EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION SURVEY > Communicating Survey Results

Communicating Survey Results

The most important part of the process of administering and tabulating an effective employee satisfaction survey is communicating the results.  If a company fails to communicate its survey results effectively, the survey can do more harm than good.  Again, there are a variety of methods for communicating survey results to a work group.  A few of those strategies are discussed here. 

LRI Conducts the Meetings
Some clients ask LRI to conduct the survey feedback meetings on-site.  The advantage of this method is that it shows employees that the company takes the survey seriously, it lets employees ask questions to survey experts (if a manager gets confused in a survey feedback meeting it can reduce confidence in the survey results) and it lets an employee relations expert explore some of the key issues highlighted in the survey results.  It also gives an LRI consultant an opportunity to address the management group and to assist with action planning. 

There are two primary disadvantages to this method.  First is the expense – it is obviously much more expensive to have outside consultants present the data than to have on-site managers do it.  This is particularly true in large organizations.  Second, it takes supervisors and managers out of the “feedback loop” and can lead some managers to disengage from the process.  This can be managed, but it is a concern in some organizations.  If managers are charged with presenting the survey results they are much more likely to become familiar with the results and to take responsibility for responding to the information in the survey.

On-site Managers Conduct the Sessions
This is the ideal way to present the survey information.  It is less expensive and forces managers to take responsibility for the survey information.  Managers who present the results are more likely to become intimately familiar with them, increasing the likelihood that they will respond to them.  They also have a stake in the outcome of the survey feedback meetings.  It prevents managers from ignoring the survey as another corporate “flavor of the month.”

At the same time, it is important that the managers who conduct the survey feedback meetings be skilled in doing so.  Poorly handled survey meetings (especially if a manager is overly defensive or even dismissive of the concerns raised in the survey) can create more problems for the organization.  For this reason it is important that managers charged with communicating survey results be thoroughly trained on how to conduct an effective survey feedback meeting.  This training can be handled by on-site managers, or LRI is available to train the managers.

Small Group Sessions
It is our view that the best method to communicate results is in small groups (i.e. departments, work cells, etc.)  There are several reasons small groups are ideal.  First the small group is more manageable in most companies.  Between 10 and 20 employees in a group helps to prevent disruptions but is still a large enough group that people do not feel like they are being singled out.

Second, the small group session is more likely to get people talking.  Smaller work groups typically include people who are very familiar with each other and who work closely together.  These employees are less likely to be intimidated or embarrassed to speak up in the meeting.  This is not always the case (a good facilitator can help to encourage participation, but some people just will not speak up in any group meeting).  However, the larger the group, the less likely that anyone other than the most vocal employees (most people already know how these people feel) will give honest and helpful feedback.

Finally, it is in these small groups that most problem-solving will occur.  Once these employees see and comment on the survey results, they will be asked to help management work on fixing them.  For that reason it is best to start the feedback process with the same small group.

What If We Can’t Do Small Group Meetings?  Tips for Other Kinds of Feedback
Some organizations can’t do small, department-level feedback.  While these other communication methods are less than ideal, the most important thing is to make sure employees receive some communication regarding the survey.  It is highly recommended that if you attempt one of these methods that you consult with an LRI Advisor to prepare your communication sessions.  Other methods available to conduct feedback sessions include:

Individual meetings or very small groups:  For some businesses, especially small companies or ones in which large numbers of employees are not available at any particular time, this is the only effective method of delivering survey results in a meeting environment.  The advantage of an intimate group is that the communication sessions can be custom tailored for the audience. 

The disadvantage to this method is that it takes a significantly larger commitment of time to deliver results in this fashion.  Small group sessions can be intimidating for the employees involved.  Some workers might feel uncomfortable sitting alone with their supervisor discussing survey results- hey may even think the supervisor knows how they responded to the survey.  This scenario also raises concerns under the National Labor Relation Act, as discussed below.  This is not our recommended method of delivering survey results.

Handouts Without a Meeting:  This method is better suited for very large companies or companies where employee meetings are virtually impossible.  These companies will create a handout that describes many of the same things described during a communication meeting.  The advantage of this method is that it ensures consistent communication across all groups of employees.  The disadvantage is that it is impersonal and requires a significant amount of effort in crafting the document. 

In addition, employers should be aware that such a document could be used as a tool during future organizing attempts or in litigation against the company.  Complaints raised in the survey might be used to prove later that an employer failed to take action to mitigate, for example, discrimination complaints.  Union supporters could use the negative scores as evidence the company should be organized.  These are not, by the way, reasons to avoid communicating survey results-they instead are reasons to take extra care in communicating the results and reacting to complaints raised.

Large Group Meetings:  The large group meeting format is often the only method available for some companies.  The sessions are very similar to the small group sessions outlined above.  The disadvantage of large group meetings is that they can be unwieldy and hard to control.  Some employees are intimidated when speaking in very large groups. 

In addition, particularly for companies that have recently undergone organizing activities, the possibility exists that overly negative employees will showboat or take over the meeting.  These problems can ruin an otherwise excellent opportunity to begin the healing process in a company.  For these reasons, meetings should be facilitated by an experienced individual, normally a top manager, HR representative or perhaps even a representative of LRI.

Who Should Conduct the Feedback Session?
The feedback session is best conducted by the immediate supervisor of the survey group.  There are two reasons for this.  First, this is the individual the employees are (usually) most comfortable with.  They are more likely to “open up” with this individual than most other managers.  Second, this is the manager who will be responsible for resolving issues in this work group – it is better if this person takes responsibility for the survey results and the action planning at the same time.  It reduces “finger-pointing” and encourages taking ownership of the results and the response to the survey.

There are sometimes concerns about having department level supervisors and managers conducting the feedback meetings.   Companies are often concerned that these managers may not be comfortable with the data in the survey or may not be very skilled in presenting the results.  We find that these concerns are often overblown, especially if the company does a good job of preparing the department manager for conducting the meetings.  At the same time, if a particular manager is very poorly skilled at communication (begging the question of whether this individual should be a manager in the first place) a company may want to either provide assistance to the manager or have another more skilled manager present the results.

In some cases the immediate manager or supervisor turns out to be a problem in the survey.  In some cases this is further reason to have that supervisor present the survey results – it gives the manager the chance to give a “mea culpa” message to employees and commit to improve in the future.  However, if this manager is a significant employee relations problem (particularly if employees are scared of retaliation for the survey feedback) it is a good idea to either provide assistance to the manager or have another more skilled manager present the results.

This does not mean that higher-level management has no role to play in the survey communication process.  There are several ways top management can be involved.  They can help the immediate supervisor introduce the survey results, explaining top management’s commitment to respond to the survey results.  Top managers should definitely refer to the survey results any time they speak to employees, and it should become a key point of reference in all top management presentations (for more on this see the section on action planning at page 31).  If you have questions about whether someone should present survey results, ask your LRI Advisor.

What to Say
The small group sessions should be delivered in a consistent manner.  We typically recommend for companies to have a formal 15-minute presentation regarding the employee satisfaction survey results and then a minimum of another 30-45-minute block of time for questions and answers.  Depending on the results of the survey, more time may be necessary.  A model for this meeting is outlined in the table below.

Use of Graphics
We highly recommend the use of some type of graphic presentation when communicating survey results.  A variety of different representations of statistical information are available.  There are also a variety of different ways to use the information.  In the table shown in Appendix 2 you will see three examples of graphical representations of statistical information we gather on surveys.  These demonstrate the three types of responses, overall scores, distribution between satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and distribution among each response.