to use the time they have much more efficiently.
Some of the things that continuous feedback can do for the workplace are:
– Uncovering issues so they can be dealt with before they become bigger problems;
– Obtaining customized data concerning what motivates the employees so that any changes needing to be made can be clearly seen;
– Giving employees the sense that their opinions are important and do matter to the management;
– Giving the employees a proper voice and a platform from which they can truly be heard;
– Sending a clear message that the management does care about each and every employee;
– Encouraging increased co-creation as well as collaboration between team members.
Never underestimate how much impact these types of surveys can have upon your business. Employees want a workplace where they can enjoy the work they do and rest easy knowing that the management is fully aware of any problems or issues. By utilizing continuous feedback, you can be assured that your employees will be happier and your productivity will be higher as well.
About the author: Jayne Blake is a Content Coordinator currently working for Zintel. We offer expert solutions for all your telecommunication challenges.
Image via Unsplash under C.C.0 license
Paula, is there a concern that with such frequent surveys, employees wiill expect continuous and rapid changes that simply aren’t realistic?
Definitely, that’s a valid concern. In trying to prevent this from happening, management or HR should set the right expectations on both sides before implementing any technological solution. What do employees expect from this system? What does management? If everyone knows where they stand, the internal capabilities for change will be laid out from the beginning and that can spare everyone unnecessary frustrations. That’s with regard to major issues. There are also small behavior and resources issues that can be fixed as soon as they’re brought into the conversation and it’s often those small changes that add up to a much higher level of employee engagement. Does that make sense?
I’m looking into employee engagement surveys for my business and I see a lot of reasons why this could be beneficial. I think it could really boost productivity to know what motivates and hinders an employees productivity. I see it being very valuable to have enough information to deal with problems before they grow larger by using data feedback in a smart way, relying less on what usually amounts to stereotyping to motivate employees.