ABCs and 1-2-3s: Why Everything You Need to Know About Effective Employee Surveys You Learned in Kindergarten

“Bye, mom!” waves my daughter as she enthusiastically sprints toward her kindergarten classroom, greeted by hugs from her teachers as a new school year begins. As she takes off her oversized backpack, I glance at the letters and numbers vibrantly lining the classroom wall, and I smile thinking of how my team leverages these same foundational learnings as we craft listening programs. In fact, when it comes to effective employee surveys and listening events, the ABCs and 1-2-3s taught in kindergarten create a powerful framework for driving positive action and sustainable employee experience transformation based on employee feedback within any organization.

Across hundreds of enterprise customers, Perceptyx consistently hears one complaint from employees: no one is listening to me. It’s not that organizations fail to seek employee opinions, but more often that employees fail to see actions based on their feedback. Ensuring that employees feel valued and heard is critical for driving long-term engagement and an employee experience that supports positive business outcomes, regardless of an organization’s size, industry, or location. This is why it’s imperative that organizations close the gap between listening to and acting on employee feedback. To help organizations close this gap, Perceptyx recommends listening following the ABCs and actioning following the 1-2-3s.

ABCs of Good Survey Design

The first step to driving action from employee listening events — such as point-in-time surveys, lifecycle surveys, crowdsourcing events, or multi-rater assessments — is to start by asking employees positive, declarative statements that follow the ABCs:

• Actionable: When designing an employee listening event, it’s important to consider, “are we willing and able to do something if this perception reveals itself as an opportunity?” Because employees expect action based on their feedback, it’s important to ask about topics in which the organization is both willing and able to act.
  • • For example, if an organization is unable or unwilling to alter aspects of its benefit plan, asking for opinions about benefits may prove of little value since nothing will be done, even if an opportunity is identified. Asking actionable questions targets feedback to perceptions in which action can be taken and is foundational to ensuring that insights lead to better, more informed decisions.
• Behaviorally Observable: Assessing observable behaviors also makes it easier to understand what actions could be taken to improve the employee experience. Instead of asking about intent, which requires speculation and subjectivity, focus on observable behaviors to provide clear insight into possible actions for improvement.
  • • For example, although the item, “my manager is effective” provides an overall opinion of a manager, it reveals little insight into what behaviors are effective or need improvement. Leaders with this feedback are left guessing about what specific actions to take. By focusing on specific manager behaviors, such as whether the manager provides useful feedback or discusses career goals, leaders can more easily uncover specific behaviors that need attention. Recommendations for change based on observable behaviors are much clearer, making it easier to move from listening to perception to responsive action.
• Clearly Written: Clearly written survey statements are also critical for turning employee feedback into action. Avoid jargon, simplify language, and define terms to help all employees consistently interpret the intent of each item. Avoid double-barreled statements, or trying to assess multiple aspects in one item, to ensure feedback is clear on what actions are needed.
  
  • •  For example, the double-barreled item, “senior leaders create a clear vision that is motivating to me,” confounds vision clarity with vision inspiration, making it difficult to know if there is an opportunity to improve clarity, motivation, or both. By clearly writing items, teams can more easily understand the survey feedback and necessary actions to improve the employee experience.

In addition to following the ABCs, the Perceptyx People Insights Model makes it even easier to listen in ways that drive employee experience transformation. Our science-backed approach provides a flexible item framework aligned to your specific business and talent priorities, regardless of the listening channel. Each organization also has the opportunity to add content relevant to its unique needs or survey history, with the ability to expand a listening event with more than 700 benchmarked items.

1-2-3s of Survey Action

Asking actionable, behaviorally observable, and clear items aligned with your key priorities is just the first step for effectively acting on employee feedback. To show employees their feedback and ideas are valued and ensure they have the desired impact on improving the employee experience and achieving business outcomes, teams should also discuss, plan, and act on the feedback gathered.

For many leaders, employee feedback can seem overwhelming, causing some to overanalyze results and others to plan too many actions without any follow-through to completion. Perceptyx research across 15 million employees shows 1-2-3 action planning simplifies the process, leading to higher engagement and an improved employee experience.

• Select 1 issue: Focused action planning has the greatest potential for success. Rather than focusing on all actionable opportunities, teams should prioritize one focus area based on the feedback collected. To identify where to focus, teams should consider the top barriers inhibiting employees’ abilities to anticipate success. Comparisons such as how perceptions change over time when compared to other internal groups, or compared to external benchmarks, can help focus actions on a theme that will have the biggest impact on the overall employee experience.
• Do 2 things about it: Next, successful teams commit to two actions they can take to improve the focus area. These actions may be initiatives already in progress, new actions resulting from employee survey feedback or team discussion, or even an action to stop. Assigning owners and dates to these commitments not only improves accountability while focusing on actions within a specific team’s control but it also helps improve the likelihood of that team following through on their plans.
• Communicate and seek feedback at least 3 times: While many organizations effectively seek employee feedback and even take action, few organizations consistently connect the dots between employees’ feedback and the organization’s response. To demonstrate that employee feedback is valued, leaders should explicitly communicate at least three times how actions taken are directly connected to the feedback learned through the listening event. By clearly linking feedback and action, employees can see how their opinions were used and are more likely to provide future feedback. 

The Power of AI-Assisted Action Planning

Recent AI advancements have made taking action even easier and more sustainable, a much-needed boost given that 41% of organizations say taking action is the biggest barrier to a successful listening program. By leveraging AI-assisted action plans, leaders immediately see data suggesting where to focus for the biggest impact on EX. While leaders are still empowered to edit or even change their focus area, they don’t have to, and an action plan based on their data is automatically created.

Besides proactively helping leaders focus on what matters most, AI also helps drive behavior change, turning action-taking into a sustainable team sport rather than a leader-only initiative. By aligning employee feedback to specific, personalized behavioral suggestions, all employees can receive small ideas and suggestions within their day-to-day work. These science-backed nudges, aligned to employee feedback and business priorities, can foster new habits and influence behavior change across the entire organization — from individual contributors to executives. With all employees activated, organizations can more quickly close the gap from listening insights to business impact, making change inclusive and far-reaching.

Perceptyx Can Help Your Organization Take Action on Action Planning

When it comes to your employee listening program, the familiar ABCs and 1-2-3s we learned in kindergarten still have something important to teach us about the power of clarity, consistency, and action when soliciting feedback. (Now, if only we could figure out how to deliver morning snacks or a nice afternoon nap with those surveys!). 

To learn more how Perceptyx could help your organization with employee listening, employee surveys, employee engagement, and action planning, schedule a meeting with a member of our team.