Are there ways you could improve internal efficiency, bolster productivity, and ultimately make more on your bottom line? Though you may already think that everything is optimized to run like clockwork, you may not have an accurate understanding of the big picture. The best businesses in the world constantly improve themselves, but you can’t improve until you first identify an opportunity in the form of a weakness. If you’re looking for a way to uncover inefficiencies and hidden problems in your organization, surveys are an invaluable asset. But if you forgo internal surveys, you may be ignoring problems that are growing larger every day.
How Surveys Add Value to Your Business
A survey will act as a course – correction mechanism for your organization. You need to have an accurate understanding of your employees and their opinions if you have any hope of pinpointing areas for improvement. The honest truth is that management staff aren’t working in the trenches, and they aren’t exposed to some of the problems and pain points that other employees experience every day. By using a survey to garner feedback from multiple levels of your organization, you will help raise management awareness of these types of issues so that a solution can be reached.
But surveys don’t only open a direct communication channel between employees and management personnel. They can also be used as a way to make a smoother transition. If you have a brilliant new idea for your company, it would be inadvisable to implement your new ideas without first warning your employees. Employees are humans, and humans are naturally resistant to change. A survey would not only give your employees an opportunity to warm up to a new change in the company, but it would allow you to get their thoughts and feedback concerning the new change. You may uncover better ways to execute your new idea and find better approaches as a result of employee feedback.
Honesty
Studies have shown that employees are a lot more candid when they take an anonymous survey. While surveys that aren’t anonymous still hold tremendous value, an anonymous survey will really help you connect with your employees and eliminate forced responses. By allowing employees to freely express their opinions in an anonymous survey, they won’t have to worry about what other people in the organization will think of them.
Engaging Your Employees
Your employees will become more engaged if you give them a way to express themselves. By giving them an opportunity to voice their opinions, they will feel like they have an impact in their work environment. Surveys will also help management determine how happy employees are in their work environment, which would help indicate things like the employee churn rate. Hiring new employees can suck up a lot of time and resources and lead to steep declines in productivity. But engaged employees will feel like stakeholders in their work environment and genuinely care about the outcome of the organization’s goals.
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If you need help creating surveys to garner feedback from your employees, just contact John M. Ruh and Associates, Inc. The sooner you get feedback from your employees the sooner you can improve your business.
Written by John Ruh
John M. Ruh and Associates are mission based business advisors who partner with growth oriented leaders to create the right P.S.T. support: the right People, the right Structure and the right Tools.