Grrrrr. I just got off the phone with a client who was describing the vast amount of dollars spent on their yearly employee survey. He told me the that the lowest respondent scores were around feeling challenged at work, feeling that there was good communication with a manager, and feeling that someone cared about the respondent's career. I asked if those scores were the lowest in last year's survey. (Yup, you guessed it) And the year before that? (Right again!) When I asked what their next steps would be, he explained that they would take the scores "under advisement", benchmark "best practices" in other companies, and convene some task forces to work out some plans and submit them to an executive committee. This is precisely what had been done in the past, and still no change. I challenged the client to guess at the dollars that they might spend on all of this thinking and planning, and to actually DO something instead.
I would imagine many of you are frustrated with this kind of thinking. Folks, there does come a time to stop surveying and start DOING, especially when you keep getting back the same answers. This topic is well addressed in this article in HR.com by a colleague, Theresa Welbourne.
Related Stories: | Topics:Management, guest hosts: kaye + jordan-evans, Theresa Welbourne |
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Recent Comments | 2 Total
January 14, 2004 at 9:29am by Martin
Include these survey questions to get a real feel for how the company works :
1. Do you daydream about quitting your job, especially on Mondays ?
2. Are going out for drinks and/or sex with the boss the best ways to get promoted ?
3. Do you want to see yourself employed somewhere else in 5 years ?
How many HR types could do anything about employees who overwhelmingly answered "yes, yes, yes" ?
January 14, 2004 at 11:13am by Tom Asacker
With all due respect, the solution isn't to "start doing." Companies are doing a LOT of doing, especially since all of the recent downsizing. They solution is much simpler and fundamental:
1. Trust - It's difficult for corporate leaders to engender a sense of loyalty and passion to achieve a mission with their employees, when they continue to compensate themselves excessively (and I believe immorally). The average chief executive officer's pay has increased from 42 times in 1982 to 411 times that of the average production worker in 2001.
2. Clear, meaningful and differentiated strategy - Once employee trust is regained, corporate leaders must develop a comprehensive, unifying strategy (brand) which attracts customers, motivates employees, and builds long-term emotional bonds; such that employees are passionately involved, customers are willing to be repeat patrons, and both are willing to play fair and allow the company to make a profit.
Both are woefully lacking in corporate America today.
Tom
http://www.sandboxwisdom.com