Engagement Surveys
I want to tell you about the most perfectly broken employee engagement survey I have ever witnessed.
The CEO wanted one hundred percent participation. Not because the responses mattered. Because the number mattered. One hundred percent completion was going to be presented at the board meeting as evidence of a thriving culture of transparency and open communication.
So managers - industrious, eager to please or perhaps afraid of non-compliance, completely missing the point - carried a tablet to every employee and forced the survey response. On their tablet. While standing next to them. Employee one answered. Employee two answered. By employee five a pattern had emerged that would hold with stunning consistency through employee one hundred.
Strongly agree. Strongly agree. Strongly agree. Nobody was going to tell their manager or leadership - on their manager's tablet - in front of their manager - that they had concerns about leadership.
The responses were identical. Every single one. Not similar. Identical. As if one hundred people had independently arrived at the exact same feelings about every question with no variation whatsoever. Which is statistically fascinating. And completely meaningless.
The CEO got his one hundred percent. Presented it proudly. The board was impressed. The culture was declared healthy. The employees went back to their desks and nothing changed.
The survey actually measured how many people were uncomfortable enough to say yes while being watched to avoid an awkward conversation with someone who controlled their schedule.
That is not engagement data. That is compliance data wearing an engagement costume.
Real engagement surveys are anonymous. Actually anonymous. Not "we promise it's anonymous" anonymous. Not "only HR can see it" anonymous. The kind where people believe - with good reason - that honesty has no consequence.
Because here is the truth about employee engagement. If your people don't believe the survey is safe they will tell you exactly what you want to hear. And you will believe them. And nothing will ever change. And you will never understand why.
