Guide to Successful Employee Surveys

Employee surveys have evolved significantly over the past few years to become a critical component of effective HR management, regardless of what type of employee survey is used. In the past, many organizations viewed employee surveys as simply a human-resource driven initiative that gave their employees the opportunity to "let off steam" but had little strategic value. 

As a result, the results were often not regarded highly enough outside of HR for any positive action to be taken. It's quite a different situation today, with employee surveys now being seen by many large and small organizations as a major business improvement tool.

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Study reveals critical disparities between employer perceptions and employee turnover intentions

Disparities found in a Deloitte research report suggest many companies should assess the turnover intentions of their key employees and revise the retention tactics they employ to keep top talent. The report, Keeping Your Team Intact: A Special Report on Talent Retention, reveals a number of critical differences between what employees reported they want and what surveyed executives think employees want. This special report compares the results of an August 2009 survey of employees at large enterprises around the world with a May 2009 survey of international corporate leaders.

The May 2009 survey revealed that top executives and talent managers surveyed are already charging ahead with new workforce plans, identifying potential retention barriers and adopting new strategies to keep their core workforces together. The latest report's key findings, however, suggest a "resume tsunami" may threaten unprepared companies as key employees who held on to their jobs in tough times may be seeking out better opportunities when economic fears recede.
Based on a global survey of 368 employees at large organizations (annual revenues of more than $500 million), key findings and the related conclusions from the latest research include:
Companies may struggle to keep their teams intact as they risk losing many of their most valued employees when the global economy recovers. Nearly half (49 percent) of employees surveyed in August are either looking for a new job or plan to do so after the recession ends, and 30 percent are already actively seeking new employers. Generation X is least likely to stay with their current employer (37 percent) as compared to Generation Y (44 percent) and Baby Boomers (50 percent).

A "tale of two mindsets" exists between employee desires and employer priorities. While the August survey reports Generation X participants have the highest turnover intentions, just 9 percent of corporate leaders surveyed in May said they expected voluntary turnover intentions to increase significantly among Generation X in the 12 months following the recession. And, while corporate leaders surveyed in May ranked "excessive workload" second among barriers to retaining employees, surveyed employees in August ranked it tenth overall; in fact, no demographic group ranked it higher than ninth. "Lack of job security" far outranked other factors that might cause surveyed employees to shift jobs. While surveyed employees ranked "lack of trust in leadership" sixth at 20 percent when asked what factors could induce them to leave their jobs after the recession ends, surveyed corporate leaders rated "lack of trust in leadership" 10th at only 12 percent.

Surveyed corporate leaders do not appear to understand the non-financial priorities of their employees. When asked to rank their top three retention tactics, in every instance, surveyed employees of all four generational groups chose different non-financial incentives than surveyed corporate leaders.

Corporate leaders may be misreading the priorities among different generations, leading organizations to offer the wrong incentives to employees. Surveyed corporate leaders and surveyed Generation X employees ranked "additional bonuses or financial incentives" as the most effective retention tactic. However, by a range of 48 percent to 37 percent, surveyed Generation X employees gave this tactic higher priority than surveyed corporate leaders. Forty percent of surveyed Baby Boomers chose "additional bonuses or financial incentives," whereas only 30 percent of surveyed corporate leaders made the same choice.

"Our research confirms to us the tale of two mindsets when it comes to employer perceptions and employee turnover intentions in today's economy," said Jeff Schwartz, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP. "We believe leaders can minimize the disparity by first understanding what their employees really want and then realigning their retention strategies and tactics to match employee priorities. Those that succeed will be more likely to retain their high-potential employees and hit the ground running as the economy recovers."

Source: Deloitte Consulting, LLP; www.deloitte.com.

Do You Make Lemonade Out of Employee Attrition?

How to Gain Maximum Value from Voluntary Employee Turnover
By Lara Sanders Fordis, Senior Research Director, Insightlink Communications

Even at organizations committed to employee engagement, employees still decide to leave. Of course, you hate to lose your best talent and “top performers” to competitors, not to mention the laborious replacement process that lies ahead. So how can you make something positive come out of attrition in the short- and long-term, while you simultaneously scramble to fill the gap?

An exit system like InsightEXIT gets the job done and even automates the process so you can focus on other tasks. Meanwhile, for every departing employee surveyed in a systematic way by InsightEXIT, you’ll move you another step forward in your efforts to:
Understand the factors that drive employees to leave
Identify problem supervisors who could lead to repeat turnover
Identify other barriers to job satisfaction
Save money by reducing human capital costs related to future turnover
Evaluate how well the expectations set when new employees join your organization are met in practice
Increase retention and reduce employee turnover
Increase employee satisfaction, engagement and morale
Increase employee productivity
Manage and mitigate the risks of employee departures
Move towards becoming an "employer of choice" and a place that voluntarily exit employees could recommend to others
Of utmost importance is whether your organization could have done anything could to avoid it the departure. At Insightlink, we deliberately measure preventable vs. non-preventable losses. Preventable attrition generally stems from employee dissatisfaction, poor management and a perceived lack of advancement opportunity. Non-preventable attrition includes attrition due to spouse relocation, career changes and other factors over which an organization has essentially no control.
You can probably guess where the lemonade comes from and where savvy HR professionals should invest their energy – focus on the factors that contribute to preventable attrition. InsightEXIT makes it easy with a system that puts in your hands the ability to drill-down by any variable, including job type, department and supervisor.

Need tips and suggestions to help you maximize the benefits of conducting your exit surveys? Insightlink’s Exit Survey Best Practice Guidelines include information about exit survey content, setting up an exit system process, what to communicate to your employees and how to interpret exit survey data. Designed to maximize the effectiveness of InsightEXIT, you’ll see why companies of various sizes turn to Insightlink for solutions.

To find out how Insightlink can help you make lemons into lemonade -- when you’re ready to explore how your organization can benefit from systematic exit surveys -- go to http://www.insightexit.com

The Cost of High Turnover

So your organization has low levels of employee engagement and high levels of turnover. Some HR managers are of the opinion that simply encouraging the "quit and stay" group to actually quit is the easiest and cheapest solution. They may also think that replacement of these employees costs them relatively little. You may be surprised, however, to learn that it costs much more than you think.


Indeed, if an organization has an annual turnover rate typical of the U.S. average (15%) and offers benefits (medical and otherwise) valued at as little as 15% of an employee's salary (most companies' benefits may of even greater value), the approximate annual losses to turnover for that organization are in the tens of thousands annually. Of course, the greater the number of employees and the higher the salaries of those departing employees, the more costly the turnover is to an organization. If these results seem shockingly high, consider what they include. The direct costs associated with employee turnover include:

Termination and hiring administrative costs
Employment advertising
Employee pre-screening
Interviewing
Assessment testing
Background checks
Formal and informal training time
A new employee's learning curve

Taking all these costs into consideration means that it generally costs at least 25% of a departing employee's annual salary to replace that employee. Not to mention how exactly you'll go about finding these new "fully engaged" replacements in the real world!There are also indirect costs like lost institutional memory, the impact on morale, and risk diminished employee engagement among others likely to follow suit are not easily measured, but their toll on an organization is palpable and make employee retention a high priority for pro-active HR departments. The bottom line is: Keep them, and keep them engaged.In the long run, improving both employee satisfaction and employee engagement can not only reduce your turnover costs but can significantly increase your company's profitability.

Investing in employee engagement is a win-win on both sides of the equation.Luckily for organizations willing to examine themselves and take actions accordingly, to a great degree, voluntary turnover is preventable. Investing in retention solutions that result in even a small reduction in an organization's turnover rate can realize substantial reductions in turnover expenses over the long term. Only by conducting regular employee engagement surveys to measure the pulse and climate of the organization and by augmenting those surveys with a systematic method of conducting effective exit interviews can HR managers understand the key motivators of loyalty and commitment among their employees and implement strategies to decrease voluntary turnover.

So if you are ready to see what's happening, hear about concrete actions designed to impact change and set to move forward on a meaningful path to improving your organization, call to talk to a member of our research team today at 866-802-8095 x705...or email info@insightlink.com to set up a conference call or demo to learn more.

"People don't leave their jobs, they leave their managers."

Although committed and loyal employees are the most influential factor to becoming an employer of choice, it's no surprise that companies and organizations face significant challenges in developing energized and engaged workforces. However, there is plenty of research to show that increased employee commitment and trust in leadership can positively impact the company's bottom line. In fact, the true potential of an organization can only be realized when the productivity level of all individuals and teams are fully aligned, committed and energized to successfully accomplish the goals of the organization.

As a result, the goal of every company should be to improve the desire of employees to stay in the relationship they have with the company. When companies understand and manage employee loyalty - rather than retention specifically - they can reap benefits on both sides of the balance sheet i.e., revenues and costs.

On the revenue side of the balance sheet, loyal and committed employees are more likely to go "above and beyond" to meet customer needs and are highly motivated to work to the best of their ability. Both of these traits are crucial for continued customer commitment and ongoing revenue and growth for the company.

On the cost side, loyal employees stay longer, resist competitive job offers, do not actively look for other employment and recommend the company to others as a good place to work. These four behaviors positively influence the cost side of the balance sheet because they are leading indicators of employee retention. The longer companies keep their employees, the longer they can avoid having to pay to replace them.

In other words, rather than focusing only on retention (that is, trying to retain employees who have already decided to leave), organizations should proactively recognize the benefits of understanding, managing and improving employee loyalty. The most successful organizations are those that can adapt their organizational behavior to the realities of the current work environment where success is dependent upon innovation, creativity and flexibility. Additionally, the dynamics of the work environment have to reflect a very diverse population comprised of individuals whose motivations, beliefs and value structures differ vastly from the past and from each another. Arguably, the most valuable, but also volatile, corporate asset is a stable workforce of competent, dedicated employees, since such an employee base gives companies a powerful advantage; depth of knowledge and organizational strength.

One of the key steps to understanding and improving employee loyalty is by acknowledging the importance of the following factors in building loyalty and satisfaction:

Broadly-defined responsibilities rather than narrowly-defined job functions
Effective and regular performance evaluations, both formally and informally
A corporate emphasis on employee learning, development and growth
Wide-ranging employee participation in the organization as a whole

Typically, a combination of factors influences employees' decisions to stay at their current job. Contributing factors include satisfying work, a sense of job security, clear opportunities for advancement, a compelling corporate mission combined with the ability to contribute to the organization's success, and a feeling that their skills are being effectively used and challenged. Specifically, employees who enjoy their work, identify themselves with their employer and perceive that the company is flexible regarding work and family issues also intend to stay with the organization.