Harnessing greater results from your engagement survey
Through conducting employee engagement surveys every two years, Sodexo's Julia M. Bayless and David M. Pollack, reveal five factors they've found to be key in executing a successful survey and improving engagement.
Sodexo, like many organizations, is dedicated to measuring and improving employee engagement at all levels. As the world’s leading quality of daily life solutions company with more than 385,000 employees worldwide, employee engagement is critical to the success of the business.
We conduct employee engagement surveys every two years, with an emphasis on results that drive visible actions to further enhance key engagement drivers. We've found a handful of factors to be keys to the success of not just the survey, but to actual improvement in engagement. Specifically:
- Communication
Accompanying the entire engagement survey cycle (planning, pre-during-and post-administration, results, action planning, actions) is a detailed communication plan – taking advantage of multiple platforms, existing and new communication tools, and reach to a variety of employee audiences. Throughout the communication cycle, there exists a thread of common messaging on the importance of engagement, the impact on the business, and the value of employee input.It's not enough to have a great action plan, but we must also have visible, tangible action to go with it!
- Focus
One of the outcomes of the communication plan surrounding the engagement survey is that it allows us to maintain a focus on engagement virtually year-round… though our attention may be drawn to different aspects of engagement over time, the importance of engagement is consistently at the forefront in the organization. - Flexibility of Reporting Results
The internal administrators of our employee engagement survey have access to an online results and reporting tool, allowing us to analyze and report data on an as-needed ad hoc basis in addition to the overall high-level results presented to senior leadership. This functionality allows us to be responsive to internal clients and to be of greater assistance with action planning. - Action Plans
Once the results of the survey are communicated, the next critical step is for each segment of the business to develop detailed plans of actions to be taken in response to the results; the action plans are targeted to the most critical factors that impact overall engagement (for example, communication). These action plans are regularly updated to monitor progress and hold operations and HR leadership accountable for results. - Actions
We've found that it's not enough to have a great action plan, but we must also have visible, tangible action to go with it! One of the keys to our success has been tying initiatives to the survey results – in other words, make it clear to employees that programs and processes are being developed and rolled out based on the valuable input they provided during and after the employee engagement survey.
Our overarching perspective is that engagement is a journey marked by milestones and opportunities all along the way. Taking the lessons we learn from every engagement cycle and carrying them forward into our future efforts is an ongoing and very rewarding effort that has a positive impact on the bottom line of the company!
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