What Goes Around Limited

Phone: 07736 518 066 Email: doug.shaw @wgalimited.com Web: www.stopdoingdumbthingstocu stome rs.com

Employer and Employee Attitude Why most employee surveys dont work and how (if you feel your company must have one) you can make them a little better By Doug Shaw

What Goes Around Limited

Phone: 07736 518 066 Email: doug.shaw @wgalimited.com Web: www.stopdoingdumbthingstocu stome rs.com

Introduction I recently gave a talk to a large organisation on the subject of service leadership. The subject of employee surveys came up and I asked how many people in the audience got to the end of their 90 question employee survey and wished there were still more questions to answer? Id love to tell you the answer was none, but someone did raise their hand. It turned out this person commissioned the survey. Objections Further discussions with this group revealed that the large number of questions was not the only thing putting them off having their say. Other things people didnt like included nested questions, questions which people couldnt make an informed choice about (e.g. pay and reward related), and delays in making the results available. People also felt coerced to participate, they were hounded by management and often reflected this sense of coercion in their responses. What put people off most of all was the lack of action taken after the survey results were analysed and published. Trends A lack of action frequently caused people to comment I dont know why I bother with this, nothing changes around here. This reaction is understandable, and whilst working in a large telecoms company I sought to analyse survey data for the global division over a five year period to see if people were right. Worryingly it was extremely difficult to track down the data, but I did. The graphs on the following page show the percentages of people strongly agreeing and disagreeing with the following statements: 1 2 3 4 5 I feel it is safe to speak up in the company I am clear about what is expected of me in my job I feel that change is well managed in this organization Our systems and processes help me do my job effectively The company keeps things simple

Question 1 was chosen because it linked to a sense of trust. Questions 2 and 4 were good matches for the first two most important questions of the Gallup 12. Question 3 was included to see if this case was similar to lots of research showing us that low levels of engagement adversely affect change. Question 5 was included as simplicity has a big impact on service. As you can clearly see from the charts on the following page, the number of people strongly agreeing with these statements was broadly unchanged, reinforcing the nothing changes feeling. Interestingly the strongly disagree data showed a very different picture. It wasnt so much that things werent changing; they appeared to be getting worse.

What Goes Around Limited

Phone: 07736 518 066 Email: doug.shaw @wgalimited.com Web: www.stopdoingdumbthingstocu stome rs.com

Strong Agreement
30 25 20 15 10 5 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Safe to Speak up Clear Expectations Change Managed Well Systems & Processes Keep Things Simple

The last two questions recorded identical scores on the strongly agree graph so only one line is visible.

Strong Disagreement
25 20 15 10 5 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Safe to Speak up Clear Expectations Change Managed Well Systems & Processes Keep Things Simple

What Goes Around Limited

Phone: 07736 518 066 Email: doug.shaw @wgalimited.com Web: www.stopdoingdumbthingstocu stome rs.com

Deconstruct and Reconstruct The existing survey had 97 questions, each with 7 possible answers. Filling it in was arduous, interpreting it was dull, and when managers received their reports, they were at best cascaded down with a request to do something to improve the scores, or just put away in a drawer. How uninspiring. Why should we care about this? Engaged people are more profitable, thats why. Not only that, 85% of engaged employees believe they can directly, and positively impact the customer experience. Only 42% of disengaged employees believe this. Similarly, 63% of engaged employees believe they directly and positively influence the profitability of the organisation. Only 20% of disengaged employees believe this. The following data gathered by Towers Perrin from their 2008 Global Workforce study vividly shows the powerful financial benefits to be gained by an organisation, its people and its customers from having an engaged workforce. We needed to act quickly in order to simplify and improve the reputation of what should be a vital tool in the organisational armoury.

Acknowledgement. Exhibit 2A and 2B Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study

We combined our own analysis and the Towers Perrin data then proposed a radical approach to the company. We asked that the survey be reduced from 97 questions to just 20, and that the number of possible responses per question be reduced from 7 to just four. That would give people a choice of 80 total possible responses, down from the current 679. We gained support from the top to review and change the survey. More and more people were pointed our way (worth noting that whilst senior sponsorship is useful it can also attract a lot of unwelcome interest if expectations are not clearly set), and we were asked to include more questions. In the end we had to settle on 50, and a five point scale. This was disappointing but we had achieved a big reduction and we gained commitment for further reviews.

What Goes Around Limited

Phone: 07736 518 066 Email: doug.shaw @wgalimited.com Web: www.stopdoingdumbthingstocu stome rs.com

Show Me Dont Tell Me The new survey was launched and once it closed we published the results. From there we invited random groups to come together and discuss the results and help to write a powerful, simple proposal to senior management. In brief we gained a commitment to involve people in planning and use the results to inform business decision making. This was a fundamental shift away from the previous failed attempts at specific survey based action planning (almost for the sake of it) and for the first time, we began to link the employee attitude directly to business results. We created two way communications using our blog to get messages out quickly. This also had the advantage of giving us quick fire feedback rather than wait for the next survey window to open; we could get on with priority ideas quickly. We used a lot of you said, we did in our communications which demonstrated to people that they were being listened too. We encouraged people to team up, beyond the traditional sense; beyond silos and business as usual into teams who came together to make improvements because they believed that was the right thing to do. We encouraged people to practice, practice, practice, and we encouraged people to be mindful of the rules, and at the same time, proceed until apprehended. We displayed these values in our work which helped the encouragement enormously. And we used a simple image to help us with this important communication.

This team is racing flat out. Each rider following inches behind his team mate. This high speed train functions beautifully as a result of honesty, practice, trust and attitude. And the team delivers its performance by stopping the clock as the last rider crosses the line. Not the first, the last.

What Goes Around Limited

Phone: 07736 518 066 Email: doug.shaw @wgalimited.com Web: www.stopdoingdumbthingstocu stome rs.com

Action We saw some great action taking place. Here are a couple of specific examples, in addition people came together to improve processes and deliver significantly improved response times for customers, and efficiencies for the business. A small group of people came together to create and deliver a mobile phone recycling scheme which removed hazardous waste from landfill, saved 3m over three years, involved tens of thousands of employees and customers, and the company agreed to donate the net proceeds from the scheme to their chosen charity ChildLine. None of the people in this team worked together. They came together to meet a need. We saw a team work with one of the companys biggest customers and engage with the customers supplier performance management programme to deliver a sustained performance improvement from 71%, the customer classed this score as good, to 90%, an excellent result in the customers own words. This had the effect of pushing the company into the top 15 global suppliers to the customer for the first time. Conclusion We made a few mistakes along the way. Lots of practitioners were involved with the survey changes and we should have co-created these changes through a wider consultation with employees. We should have delivered an even numbered scale for people to respond to, effectively doing away with the fence sitting option. It feels slightly disrespectful to ask people their opinion and then give them dont know as an option. We should have had a break from surveying altogether before starting with the new approach. The new survey was almost definitely contaminated by its past. What did we get right? We significantly reduced the number of questions on the survey. We delivered survey output faster than ever before and made them easily available to everyone, no secrets. People got their results quickly and were able to play with them, analysing much more effectively and easily than before. Most importantly, we co-created some relevant action and we told people about it. Survey scores improved 4% in the first six months, a small acknowledgement that things were beginning to change.