We recently
completed an employee engagement survey for a hi-tech client and after
evaluating the survey results five key findings surfaced. The respondents indicated that they wanted more
transparency from the leadership team along with more timely decisions. The respondents also indicated that they were
looking for more responsibility, an improvement in communication and, finally, a
work environment that is more engaging and team oriented. So. let’s delve deeper into the detailed
results.
Transparency
The survey respondents indicated that the
leadership team needed to be more transparent and open with the employees. A business is a reflection of the leaders of the
organization, and if the leaders ensure transparency, the team will mirror this
value. Honesty was determined to be a
key value of the company, and if practiced more consistently, the result will
be an effective better functioning team that trusts and believes in the
executives.
Timely Decisions
Good leaders
are creative, innovative, flexible and decisive; however, decisions-makers may
be forced at times to deviate from the set course and make a decision without
all of the information. It is during
these critical situations that the team will need to look for guidance,
evaluate the data and reach a decision that is the best given the available
data. The survey respondents indicated that the decision making process
was often too protracted. The leaders
were afraid of making decisions and were risk adverse. Some risk is acceptable and the respondents,
including the leaders of the company, determined that decisions needed to be more
timely even if the information was incomplete.
Ability to
Delegate
Trusting the team and learning to delegate to subordinates
are an important signs of strength, not weakness. Delegating tasks to
department managers and individual contributors is one of the most important
skills a leader needs to have. The key
to delegation is identifying the strengths of the team, and capitalizing on
those strengths and hold each team member accountable for their decisions. This will prove to your team that as a leader
you trust and believe in them and are fair.
The survey results indicated that the respondents wanted to have more
responsibility and management needed to learn to delegate more, provided that
decision-making parameters were established and properly communicated.
Being a Good Communicator
Being a good communicator is critical to all leaders in a
growing organization. Knowing what you
want accomplished and explaining the company’s vision for the future to the
team are extremely important. The survey
results indicated that the leaders lacked the ability to communicate the vision
and strategy. Healthy lines of
communication were also determined to be poor.
The respondents requested that management establish an all-hands
meeting, newsletters, webinars and state-of-the-company presentations to
improve communication. Communication is
also managing by walking around and creating an open door policy. Making it a point to talk to the employees on
a daily basis was determined to build trust and keep the leaders in the
loop. The results also indicated that
the company executives need to make themselves available to discuss the
strategic as well as tactical issues.
Having a Sense of Humor
Because the respondents spend so much time at work the
survey results indicated that they want to be a part of a company that can
“work-hard and play-hard”. Challenges
happen all the time in business. A
client may go elsewhere, the company website goes down, the telephone lines to
customer service are interrupted or the company’s line of credit is not
extended. Guiding the team through these
or any challenges without panicking and with a sense of purpose is as important
as tackling the underlining reasons why a particular event occurred. It was
determined that having a sense of humor will pay off as it will allow the team
to laugh at the mistakes and learn from them.
Good leaders are successful in building a team, encouraging healthy
discussions and learning from the daily business challenges.
In Conclusion
The employee survey
results were communicated to the employees and action plans were developed and
are currently being implemented. The
leaders of the company made a commitment to ensure
transparency in the process, be inclusive and maintain on-going
communication. They also agreed to
establish accountability measures for improvement by evaluating the progress
made over the next survey cycle. This
initiative was truly a team effort regardless of level in the organization.
