Employee Surveys - Really Useful?

[!ronic]

My current employer believes that surveying workers on what makes them happy at work is a good idea.

I think the information is out there already from dozens of HR websites. Plus, when they tell you what you have to choose from, then it doesn't tell them about me, it tells them how I rank their choices.

The things they want ranked include:

Good wages * Interesting work * Help with personal problems * Good working conditions * Personal loyalty by employer to employees * Full appreciation of work done * Tactful disciplining * Promotion and growth * Feeling of being “in” on things

We are suppose to put them in order of importance; some things I find important are not on the list...

Do you think surveys like these show that the employer values, and listens to, their employees? Is it a good first step? Redundant?

I never know when I am being hyper-critical vs. logical....

[along-for-the-ride]

I feel if an employer truly values you, he will sit down with you and have a face to face conversation with you as one person to another.

Surveys are so impersonal.
IMO

[KarmaDoodle]

I think so too - a survey can be impersonal, but also a way to see a bigger picture, whereas talking one on one can be more skewed.

[qsducks]

Is the survey confidential? do you need to put your name on it? I don't really see it as a big deal, but if they want your name on it, IMO that is a tad nosy and don't think people will fill it out honestly for fear of reprisals. You never know.

Surveys can be OK if used in conjunction with 1:1 chats with an employee. If you're wanting a general sense of what folks are thinking or what they're bothered about, you can then address them in smaller groups or individual sessions.

We use both where I work and it helps to see the importance that folks as a group put on certain areas. Such as:

Comp and benefits
Training/educational opportunities
Room for advancement
Community and quality of life issues

Once you know the area that ranks the highest in importance to the most people, you can then drill down to specifics within that area. The key though is that the employer needs to do something with the results they get otherwise it's just counter-productive.

[Nomad]

Im not taking our survey this year.
I was really pushing everyone to paricipate last year but it took them 7 months to compile the results and address the issues. Even then they didnt seem to grasp the notion that we were talking about them.
Mngmt. thought everything was cool so we must be talking about corporate.

Screw it, I have my mngr. trained anyway.

[hoppy]

My last employer did a one-on-one with each employee on each shift. Don't know what they did with any data they collected from these meets. Whenever they made changes, things seemed to just get worse for most of us.

[chonsigirl]

Surveys ae useful, especially if they are anonymous. Teachers were scared to write down what they thought, during the restructuring process. When we turned in our surveys, they wanted a handwritten evaluation also, which we refused. First thing a teacher learns is everyone's handwriting, we knew the administration would know ours. The completed blank survey survived, went to the school board and union, and they paid attention to it this year. Like finally!

[QUINNSCOMMENTARY]

Originally Posted by !ronic

My current employer believes that surveying workers on what makes them happy at work is a good idea.

I think the information is out there already from dozens of HR websites. Plus, when they tell you what you have to choose from, then it doesn't tell them about me, it tells them how I rank their choices.

The things they want ranked include:

Good wages * Interesting work * Help with personal problems * Good working conditions * Personal loyalty by employer to employees * Full appreciation of work done * Tactful disciplining * Promotion and growth * Feeling of being “in” on things

We are suppose to put them in order of importance; some things I find important are not on the list...

Do you think surveys like these show that the employer values, and listens to, their employees? Is it a good first step? Redundant?

I never know when I am being hyper-critical vs. logical....

Ask your employer what they are going to do with the results, will they raise wages if the "good wages" question bombs...not likely. Is someone who is unhappy going to get a promotion, if you are "out" will you suddenly become "in."

In other words take it from a corporate HR officer with 46 years expereince, the employee survey tells you nothing you don't already know or should.

On the other hand, it's not a bad way to kill 30 minutes on the job.

[Victoria]

I used to work for a big retail company and was so miserable it was untrue, I hated the back biting and the brown nosing... so I left the next company I worked for went bankrupt ( the boss forgot to tell us the bank was foreclosing when he recruited us!)

Now I work part time mornings as a home carer and evenings as a cleaner.
Its great.. the boss pops into see us now and then and once a year we have a 30 minute 1 to 1 chat about how we feel and if we are happy with the company.
The team I work with is great we are able to say what we think share our ups and down times and give each other support when needed.
Forget the surveys. employees are people, employers should remember that.