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In our twenty years of conducting surveys, we continued to be impressed by the benefits both individual leaders and organizations realize when they ask for their employees’ opinions and take action based on the feedback they receive from employees.  While the list of benefits is extensive, based on feedback from our clients, these ten benefits are at the top of our list.

1. Surveys Identify Areas Where the Organization is Doing Well

When you think of conducting any type of a survey, your goal, most often, is to identify areas where the organization could improve.  While this is a great goal, don’t overlook the positives that are identified in surveys.  Great employers not only analyze issues that have been identified by employees as being of concern, but also areas that have been given a “thumbs up” by employees.  Analyzing the highest rated areas in the survey allows leaders in organizations to capitalize on their strengths and continue those practices that are viewed favorably by employees.

2. Surveys Quantify Areas of Concern to Give Management an Accurate Picture of Reality

Often a leader has a “gut level” feeling that something may not be quite right, but doesn’t seem to be able to get enough insights about the problem to design a clear plan of action to correct the issue.  Well- designed surveys give leaders an accurate read on the “pulse” of the organization.  Survey data will provide quantifiable results allowing you to identify whether an area of concern is just a pocket issue in one department, or an organizational wide issue. 

Analyzing survey data allows leaders to identify areas, whether it be at the departmental level, or throughout the organization, where actions need to be taken to achieve a work environment that is viewed more favorably by employees.  It gives leaders the confidence to move from “I think there might be a problem” to “We know we have some issues, because only 55% of all employees on our team feel that the communication from management enables them to do their job effectively.”

3. Surveys are Conducive to an Improved Bottom Line

While some leaders naively think that surveys are equated with a “touchy feely” feel-good sort of environment, nothing could be further from the truth.  Clients that conduct surveys on a regular basis, and take action based on the results, know that surveys positively impact the bottom line.  Put simply, unhappy employees move on, and their turnover has a huge impact on your organization’s profitability.  Most Human Resources managers that we work with estimate that when an employee moves on, the cost of turnover is roughly 150% of the employee’s annual salary.  This estimate is based on lost productivity, the cost to advertise the job, interview the applicants, train the person selected, pay overtime during the time the job remains vacant, etc.  To make the math simple, let’s assume that your average employee’s total compensation package, including benefits, etc.  is $50,000.  If the cost of turnover is 150%, then the cost for an average employee moving on is $75,000.  If you employee 500 employees, and 10% move on, that is roughly a 3.75 million dollar annual cost of turnover to your organization.  

Suddenly, when you consider the potential impact to your bottom line, knowing what employees think and feel about their relationship with their employer takes on new meaning.  We don’t know many employers that would willingly want to add 3.75 million dollars to the cost of doing business.

4. Surveys Raise Levels of Employee Commitment

When we work with clients who do repeat surveys as part of their strategic plan to value and utilize employee input, we are impressed with the degree of loyalty demonstrated by employees.  Asking employees for their opinions, then getting them involved in suggesting actions that will address their concerns, builds loyalty.  Employees in our fast paced, competitive workplaces are often frustrated with the communication gap they perceive between management and employees.  If their perceptions are not addressed, trust between employees and management erodes over time.  Conducting a confidential survey is a simple method for reaching out to employees and saying, “We value your opinions and care about our working environment.  Tell us what you think about . . .” 

When employers share the survey results with employees and commit to taking actions in areas identified by employees as being of concern, trust levels raise. When trust levels rise, employees see management in a more favorable light and are more committed to the success of their boss and the organization.  Committed employees are less apt to look for other employment opportunities outside your organization.

 5. Surveys Help Leaders Grow

After all the years of our experience both working as employees in organizations and then working as consultants with organizational leaders, we are convinced that very few leaders get up in the morning and say, “I’m going to work hard today to create a dismal working environment for my team. I’m going to be moody, unpredictable and inconsistent.  To spice things up, I think I’ll do some yelling today!”  

For whatever the reason, whether it be lack of training, unclear guidelines regarding expectations for leaders, or the challenges of dealing with difficult employees, some supervisors clearly have dysfunctional relationships with their employees.  Asking employees for input regarding their working relationship with their supervisor highlights that supervisor’ strengths and provides specific areas for leadership growth opportunities.  Survey results provide the leader with employees’ perceptions regarding trust levels, effectiveness of communication, ability to hold employees accountable, and willingness to proactively deal with team problems.  

We have seen phenomenal growth in leaders when they took their employees’ feedback seriously and worked with their employees to determine actions that led to a more productive and harmonious working relationship between supervisor and employee.  Surveys are like leadership report cards.  They help the supervisor identify both areas of strength and opportunities to become an even better leader.

6. Surveys Provide Management with a Tool to Hold People Accountable

While there may be no ideal organization, some certainly have better reputations than others.  The EOS is a tool consistently used by leaders who are intent on pushing the bar measuring employee satisfaction up to higher levels.  As such, they use repeat surveys to objectively measure improvement in employee satisfaction in areas that have been identified as being of concern.  We find that the first time a client conducts a survey, valuable quantifiable information is obtained.  Leaders are then required to analyze their data, develop action plans addressing the lower rated areas, and periodically report back to the management team regarding their progress.   When a repeat survey is conducted, the management team has the opportunity to measure the progress made and begin to hold leaders accountable for improving their scores in areas where employees have expressed concerns.   

7. Surveys Improve Morale

One of our first steps when developing a customized survey for a client is to conduct interviews with a cross-section of employees from all areas of the organization and from all levels within the organization.  From the information we obtain during the interviews, we are able to ask questions that will clearly identify areas of organizational strengths and opportunities for the organization to change.  After we conduct the interviews, we often get feedback from our contacts that sounds something like this, “I don’t know what you did, but morale has already started to improve.”  This feedback doesn’t surprise us.  What has has happened is that employees who have been interviewed know that their input is being utilized to design the survey.  Feeling “in on things” is good for morale.

Conducting a survey, and then acting on the results, clearly says to employees, “Your opinion counts.  We want to know what you think and are willing to address areas where you have some issues or concerns.”  Most employees don’t expect a “perfect” workplace.  They do highly value, however, a workplace that listens to their concerns and takes them seriously.  Surveys are a great tool to help manage workplace morale.

8. Surveys Help Identify Your Organization as “An Employer of Choice”

While employment markets change quickly with the economy, there is no arguing that some organizations, based on their reputation, have an easier time hiring great applicants.  Today’s employers know that they cannot remain competitive without the capacity to find and keep great people.  Their ability to recruit and retain the caliber of employee needed to ensure organizational success is hugely impacted by the organization’s reputation.  Today, more than ever, people want to be involved in meaningful work, and want to work with an organization that values their ideas and their contributions.  Many of our clients view the survey process not only as a tool to positively impact the current organizational culture, but as a valuable tool to help attract a great employee.  They routinely make their survey results available to potential job candidates.  It’s so much easier to hire the best when you have a reputation of already being the best based on your current employees’ opinions.

Garry Ridge, CEO of the WD-40 Company said, “Great people and great products make great organizations.  Understanding our people is vital in our learning.  We are able to focus our actions on making WD-40 a great place to work because great people like to work at great places.”

9. Surveys Allow You to Benchmark Your Organization Against Other Organizations

Leaders in proactive organizations are both curious and competitive.  When reviewing their results they ask, “So how do we compare to other organizations?”  Or, “You tell us we have good results, but how do we stack up against the really great organizations?”   Benchmarking allows employers to put into perspective their employees’ collective responses when compared to a “benchmark.”  Benchmarking is a process by which an organization determines what it wants to measure, (usually best workplace practices) then sets goals designed to ensure success by comparing their survey responses to those of other organizations. 

For example, in response to the question, “I am clear on the Company’s goals and future direction,” an organization’s favorable results were 68.5%.  In comparison, the overall benchmark score for the same question is 79.3%.  Going one step further, the organization could compare themselves to organizations in the top quarter of the benchmark, learning that in these organizations the favorable response to the same question was 82.5%.  Reviewing your organization’s specific data to a benchmark gives you’re a good frame of reference to determine how your organization compares to a larger group of employees who were asked the same question.

Organizations that routinely benchmark their survey data, and use the data to set goals to target improvement, not only improve in overall employee satisfaction, but in the areas of:  process improvement, communication, teamwork, and leadership.  It’s difficult to make progress if you don’t know what the target is.  Benchmarking provides you a target to help you set realistic goals.

10. Surveys Enhance Customer Relations

Finally, the last, but perhaps one of the most important reasons to conduct a survey is that satisfied employees deliver higher levels of service, thereby increasing customer loyalty to your organization.  When organizations take action on their survey results, demonstrating to employees their intent to create an even more satisfying work environment, the benefits go far beyond raising levels of employee satisfaction.  Taking action in areas related to clarity of organizational purpose, commitment to organizational values, teamwork, communication, accountability and productivity, (to name just a few areas) will have a far reaching positive impact on not only levels of employee satisfaction, but  also customer satisfaction.  It’s common knowledge that negative, unhappy employees find it difficult, if not impossible to deliver service at levels that meet or exceed your customers’ expectations.

Companies that are passionate about how they care for their customers empower their employees to consistently deliver high-quality products and service.  These companies understand what it takes to attract and retain loyal customers, and what it takes to retain a top notch workforce.  They know that happy employees are more likely to empower themselves to make decisions, take action and resolve issues to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.

To a great extent, the success of the giant retailer Costco can be attributed to the company’s empowered workforce.  Coscto’s “people first” philosophy comes directly from ECO Jim Sinegal, who says, “Taking care of your employees and turning inventory faster than your people is good business.”  In addition to offering some of the best wages and benefits in the retail industry, Cosco promotes from within, encourages employees to air grievances and gives managers the autonomy to experiment with their stores or departments to boost sales or reduce expenses.  As a result, people line up to work at Costco and once hired, they stay.  The company’s annual turnover rate for both full and part-time workers is 6% compared to an industry average of 59%.