Benefits of Conducting an Employee Survey Post-Recession

From pay cuts and salary freezes to benefit reductions and layoffs, the recession created the perfect storm of Disengagement. According to Harris Interactive, over half (54 percent) of employees plan on looking for a new job once the economy improves. As the economy recovers from the storm and global Employee Engagement levels continue to wane, organizations need to make a concerted effort to engage their employees and retain their top talent. To prevent against a mass exodus of high performers, organizations must regularly demonstrate their concern for staff, monitor Engagement levels, and make changes that align with employee feedback. Thus, investing in an annual Employee Engagement Survey is a wise decision, providing both short-term and long-term benefits:

Prioritize Workplace Efforts
During the recession, many organizations cut employee benefits, capped professional development opportunities and reduced career advancement potential. An Employee Engagement Survey helps organizations prioritize the programs that should be reinstated and those that should be reviewed at a later date.

Retain Top Talent
Retaining your best employees should be a top priority and special attention should always be given to your high performers. In fact, gathering and analyzing Engagement data for high performers and devising priority actions that directly impact their retention is extremely important. Korn/Ferry International, a provider of talent management solutions, has found high-potentials are sensitive to specific Engagement drivers (i.e., palpable talent management, trust and respect in top management, personal impact [high-potentials want to feel that they can make a significant impact at their organization], and positive people treatment). An Employee Engagement Survey helps organizations uncover key retention factors and assists leadership in understanding the percentage of employees who have thought of resigning.

Understand Company Strengths
Organizations should know their strengths and promote them when recruiting and hiring new employees. A recruiting boom is on the horizon and organizations need to be prepared to market their strengths to top talent who have been riding out the storm waiting for a better job opportunity.

For organizations excelling in Engagement and Overall Job Satisfaction, HR Solutions awards a Best-in-Class^® seal to select organizations whose Employee Engagement and Overall Job Satisfaction scores are within the top 10 percent of its International Normative Database. Organizations can use the Best-in-Class^® seal to highlight their achievements to potential hires and attract top talent.

Discover Employee Engagement Levels
Company morale and Engagement levels fluctuate dramatically during tough economic times. As a result, organizations need to get a current pulse on those levels and establish a solid plan for re-energizing and re-engaging their employees.

Predict the Potential for Union Activity
Multi-national "super unions," which represent employees in multiple countries, are predicted to skyrocket in the coming years, according to law firm Littler Mendelson P.C. Over the past decade, the healthcare industry in particular has been very susceptible to union formation. Approximately 962,000 healthcare workers were members of unions in 2009, a 3.66 percent increase from 2008. Employers should include union vulnerability items in their Employee Engagement Survey to determine which departments are more vulnerable to union formation. Such items will also help organizations decide what steps need to be taken to pre-empt unionization before it occurs.

How organizations respond to the changing economy will define their reputation and reveal their true values. The recovery period will test senior management's commitment to employees. Without investing time and money to understand their employees' thoughts, ideas and concerns, organizations run the risk of further perpetuating Disengagement and, even worse, losing their top talent. By openly sharing and acting upon the results of an Employee Engagement Survey, leadership demonstrates their respect for employees, their desire to improve Engagement, and their willingness to consider employee feedback when developing a strategic vision for the future.