In occupational safety we tend to say that the best workers’ compensation claim is the one that never happened. It stresses the importance of doing what we can to train and provide resources to protect our team. No one wants to be the person to place that phone call to a colleague’s family member that there has been an incident.
Employee engagement is another one of those risk adverse strategies to protect the team. We all get so busy cranking out the work. Planning the work. Sometimes we forget to take a moment and talk to each other about the work and work environment. It is cheaper to retain a good employee than to find, hire and train a new one.
Employee engagement surveys are a method that we use at IMEC and recommend to our clients.
- Determine your base of questions.
- Deploy the assessment. Survey everyone or determine a population that crosses departments and shifts.
- Be prepared to be objective when you read the responses. The point is to learn about the strengths and opportunities for improvement in your organization. Realistically it cannot all be positive. Genuine feed back is a gift and a competitive intelligence.
- Organize the data and see what common themes rise to the top as urgent or impacting a wide group.
- Communicate to the team and let them know you appreciate the feedback and are going to be working through how the company can improve in the short and long term. Share major points with the team, but protect confidentiality of individual respondent answers.
- Action that is planned and not a rapid reaction will have the most lasting impact. Assemble your leaders, formal and informal, and develop action plans on what is feasible for a few quick wins and longer term continuous improvement projects.
- Repeat the survey annually to track progress and continue commitment to improvement.
The Job Quality Toolkit provides in-depth points for consideration on your path to being the employer of choice in your region. IMEC workforce and operations specialists are here to help.
Additional information on employee engagement is available through download of this past educational webinar. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES: Retain Your Workforce – IMEC Site
