Payroll represents the biggest single expense of your business. To attract and keep the real stars, you need to create a work environment that makes them want to give their best effort and consistently perform at the highest levels. To do that, you need to keep your finger on the pulse of your team. That’s not easy to do when you’re busy trying to bring in new business, run your operation and put out fires every day. But to create a work environment that stimulates their best efforts, you need to ASK them what’s working and what’s not. Here’s what can happen if you don’t.
Jeff owned a hotel in Connecticut. Two years ago he was distressed about problems with his staff. There was a lot of absenteeism, and morale seemed low. He knew he wasn’t getting the best from them, but didn’t know why. With advice from a colleague, he set up an employee opinion survey. Jeff thought people would give honest input if they knew their responses would be anonymous. And he was right. The results surprised him. It was a huge “wake up” call that dramatically changed the way he viewed his team and ran his business.
One of Jeff’s core values is treating people with respect. But the survey showed that people disliked coming to work because of the oppressive, controlling environment. Jeff was shocked when he learned there was a huge gap between the culture he wanted and the one he’d actually created. Before doing this employee opinion survey, he had NO idea that people felt this way!
When you’re busy running your business, you’re typically not working shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone on your team. In fact, you can become isolated from what’s happening on the front lines because your attention is focused on other things. And most of the time, people say what they think you want to hear. They aren’t sure you really want to hear the truth. So to get at the truth, you have to ask for input about your company from everyone who works for you. And with a flexible survey tool, you can separate the responses of managers and non-managers to see if there is a difference in their perspectives.
What you want to find out from your managers and team members are two simple things:
#1. What do they like most about working for your company? What do they want MORE of?
#2. What changes can you make to improve their work environment and increase productivity and morale? Discover their concerns so you know what needs to be addressed.
Here are a few examples of topics you can include in your employee opinion survey to uncover the real strengths and issues.
ENVIRONMENT. What’s the atmosphere like in your company? Do people enjoy coming to work? Do you encourage creativity and thinking outside the box? Do people smile a lot?
COMMUNICATION. Whether you have 10, 100 or 500 people in your company, communication is typically the #1 issue. Do people feel comfortable talking with each other…their boss…you?
The owner of a manufacturing company surveyed her 30 employees. She discovered that people were frustrated with the lack of regular communication from her about what was happening in the business. She started publishing a monthly internal newsletter to keep everyone informed, and she said it made a huge difference in how they felt about her and the company.
OPERATIONS. Another important topic includes your processes and procedures. What’s working and what’s not? Do you know what’s broken and needs to be fixed?
FEEDBACK. And finally, do people get feedback on a regular basis about how well they’re doing their jobs? Do they feel they have opportunities to grow in their roles?
If you’ve never done an employee opinion survey before, you want it to be easy and you want to set it up so people give you honest feedback. Otherwise, you are wasting your time – and theirs. So the best approach is to have them fill out the survey online and use a tool that ensures their responses are confidential. When they feel safe – that there won’t be any negative consequences – they will tell you what is really going on.
Once you have the feedback, you’ll analyze the responses to spot trends and areas to work on. Then you want to talk with your team about the results, share your initial plan, and get their reactions. After that, you’ll put the final plan in place and start making changes.
Jeff used the information from his employee opinion survey to think about what the staff really wanted from him. He decided to bring in a coach to help him make changes in his management style. Six months after the survey, people reported that they loved coming to work because the atmosphere at the hotel was totally different. Jeff was listening more and commanding less. People did their jobs with more enthusiasm, and he had a level of satisfaction he had never felt before. His relationships with everyone in his life – including his family – showed dramatic improvements. Your experience conducting an employee opinion survey could transform your business, the way Jeff’s experience did his.
Interested in learning more about how to conduct surveys in your company? Get instant access to 4 videos to discover why successful small businesses use feedback surveys to keep their companies strong, even during tough economic times. http://www.SurveysForSmallBusiness.com
Meredith Bell is Your Voice of Encouragement and President of Performance Support Systems. For more than 15 years her company has helped people and organizations worldwide grow stronger by getting feedback from those who are critical to their success.
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