Employee Engagement Surveys – how to action feedback?

Employee Engagement Surveys (EES) are one of the best ways to understand your employees motivation and engagement in the workplace. Gauging wellbeing and happiness in their environment means they are more likely to perform their best and achieve desired results. They also give you the data to respond to issues that the business may not be aware of. 

Regular surveys give an ‘over time’ insight into the effectiveness of key metrics put in place to resolve any problem areas. Not only are all these crucial points covered by an EES, but it also sends the message to employees that their wellbeing is of high importance. 

So, what are the right questions to ask to get to the bottom of any pain points? And how do you action the feedback? We have collated some tips below:

    1. The objective of the questions put to employees, is to understand if they are energised and engaged to put their best into their work. Questions can be split into individual satisfaction, alignment and future view themes. Example questions below:
      • Satisfaction questions: Do you believe the organisation has your best interests in mind when making business decisions?
      • Do you feel excited about coming in to work?
      • Do you enjoy working with your team?
      • Would you recommend working for [business] to your friends?
      • Alignment questions: Do the businesses visions and values inspire you?
      • Do you believe you receive regular adequate communication with all employees?
      • Do you feel your manager / leadership team are invested in your success?
      • Does you receive appropriate recognition for your work?
      • Does the company culture offer a comfortable and supportive work environment?
      • Future view: Do you see a path for career progression?
      • Do you feel supported by your manager in your career aspirations?
      • Do you know how you fit into the organisations future plans?
    2.  Open ended questions also make up an important part of an EES. Being direct about possible pain points and asking for open feedback allows the business to ensure that they are aware of any key focus areas:
      •  What do we do well?
      • What could we improve on?
      • What do you enjoy most / least about your role?
      • Is there anything preventing you from doing your job well?
      • What changes have you seen since the last survey? (if applicable)
    3.  Work-Life balance is an important consideration in our fast paced world, featuring some questions on this will show employees that you consider this as an important factor in their wellbeing:
      • Do you get enough time to do your job well?
      • Do you find yourself working at evenings or weekends?
      • Are you often stressed with deadlines or workload?
    4.  Collating and actioning the feedback is possibly the most important part of the EES. Employees will only feel connected to the feedback process if they are going to see action or acknowledgement of their views. Some of the best ways of taking action are:
      • Create a transparancy report – showing the findings of the survey for the company to review will show that the feedback has been extensively reviewed and is being taken seriously
      • Employee led reviews – Ask all managers to review their anonymous feedback with their teams and hold a company wide meeting or call to cover off any key themes
      • Maintain communication – Regular comms on changes that have been actioned
      • Collaboration methods and continuous improvement – ensure leadership teams are promoting continuous workplace improvement and excellence with employee feedback in mind. Or look at creating employee led learning programmes. Encouraging collaboration and inspiration can be a great step to actioning feedback. 

The process of Employee Engagement is a continuous one that should evolve and grow with the company. Taking it seriously could have a great impact on employee performance, retention and ultimately results for your business. 

We hope you found this short guide useful. To learn more about our HR membership and how we can guide HR professionals with a safe and consistent network to learn and share these kinds of insights, please email [email protected]. 

Cake & Chat with Katie Allen

Our spotlight feature, Cake & Chat, welcomes our existing Cake & HR Member Katie Allen. Katie is a Specialist DEI Leadership coach, TEDx speaker, Workplace Culture Consultant and overall HR powerhouse. We really enjoyed getting to know Katie a little better over Cake…

Tell us a little about yourself.

Hello! I’m Katie Allen and I’m the Founding Director of Katie Allen Consulting. I’m a specialist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) consultant and coach, and my business supports small to medium sized companies who want to take their cultures of inclusion to the next level. I also work with teams and individuals who want to get to grips with the basics of DEI and become confident talking about some of the more challenging topics in this space. I’m also pretty well known for having 4 cats (2 of which are hairless), who regularly try to make cameo appearances in my online meetings!

Tell us about how you got into HR?

As with a lot of HR professionals, I never actually set out to get into this industry. As a natural entrepreneur, my background has been in commercial management and leadership, but I pivoted into HR due to my desire to want to be more focused on the people side of business leadership. This seemed to naturally lead me into becoming more of a specialist in DEI over the years, and in 2020 I set up my own company to focus exclusively on that.

What’s your career highlight?

Delivering my first TEDx talk in September 2022. This was such a huge moment for me as a developing public speaker, and definitely a ‘bucket list’ item. It was a real privilege to be able to craft my speech on my specialist topic of allyship, and deliver it on one of the most well-known stages in the world. It was so much fun I’m already writing my next one.

What are your top three tips for leading a HR team?

1. Listen more. It wasn’t until I qualified as a coach that I realised the true power of listening (and I mean the active kind, not just listening for my turn to speak next!). I now make so much more effort to listen more than I speak, and it helps me to better to connect with and understand my clients and team members.

2. Don’t feel like you have to know or do everything yourself. In the same way I listen better now, I also feel much less like I always need to have the answer or be able to do everything myself. Delegation and being vulnerable enough to share what I don’t know has been a superpower when it comes to creating the best solutions and getting things done. HR is hard enough without also trying to be all things to all people.

3. Trust yourself. You’re brilliant at what you do, even when you might not feel it, and even when things don’t go to plan. You are good enough.

What’s the best advice you can give for keeping on top of the ever changing world of HR?

Stay curious and be challenging. Be open to new ideas and perspectives and don’t be afraid to experiment. We can often get really bogged down in traditional approaches and so called “best practice” and forget to question if there’s a better or easier way. People are the heart of every business, and HR are the people people. We’re leaders too and we are just as innovative and creative as other functions, and arguably our work has potentially the biggest impact. We need to be asking the tough questions of our businesses just as much as our businesses asks them of us.

What do you do to keep your mental wellbeing in check?

As with many other people in HR, I’m not always the best at putting my own needs first. I’m hugely fortunate to be my own boss, so I do try to make sure I schedule in regular “consolidation time” for me gather my thoughts and offload tasks that don’t need to be done by me. I’m also very strict about not work during holidays (this means not checking emails too!). That time is for my family and myself, and I commit to being as present as possible.

How long have you been a member of Cake & HR?

I joined Cake & HR in early 2019 as I was looking to build my network locally with other HR professionals.

What do you find most valuable about being a member of Cake & HR?

The mix of people that you get to meet is invaluable! The wealth of knowledge, expertise, and experience is truly brilliant, and you can always find someone who is either experiencing the same challenge or has already been through it and has wisdom to share.  Plus we have a real laugh which makes it super welcoming, even when you’ve had a rubbish day or feel a bit flat.

What’s your favourite life or work related quote that inspires you or keeps you pushing on?

“Everything is figure-out-able” from the book of the same name by Marie Forleo. And this has become my rock-solid go-to mantra. Because it really is. Everything is figure-out-able!

Finally…what’s your favourite cake?

Does anyone really only have one favourite cake…? I think at the moment I would choose a Battenburg cake, as you get a good mix of flavours and it’s super bright and cheery (but if I can have a side order of sticky toffee pudding I’ll take that too please!).

Thank you Katie! We loved chatting all things HR with you. If you’d like to feature in our Cake & Chat, email your interest to [email protected].