Ask Me What I Think... Then Completely Ignore My Input

Said no-one ever.
 
Let’s say it’s your turn to cook dinner at home one evening, so you ask other family members for their input on what they’d like to eat.
 
Everyone agrees, you go grocery shopping… and buy a completely different set of ingredients, for a new meal.
 
When dinner is served, you can imagine some of the responses you might get.
 
Probably some upset, with some questions as to why you bothered asking if you're just going to ignore their input.
 
And you can bet that your family members will remember what happened, next time you ask what they want.
 
✅ Yet so many organizations do the same thing with their employee engagement surveys.
 
They ask for input, then do nothing with the results, not even provide the most basic feedback to employees.
 
What is the point?
 
If it’s to learn where you currently stand on engagement, why does it matter if you're not going to work to improve it?
 
A score by itself is meaningless, although most companies think that the purpose of an employee engagement survey is to measure employee engagement.
 
It’s not – it’s actually to 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙚 employee engagement.
 
Yes, the score plays a part, but only if you are going to act, since you want to know that the changes you make are positively impacting the workplace, next time you measure.
 
𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙮𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙧𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣.
 
You may get a good response rate the first time you ask, since employees are giving you the benefit of the doubt.
 
They want to feel valued, so when you ask for their opinions, they trust that you want their input.
 
But, rest assured, if you take no action in response, when employees are asked to complete the next survey, the response rate will be abysmal.
 
✅ In addition, you will have eroded trust.
 
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙨, 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙜𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙤 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙨, 𝙞𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙖𝙨𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙣𝙥𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝.
 
It is already an uphill battle: 80% of employees don’t believe managers will act on survey data, as recently reported by Office Vibe.
 
So, you must prove your employees wrong, and not only act, based on your results, but keep them informed by regularly communicating.
 
Whatever you do, do not take the results, then tell the entire company that if people are not happy, they can leave (true story!).
 
Instead, ask for input because you genuinely want it, promise to communicate, do exactly that and start making changes.
 
You will build trust and show you genuinely care – critical components of engaged employees and a great culture.