We just completed another quarterly Emplify survey, and we typically are pinging in local offices at different intervals for "Start, Stop, Keep" input for meetings as well. It is not uncommon to see the following in both instances: Stop – Emplify Surveys, Keep – Emplify Surveys. We even see those same split responses inside of Emplify.
Why all the surveys? Who can see the information? What is the point of the surveys; nothing happens? What do we mean when we say Employee Engagement? Those are all great questions, points to ponder, and can seem overwhelming, so let’s jump in.
Let me start with Employee Engagement. Employee Engagement is designed to find out how passionate employees are about their jobs, how committed you are to the organization, and if you are willing to put in extra effort for the customer, your co-workers, and company. Why does that matter? It paints a picture for executive leadership to understand how the culture is working, because engaged employees do great things for each other, and for customers.
"Start, Stop, Keep" is more about Employee Satisfaction, collecting intelligence on what executive leadership can do to make things better for employees. Why does that matter? Creating an environment that allows the Team to excel, have things they need to be more efficient, to collaborate as a Team, collecting great ideas and implementing them, builds a workplace employees want to be a part of.
That is the why so many surveys.
Who can see the information in Emplify?
- Nobody can see what individual employees mark down for scores, or who made what comments. If any one group has less than four employees, the score shows up in the overall score, but not in that department so that it cannot be narrowed down. It is grayed out. We can filter and review in several categories, but - we only see overall scores.
What is the point of the surveys, nothing happens?
- We see this universally, every survey. It may seem like nobody is listening, it may seem like nothing is happening. We are listening; we are working hard every week, month, and quarter to take all this information and use it to drive change. Here are some examples of things born out of the feedback.
o Significant upgrades to servers to make 360 faster.
o A massive number of hours spent by staff working on dashboards, reporting, sending feedback to 360 for upgrades to functionality.
o 1:1 meetings and scorecards for more individual feedback.
o The forthcoming skills and training outline, which will help managers work with their teams on planning their development, outlining the skills you need to advance.
o o Working on the development of strategies specifically to handle the growing trends in technology, needs of the company and teams.
o Customer satisfaction surveys.
- That is just a handful of the things being worked on, and it is all from employee feedback.
I can hear it as if you are here, “Yeah, but what about comments about managerial style, specific people, specific events?” “I had a great idea about building our own software, or how we can be more efficient.” It is all being read, considered, and actions have been taken or are leading to actions. It is important to remember that not everything can, or should, happen immediately. We should all hope to work someplace that takes the time to work through things, work with people, lest we be the ones on the other end, swift action was taken, and you did not have the opportunity to learn or adjust.
So, keep taking the surveys, be honest, provide your ideas, your feedback, the good, the bad, the encouraging, the not so great, the amazing, and even the so-so.
Lastly, in the words of the great Bo Schembechler: “…..No man is more important than The Team. No coach is more important than The Team. The Team, The Team, The Team, and if we think that way, all of us, everything that you do, you take into consideration what effect does it have on my Team? ……..We're gonna believe in each other, we're not gonna criticize each other, we're not gonna talk about each other, we're gonna encourage each other.”
- Kevin Henderson, Chief Operating Officer, Arkansas