Employees are transitioning between jobs at a record pace and dizzying pace that can make it challenging and expensive for employers to keep up with. Higher turnover rates bring a never-ending slog of recruiting, interviewing, new employee orientation and training, and more. The new resource that you hire may end up costing the same amount or more than the one who just left, not to mention the fact that it may take months if not a full year for them to reach peak productivity.
The loss of talent, particularly experienced talent, then puts further strain on existing teams managing their former colleague's workloads and can result in poor customer outcomes or further employee turnover, perpetuating a vicious cycle. While turnover is driven by many different internal and external factors, the same ones come up again and again for organizations of all types and sizes. Disconnects with company culture, lack of career development potential, actual or perceived work-life balance challenges, poor relationships with management, and lack of recognition could all be key drivers in your company's churn outside of external market factors.
So, how can employers gain an understanding of where they are falling down in employee retention and where they should be focusing efforts to improve the employee experience? Lagging indicators of employee exit interviews, while useful, may come too late, especially as the solutions to these problems often do not come easily or quickly. This means that it is imperative for employers to proactively gauge and measure their employee's well-being and job satisfaction, and this is where Workplace Culture or Employee Perception Surveys come into play.
Workplace Culture Surveys
Workplace culture surveys offer an outlet for workers to share their perceptions and ideas related to a topic or concern in the workplace. The concept of leveraging workers' knowledge towards a challenge aligns with one of the human and organization performance (HOP) key concepts of viewing people as problem solvers. Instead of a problem to be managed, people (workers) can help solve the problems because workers bring their unique experience and perspectives to the table.
The results of these surveys, which can be used to gauge employees overall or to differentiate managerial perceptions against employee perceptions, can become a powerful tool in understanding where your employee base sees challenges and how they would like them solved. It can be used to quantitatively measure worker well-being to enable prioritization on addressing the most pressing and consequential challenges.
How to Get Started:
So, how do you get started with a Workplace Culture Survey? First, identify an area that you would like to focus on and learn more about. This topic may stem from managerial perception, prior survey data if available, employee feedback channels (as available), or lagging indicator sources such as exit interview data. Ideally, you should draw from multiple sources and begin with the more consequential focal areas or where the company is known to be facing challenges or discontent. Once you've identified an area or areas to focus on (e.g., work-life balance, wellness, mental health, etc.), it is important to collaborate and engage across all work groups within your organization, from top leadership and managers, to human resources and health and safety teams, and to non-managerial employees.
Starting with a workplace perception survey is also a great first step if your organization is thinking about initiating HOP philosophies or looking to continuously learn how to better support your teams. Leveraging current survey technology, you'll design, build, and disseminate surveys to suit your needs as you engage these resources.
Keeping the surveys truly anonymous can be critical in soliciting true unfiltered feedback and allowing for greater inclusivity. Employees who believe they could be targeted for their responses will be less likely to respond to surveys, and if they do respond, the information provided may be less than honest which can undermine the effectiveness of the tool.
Do you want to see how these surveys played out for other organizations? Here are just a few examples:
- Click here to read a case study from a retail company that applied a workplace culture survey to better understand employee perceptions of their wellness program offerings.
- Click here to read a case study of a local government department that applied a workplace culture survey to measure its program maturity.
Benefits of Workplace Culture Surveys
- Provides snapshots into employees' and/or leaderships' perception of available resources at the company.
- Provides leadership the hard data on which to make decisions, demonstrating their dedication to their most valuable resource - their employees.
- Ensures employees' voices are heard and their concerns are understood. It also begins to break down any perceived walls among workers and leadership.
- Boosts employee retention by empowering employees to share their perspectives, which in turn helps employees feel valued and boosts productivity.
- Supports the connection of internal resources in other departments by connecting a survey to broader organizational initiatives.
- Facilitates organizations in refocusing assets on items both the organization and employees are concerned about, saving time and energy in the long run.
Feeling Stuck?
Are you stuck on your Culture Survey journey or have results that you need support in analyzing or addressing? Antea Group can help organizations that are looking to deploy customized surveys to move the needle on improving EHS and employee well-being. Our subject matter experts can also analyze existing data and work with your teams to come up with feasible and realistic outcomes and solutions tailored to the needs of your organization.
Connect with our team of experts today for support in navigating the framework elements, identifying priorities, and implementing culture surveys at your organization.
