6 Steps to Take After an Employee Engagement Survey

What You Do After an Employee Engagement Survey Matters
Good for you! You recognized the importance of assessing your level of employee engagement as part of your talent management strategy to improve employee advocacy, discretionary effort, and retention. To truly make an impact, however, you must focus on what you do AFTER an employee engagement survey.

In our experience, designing and administering employee engagement surveys is the easy part.  While it is a great start, the survey is just the beginning. Engagement surveys provide the data you need to improve, but you must take concrete action to improve employee engagement and retention after an employee engagement survey.

Six Steps to Take After an Employee Engagement Survey
Now it’s time to figure out what you will do next. What engagement actions do you need to take to really move the needle on engagement levels after an employee engagement survey?

1.  Continue to Measure Engagement Levels
   Please don’t groan. We’re not talking about the lengthy and no-more-than-once-a year assessment you have just finished.  We’re talking about mini pulse surveys that are distributed periodically to measure reactions to change, test the effect of new policies, or to further explore specific concerns highlighted in the larger survey.

   Pulse surveys are quick to administer, easy to analyze, and give helpful feedback on specific issues. Don’t forget to share these analytics; employees deserve to get the information and see progress.

2. Ensure Engagement Goals Are Clear and Well Understood
   Company objectives regarding talent and performance may be clear to you as a leader, but are you sure your followers are focused on the right goals and behaviors? Ask them and get on the same page.
3. Recognize Moves in the Desired Direction
   Set up a system that allows you to give meaningful and proportionate kudos to employees who are demonstrating the behaviors that boost engagement. By shining a light on desired behaviors, you increase awareness of how you want your employees to act and what attitudes you respect and honor.

4. Give Meaningful Feedback
   360-degree feedback is often the most helpful because the employee is able to understand how they are viewed from multiple perspectives. But any well-intentioned, timely, and constructive feedback can help improve performance. Effective feedback should be an integral part of your performance management process.

5. Hold Frequent One-on-one Meetings
   One-on-one engagement meetings that are designed not just to discuss performance but to help employees thrive can give you an inside track on what your employees are thinking and feeling vis-à-vis their job and career path.

   — What do they like to do?
   — Where can they contribute most?
   — What is standing in the way?
   — What do you need from the company?

6. Make It Easy for Employees to Provide Improvement Suggestions
   To keep the focus on improvement, send out and solicit ideas for ways to further engage employees. Invite all to participate and to share their success stories.

The Bottom Line
An annual employee engagement survey can get you pointed in the right direction. Wisely timed pulse-checks can help to keep your finger on how things are going.  Now it’s up to you and your managers to take action and lead the company through the next steps.

To learn more about improving employee engagement after an employee engagement survey, download The Top 10 Most Powerful Ways to Boost Employee Engagement.

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.