5 Reasons to Progress from an Annual to an Always-On Employee Survey

Always-On Employee Engagement Surveys Are Now

[caption id="attachment_5571" align="alignright" width="280"] Always-On Employee Engagement Surveys[/caption] Remember those once-a-year employee surveys that human resource pros used to send out in the hopes they could capture some of the reasons why employees were happy (or unhappy) at work? Typically, they did not do such a great job at creating a real-time view of how things were going at the company, or at least not in a way that the company could take real action on. Data was old or slanted towards the last couple of months. Employees often used them as an excuses to vent rather than share the truth of things.

5 Prime Reasons Annual Surveys Don’t Measure Up

For these and many more reasons, the annual survey has given way to real-time, always-on engagement satisfaction surveys that are much more effective. Here are some other factors that caused annual surveys to head for the hills: #1 - Time and Tedium - Annual surveys were too time consuming to prepare and collate the results. Always-on surveys include information that is available to all the members of your leadership team quickly and in meaningful report formats. #2 – One-way Process - Annual surveys provided little incentive for employees to respond truthfully because they seemed to only be for the company’s, not the employee’s, benefit. Real-time employee surveys take the pulse of the organization in smaller sections and employees participate on their terms through a two-way communication platform. #3 - Inaccurate Data - Once a year surveys had a tendency to try to get everything included for a 12-month period, but they failed miserably. They reflected a short period before the survey, instead of the ebb and flow of the organization over the course of an entire year. #4 - Cost Factors - With annual surveys there was a huge cost associated with getting an external 3rd party to administer the survey. This was to protect employees and the employer, but it got in the way of any real benefit to the company. Third party vendors also slowed down the process vs. today where companies can gain access to information immediately and on their terms. #5 - Lags in Information -The lag between the traditional survey taking place and results makes the findings out of date. Real-time employee engagement surveys provide a snapshot of what’s happening now vs. in the past. There are no lags because reports can be run daily and even hourly to measure the engagement levels of employees. This makes HR much more effective in dealing with challenges - as they happen. Fortunately, there are cost effective and efficient solutions that provide a lot of value today. Annual surveys are a thing of the past, always-on surveys are the here and now.

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Find out how Thymometrics can help your company with real-time employee engagement surveys. Email info@thymometrics.com, call +1 646 760 9323 (US) or +44 (0) 1223 750 251 (Europe) or visit thymometrics.com. Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net