Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER August 7, 2017 14 FEATURES LOOKING FOR A SUPPLIER OR VENDOR? Visit hrreporter.com/hr-vendors-guide Our customers say we're the best! Why? Because they have consistently returned a higher pass rate than the average and they achieve the highest marks! Join the over 12,000 HR pros who have used our product to acquire their HR credential. Canada's leading Exam Prep Product for the HR Exams! HR Professional Development 2 0 1 7 READERS' HR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION PROVIDERS CHOICE EMPLOYEE SURVEYS Feeling the pulse of an organization Continuous employee listening makes sense in a dynamic environment By Aage Seljegard and Nigel McNeil I t's a fast-moving world out there. Shifts in the politi- cal, economic and social landscape — together with changes in the nature of work — are reverberating throughout organizations. But one foundational truth re- mains unchanged — the drive and engagement of employees makes a critical difference to the success of employers. In order to fulfil this promise of human capital, em- ployers are reinventing the overall employee experience, ensuring it delivers against the strategic in- tent of the organization. High-performing employees want more than a brand — they want an experience filled with purpose, as part of a high-per- forming team, with a total rewards package that meets their needs. As employee expectations change, so too must the ways or- ganizations listen to those expec- tations. Measurement is no longer about just understanding em- ployee opinion at a given point in time; it's about understanding the employee experience throughout their journey with an employer. e employee experience starts before a person joins an organiza- tion: "What will it be like to work there? What opportunities will I have?" And it continues day-to- day: "Do I enjoy the work? e colleagues? Do I believe I have a bright future? Do I believe in the mission?" And it influences peo- ple's decision to leave. An annual employee survey continues to meet a core need for insight into employee perceptions and preferences. e event-type survey provides an opportunity for inclusiveness, granular results reporting and comprehensive sta- tistical analysis. It also allows employers to cast a broad net in understanding opinions related to every aspect of the employee experience — from big picture, strategic themes to the day-to-day experience of work, relationships and rewards. However, the dynamic nature of employee expectations is driv- ing a need to complement the ro- bust classic survey with continu- ous employee listening, typically deployed through agile pulse sur- veys. Employers can gain a quick and comprehensive insight into the impact of the employee life- cycle moments that matter most. Here are some ways to success- fully incorporate pulse surveys: Be clear about employee listening objectives: Compre- hensive annual surveys can be thought of as an employer's means to help provide a broad and gran- ular view of the overall employee experience it wants to create. A pulse survey is an agile tool for tuning the ongoing delivery of that promise, tailored around key moments that matter, such as the onboarding process, key com- munications from senior leaders, the performance cycle, organiza- tional restructuring or introduc- tion of new management — often targeted to specific populations. A leading retailer, for example, used pulse surveys to gather rich insights on the employee experi- ence, so programmatic changes could be made and tracked. One- off pulse surveys to test new initia- tives were used around launching a new career website, refreshing the onboarding process, launch- ing a new development process and introducing new reward statements. Regular pulse surveys were used to track the effectiveness of areas such as recruitment, employer branding, onboarding, employee development (leadership devel- opment, competencies, career frameworks, learning and devel- opment programs), performance management (manager toolkits, rewards and benefits, employee touchpoints, recognition pro- grams) and exit interviews. Be agile, but also methodolog- ically robust: Leading pulse sur- vey technologies provide speed, ease-of-use and a consumer- grade user experience, while also meeting the foundational needs for thoughtful questionnaire de- sign, internal trend comparisons and external benchmarking. Good questions should be care- fully worded, tested and have a proven link to performance. Make sure to choose a software that has a robust library of tested items and credible benchmarks, so you can find out whether the scores are actually good, or just the same as everyone else's. As a general rule, design a blend of questions that will pro- vide insights into your culture, your strategy (for senior leaders to take action on) and the local- level work experience (that local leaders, managers and teams can influence.) Target the right group: Agile survey technology enables you to easily target specific surveys to specific populations, determin- ing key insights from the relevant groups. Examples of employee segments of particular inter- est may include high-potentials, graduates and apprentices, rep- resentatives of critical roles or diverse talent, new joiners and regrettable losses. If in doubt, be inclusive: e practice of sample surveys — where only a representative subset of an overall population is selected for survey participation — is be- coming less common. is is be- cause employers are realizing the aspect of involving and including everyone is an engaging activity in itself, and is often a key part of the value of running a survey. Ensure data is integrated for a holistic view of the employee life cycle: To ensure pulse surveys serve the overarching purpose of understanding and improving the employee experience, ensure that a common and integrated sur- vey platform is used across the company, allowing for continu- ous analysis and learning across surveys. Set the right frequency, and avoid survey fatigue: e fre- quency of pulse surveys is an im- portant factor to get right. If sur- veys are not conducted frequently enough, the insights become dated. On the other hand, sur- veys administered too frequently produce survey fatigue and can cause the quality of the insights to diminish. It might be tempting to survey everyone monthly, but employees may soon tire of this practice, or find it intrusive. Choose self-service, a trusted partner, or both: If you're a self- starter with a limited budget, self- service software is a good option. If you need a little support, make sure to choose a partner that offers experienced project management teams to provide trusted guidance at every step of the process. Ide- ally, find a partner that offers both self-service software as a cost-ef- fective way of delivering pulse sur- veys, while also providing support for the larger activities. Pulse surveys provide a vehicle for employers to put their ears closer to the ground, driving ac- countability among leaders and generating insight into the em- ployee experience. ey are best done as part of an overall listening strategy designed to help an orga- nization deliver upon a thought- ful, well-articulated employee experience. Both at Willis Towers Watson, Aage Seljegard is a senior talent consultant in New York, and Nigel McNeil is tal- ent director in London, U.K. For more information, visit www.willistowers watson.com. Pulse surveys are best done as part of an overall listening strategy.

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