Five reasons for upgrading your employee research
By Glyn Luckett Maru/Matchbox | January 2023
While many companies recognize the value of keeping essential business software up-to-date, employee research techniques and solutions are often overlooked.
Unfortunately, rolling out the same question sets using the same data-gathering methods can lead to incomplete or flawed data, painting a skewed picture of what employees want and need.
Extracting the correct employee insights that drive great experiences and engagement can make a real difference to metrics such as staff loyalty and retention. These insights require an effective, agile survey process and platform to be successful.
Maru is a world-leading expert research company that has processed over a third of a billion surveys and handles millions of surveys yearly.
Here are five signs that it’s time to upgrade your employee research.
1. You’re only measuring how satisfied employees are with your organization
Your annual employee satisfaction surveys are complete, and overall satisfaction levels are on par with the previous year. The results also indicate the top-rated items for increasing satisfaction are pay increases, professional development opportunities, and better relationships with immediate managers.
Good result? Not really. Here’s why.
Although closely related, it’s important to distinguish between a satisfied employee and an engaged employee.
A satisfied employee is content – they likely get along with their colleagues, enjoy their work, and believe the performance management system is ‘fair.’
An engaged employee, however, is someone who believes in the company and its purpose. They go the extra mile to resolve problems, support the company’s success, and perhaps speak positively about the company outside of work.
Only measuring an employee’s satisfaction is only getting half the picture. Measuring attributes – such as understanding, connection, and recommendation - provides true insight into your employees’ genuine wants and needs and their level of engagement.
2. You’re implementing manager-led surveys
Survey questions designed by managers and leaders – even if implemented by an external research company – lead to flat and one-dimensional data.
Employee research should have employee input at the design stage and throughout the process. Engaging with employees and garnering a picture of their connections with the organization helps to find the relevant attributes employees care most about. As well as ensuring the research delivers relevant, statistical data that encourages further staff contribution and ownership over the project’s success.
3. Increases in customer complaints
Depending on how engaged employees are with their work significantly impacts how they interact and respond to customers. If your employee feedback doesn’t signal customer-facing staff’s concerns so they can be resolved sufficiently, your organization can be negatively impacted by a poor customer experience. This is critical for existing and future customers as many use testimonials and social media presence to make purchase decisions.
Employee experience research should uncover all the factors that affect employee performance and, importantly, the barriers that prevent them from providing compelling customer service. A great employee experience will shape a great customer experience.
4. You’re only capturing one step of the employee journey
Tracking the customer journey has become the norm for companies wanting to make customer interactions as easy as possible. Enhancing your employee experience means your research needs to examine every step of your staff’s journey.
Staff surveys should track all touch points employees encounter when dealing with your organization, from interviewing and onboarding to development opportunities and promotions to performance feedback. This allows you to pinpoint the precise changes needed to policies and processes, to amplify engagement levels throughout the employee lifecycle.
5. Failing to benchmark competitor’s employee engagement
When a shaky market position occurs, many companies turn to customer research to scope out customer expectations and new markets to mine. It’s not about acquiring new customers but pleasing the ones you already have. Effective employee research should not only help target and tackle in-house problems but highlight how your employee experience differs from your rivals.
Exploiting differences by filling in the gaps your closest competitors lack earns your business a competitive edge when attempting to attract and retain top talent. If competitor benchmarking isn’t part of your staff research capabilities, it’s time to change.
Talk to us to understand how researching your employees’ emotions can help you create better employee experiences.
To learn more about the Maru Employee Experience solution, read the whitepaper.
Read the whitepaper
Employee Experience and Engagement, measuring emotion, the missing dimension