Since you likely arrived here looking for helpful ideas you can use for your next employee engagement survey, I should probably get this part out of the way:
According to various experts, there’s a strong likelihood that 60-70% of your workforce will not participate. I realize this isn’t the good news you’re looking for, so I’ll cut straight to the silver lining and let you know that you
can prevent that from happening. You just have to forget about a lot of the advice you’ve been getting. Perhaps you tried a few survey tips, but still experience much lower than anticipated response rates. Or maybe you tested out some popular pulse survey software and aren’t seeing significant outcomes. The market is now saturated with an abundance of survey types and tips. Some of them are valid and valuable. A few are convenient for employees to take. But how many will result in increased levels of engagement? Based on our extensive research, the answer is “not many.” A lot of the surveys that rise to the top of Google are “vanity” surveys.
The results may look good in a press release but do little to drive on-the-ground engagement. Once you begin to distinguish between these types of surveys and the ones that are psychometrically valid, you can start to influence real change.
I once worked at a company that provided detailed talking points and sample answers for a “Top Workplaces” campaign. Suffice it to say, the results of that survey did
not paint an accurate picture of employee engagement. Apparently, incentivized and dishonest feedback isn’t unusual. Companies have been known to influence high marks by tying compensation to Net Promoter Scores. In one
study, 48% of senior leadership rated the surveys they were using as "highly valuable," while less than half (19%) of the rest of their organizations felt the same. And at the United Parcel Service, one particularly memorable annual survey resulted in high ratings for morale just 10 months before the organization was hit with a costly strike. Bottom line: A survey that results in a high ranking on a “Top Workplaces” list can be a boon for marketing, but it doesn’t mean employees are truly engaged. Relying on these can lead to a cycle of never truly knowing how high (or low) your levels of employee engagement are.
The 3 Main Types of Employee Engagement Surveys
1. “Vanity” Employee Surveys
If you’ve ever worked with a management team that felt it had reached “best workplace” status and needed the survey results to prove it, you know what it’s like to participate in a vanity survey. Because these surveys tend measure job satisfaction rather than meaningful connections to employers, they do little to drive true engagement. Plus, the scores can be inflated. I once worked at a company that provided detailed talking points and sample answers for a “Top Workplaces” campaign. Suffice it to say, the results of that survey did
not paint an accurate picture of employee engagement. Apparently, incentivized and dishonest feedback isn’t unusual. Companies have been known to influence high marks by tying compensation to Net Promoter Scores. In one
study, 48% of senior leadership rated the surveys they were using as "highly valuable," while less than half (19%) of the rest of their organizations felt the same. And at the United Parcel Service, one particularly memorable annual survey resulted in high ratings for morale just 10 months before the organization was hit with a costly strike. Bottom line: A survey that results in a high ranking on a “Top Workplaces” list can be a boon for marketing, but it doesn’t mean employees are truly engaged. Relying on these can lead to a cycle of never truly knowing how high (or low) your levels of employee engagement are.
