1. To discover what employees are thinking and doing – in a nonthreatening survey environment. You will learn what motivates employees and what is important to them.
2. To prioritize the organization’s actions based on objective results – rather than relying on subjective information or your best guesses.
3. To provide a benchmark – or a snapshot of your employees and their attitudes at a certain point of time that you can then compare to future surveys to spot trends.
4. To communicate the importance of key topics to employees – by communicating with employees the survey results that shows your organization is listening to employees.
5. To collect the combined brainpower and ideas of the workforce – that sometimes cannot be accessed without a survey. The knowledge you learn will likely improve your decision making and allow you to seize opportunities.
Kador and Armstrong caution leaders to NOT do employee surveys:
1. To sell employees on an idea — by using a survey to guide employees down a path to a specified conclusion.
2. To solve problems in one easy step — because a survey is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Because, a survey isolated from other communications and actions could be more detrimental than helpful. Remember, surveys generate expectations.
