Retention Tactics and Tools----Employee Climate Surveys

by Cherryll Sevy, CMC

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Have several key employees left in the past several months and you’re concerned others may follow? Do you “sense” employees just aren’t as content as they have been in the past, but you can’t quite put your finger on it? You’ve done exit interviews, but that hasn’t been enough, what can you do now?

One of the easiest, most effective and informative tools a company can use is an Employee Climate Survey. A survey of employees’ attitudes and perceptions about the company can quickly identify your organization’s strengths, shortfalls, and obstacles to success from the employee’s perspective. Surveys will help remove barriers to high-level performance, increase workforce commitment, and improve retention.

There is a caution at this point before sending out the survey. The company must be ready to listen, respond and take some action based on the information received because the first survey raises expectations for employees that someone is listening and ready to do something. Below are three reasons why you should consider implementing a survey now.

1. Learn what your employees honestly feel about a variety of organizational issues candidly and anonymously.
   An online, third-party administered survey can readily be tailored to a company’s own culture, values, and key concerns, as well as general areas. Questions should be professionally structured and tested to ensure they capture the most meaningful information.
   
   Senior management often sees things differently than employees. In one client case, the Executive team believed key messages were being well communicated throughout the organization. They shared strong, open communication among themselves and with the senior team. However, they learned from their Employee Climate Survey, that there was a serious breakdown in the communication link at the mid-management level. It seemed the intended information and messages were not getting to all employees. This was easily remedied by more frequent all-employee meetings with the executive team presenting, development of better, key points messaging, and communication skills training for the managers.
   
   
2. Identify the obstacles to higher levels of productivity.
   When employees are asked what they personally want and need to be more productive, trends will emerge. This eliminates potentially dismissing the chronic complainer and allows the quick, less verbal employee to express themselves in safe, non-threatening ways. High impact, often relatively low cost solutions can be implemented quickly and successfully.
   
   When the responses are viewed in the aggregate, training and development issues, as well as more effective tools can be identified. A client recently surveyed employees and it was determined that many of their part-time staff did not use, nor felt there was much value in the use of the company email and company intranet site, both of which were key sources of information for this company. A combination of more training by IT, encouragement by their managers on the value of these tools, in conjunction with enhanced informal communication methods, improved communication and productivity for these employees was seen.
   
   
3. Survey results offer a baseline measure of what’s going well and what needs attention.
   While many of us have a “gut” feeling about what may not be working, an Employee Climate Survey offers actual objective measures on several areas. This gives management a place to start and a pre- and post- comparative for success, identify critical areas, allocate time and resources appropriately, and measure the effectiveness of the actions taken.
   
   Often in conjunction with an objective, online assessment, small employee focus groups, facilitated by an outside consultant will provide greater context and clarity to the survey questions on specific issues. These focus groups can also begin to identify solutions to key challenges identified in the survey.
   
   

Employee Climate Surveys are a valuable tool to help organizations identify symptoms and potential problems before they lead to unwanted turnover or performance issues. They readily identify those obstacles to success. From these responses and the detailed reports, the company may then diagnose the underlying factors and seek to solve them.

Consider the cost of the loss and replacement of just one key employee (conservatively one times their annual salary). Compare this to the modest investment in an Employee Climate Survey. Can you afford to wait until the exit interview to find out why your key employee decided to leave?

For more information on Employee Climate Surveys, please contact Cherryll Sevy.

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