New Trends in Employee Surveys

Updated March 22nd, 2022. First published March 19, 2019.

The pandemic has changed many aspects in the field of Human Resources, including how we engage with our employees. While employee surveys have long been a part of the employee feedback process, lengthy and tedious annual employee surveys are no longer the answer when we look for timely feedback to take actionable steps in our team’s engagement and satisfaction.

Revamp the way you administer employee surveys with some of the following best practices and new trends:

Keep it short – The longer the survey is, the more likely it will have low participation.

Administer surveys often – Administer shorter and topic-specific surveys continuously. By doing it often, you support an agile work environment and day-to-day HR initiatives that may require staff input.

Ensure anonymity (and communicate to staff) - Your employees are more inclined to offer deep and honest feedback when it is anonymous.

Break it into sections - Divide the survey into pages and categories; the less scrolling, the more responses you will collect.

Modernize your surveys - Add colors and play with fonts, styles, and pictures to make your surveys more attractive and user-friendly.

Make it mobile-friendly – Ensure that your team can answer and submit responses using a variety of devices, allowing more flexibility in ways to participate.

Get creative – If your team isn’t as active when giving feedback, offer some incentives. For instance, give a prize if there is more than X% participation (pick an attainable percentage that will also boost employee involvement).

Communicate the results (Opportunities and Achievements) – Be transparent; it has been widely proven that more fluid and honest communication leads to higher employee engagement. Be sure to communicate what is going well at the organization and review critical feedback to help identify and prioritize urgent matters. Establishing an action plan and communicating a timeline based on initiatives resulting from a survey will help employees feel valued.

Follow-up – If new initiatives have been implemented due to survey feedback, ask the same questions again to see if your staff also noticed the progress. You may find some areas need continued improvement or communication.

Avoid survey fatigue – If you could not address specific feedback points from an earlier survey, wait before asking for comments again. You don’t want your staff to feel frustrated or ignored.

As we look to chart the 2022 year, we hope that employee surveys play a role in your overall strategy. Ensuring engagement with team members is more critical than ever as we continue to navigate this pandemic era.

For more information about engagement surveys, you can listen to Solana's conversation with Harrison Kim of Pavestep - Podcast: The Importance of Engagement Surveys and How to Effectively Conduct Them.

Please reach out to Kiwi Partners' HR Services if you would like assistance in conducting engagement surveys at your organization.