Why your employee surveys won't tell you what you want to know (and what to do about it)

Employee surveys won’t give you the answers you want.

Why? Partly fatigue. By the time people get your survey, they’ve already been asked for their feedback, rating and review on 27 different products and services. Online surveys are too easy to put together and distribute. But that’s just a new sub-problem.

Surveys never have, and never will, give you the answers you want.

Unless you’re caught up on the whole idea of benchmarking. And if you are – well, then there’s a whole industry dedicated to scratching that itch.

Here’s the problem: You can’t predict all that your people might think.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? If you knew the answers, you wouldn’t ask the questions.

So, you’re stuck with missing stuff out or asking a bajillion questions. Missing stuff out sounds like a bad idea, so most people plump for the bajillion. And then add a few more, just to be sure.

For one, that’s not really playing well to the whole fatigue issue. For another, you’re still going to miss stuff.

So, here at Monteath Towers, we take a different approach.

We accept that we’ll miss stuff, but instead we want people to express themselves. We accept that we can’t predict all that your people might think, so we don’t try. Instead we ask them to tell us it all.

That means we pick only the most crucial fixed/scale questions. We do want some quant, we might want to see change over time. But those fixed questions serve another purpose. They are a stimulus and a prompt for free comment questions.

Because that’s where we see the real value. That’s where we can say: “Tell us what you really think, what you really want. We’re listening.”

The fixed questions are then just focussing that expression in free comment – they’re stimulating thoughts and ideas. They’re the germ of “you know what really hacks me off…” and “wouldn’t it be brilliant if…”.

It takes longer to analyse, but that’s because there is more to discover. There are themes to find, but also what truly resonates, where there is real strength of feeling. There are as-yet-unformed nuggets of ideas – ones that could be transformative if allowed to blossom. There are isolated niggles – ones that you could see could undermine all your efforts if unchecked.

But most of all, it shows you the priorities and what to investigate further.

Remember, whatever you do: Surveys won’t give you the answers you want. But they can allow to focus your next efforts with real precision and insight.

Your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind

When trying to impress or surprise, or sometimes appal, I mention that I hold a Joint Honours degree in Maths and Physics.

Undertaken following a series of perfectly avoidable mistakes, I was entirely unsuited to the course, and it subsequently hasn’t afforded me much advantage in life.

But it entrenched my passion for number, I won’t accept anything but a fair test, and, well, I love the process of science.

That’s beautifully expressed by Lord Kelvin; “…when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.”

(Or rather more drearily by Peter Drucker: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”.)

Observing engagement and communication strategy, there is a consistent lack of measurement.

There may be lack of capability. There may be a lack of curiosity. There may not be the clout to get the budget or time to make the measurement. There’s perhaps an unwillingness to lift the lid.

But this I know. Lift that lid. Take a look. Measure effects. See what you find. Draw conclusions. And apply what you’ve learnt. Your clout-o-meter will rise, fast.

Look at what’s most important to your employees.

See how is best to reach them

Assess if what you propose to do will make an impact

Find out if you are cutting through.

All of this – and much more in your interactions with your people - is observable, quantifiable and therefore improvable.

Do more measurement.

But… you can go too far.

Hold in mind Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle “the more precisely the position of some particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be known, and vice versa”:

(Or, more mundanely, as Goodhart’s Law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure)

Don’t get bogged down in the number. The number is there to justify the means, to target the message, to precisely focus the efforts.

Always remember that it is the powerful word, the galvanising mission and the human interaction that wins.

That’s what changes behaviour, generates ideas and unites people to a cause. That builds momentum.

Do more measurement (but always know your place).

Always Crashing In The Same Car

I’ve paused for the first time in a while. And it’s good to reflect. When projects come thick and fast, you can drive, or drift, through in the same way, regardless of previous success.

Do you endlessly offer up offer Frog a la Peche in the face of all evidence? (Confused? Here’s a link)

This isn’t “I’ve always done it that way”-ism. I think that’s rather different – albeit a pernicious blocker to achievement. What I’m talking about is something subtler, and it’s well described in this article. “Our brains don’t learn from our past mistakes to the extent we might hope. In fact, thinking about past flubs might only doom us to repeat them”. Sounds worrying, but you might think that doesn’t happen to you. Yeah? Read this:

“In 2008, researchers at McMaster University in Ontario found a similar problem took place with “tip of the tongue” phenomenon. “This can be incredibly frustrating — you know you know the word, but you just can’t quite get it,” the researcher Karin Humphreys told LiveScience at the time. “And once you have it, it is such a relief that you can’t imagine ever forgetting it again. But then you do.” The reason? The time you spend sifting for that word reinforces a “mistake pathway” in the brain, essentially digging yourself further into the wrong groove. The next time you’re hunting for the elusive word, your brain will reflexively draw a blank instead.”

Sounds more familiar now? And if so, have I been busy burning new mistake pathways? I know that when running research, I have come to one of my own questions and thought: “Uch, why have I used that? I always have to rephrase!” And then it turns up again in another design… Or, for at least a few months, I was analyse data rather laboriously. Previously I’d done it far more efficiently. Just once I hadn’t been able to make it work, hence a long-hand workaround. And, it seems, I burned this new path.

But as I reflect, I’ve thought about how I have learned. At the outset my approach to qualitative was very much set up around free discussion. That’s my comfort zone. But I recognised some of its limitations; it’s not others’ comfort zone, it can limit how much some could express themselves, it can be reliant on people arriving with answers. So, I’ve naturally adapted, and now design involves a greater mix of written response, small group exercises, use of stimulus, online groups and others. Next I want to look at using games, and potentially use of video capture.

That provides a richer insight, and allows me to be far more flexible in applications. It’s all aspects of the employee experience – from never-thought-about-them-potential-candidate, to engaging-the-seen-it-all-before employee, to capturing the collective wisdom of the workforce.

And you know what – it’s different for me. I’m not burning down the same pathways, it’s keeping it fresh and less formulaic. And if I’m on my toes, that’s always going to get a better result.

However busy you may be, keep working on your own game.

Five Years: What Have I Learned?

Thanks to LinkedIn. Without it, I think that the five year anniversary of Monteath Consulting would have passed me by. Thanks too to everyone that clicked “like” on that button – small actions can mean a lot.

But the big question is: what have I learned in five years? What could I teach other researchers, but more generally, what could I offer to other independent consultants?

So, in the modern click-bait style, here’s: Five things I have learned in five years – you won’t believe number four!

Thing 1: Lots of ways to get insight, but it’s the human that matters

I have had to develop many more research techniques. That’s partly for the range of projects; engagement, internal comms, culture, EVP. But mainly it’s forced by the range of restrictions. We can’t get a focus group together, we need to move fast, we can’t use that software, we can’t book a room for 3 months. Etc. I find new ways to find people and to create environments where they are free to express themselves: verbally, in writing, with scoring systems, by themselves, in a group, in reaction to other insight.

That can generate a lot of data. But no-one wants data, they want insight. I don’t believe that robots and algorithms can tell you much about human sentiment. Why did that person answer the question like that? What’s really driving that behaviour? What didn’t they say? I believe it takes a human to understand humans. That means hard, manual work – but I’ve worked out neat ways to shortcut long processes. That gets the most meaningful insight in the shortest possible time, expressed as the most meaningful numbers, words and real human emotions.

Because people want to hear what other people think.

Thing 2: People give a shit

From those many projects (c200 of them), what I have heard most is that people care about where they work and what they do. They might be let down at times by unclear leadership or poor line management or incomplete communication. But if they didn’t care it wouldn’t frustrate them so much. People want to do a good job. They want to get it right for customers, those they offer services to and their colleagues. And that is an innate motivation; it’s got very little to do with how much you get paid to do a good job.

It’s been a great affirmation that people are essentially interested in the greater good.

Thing 3: Good work begets good work

I work most often by myself, and that puts limits on what I can do. Yes, there are weekends and evenings, and sometimes I do stray into them. But I try to maintain discipline, because I believe that discipline is necessary to produce good work. When I wrote my values (a quiet day…) the key line was “I make my clients look good. Otherwise, why would my clients buy me?”

And my proudest achievement is that no client has ever used me just once. I have had repeat business from everyone I have worked with. That’s crucial to success, and the best affirmation that I’m doing things right.

I put it down to that discipline, and when you work by yourself you have the best chance to be able to maintain that discipline.

Thing 4: Sales never stops

I’ve had a superb few months, the phone has rung, e-mails have pinged. But however busy, I need to be out there, having conversations, sharing what I do, “touching base”, never assuming that because someone is a client now that they will stay a client. And in the rather niche world in which I operate, it often takes some time for the opportunity to work with a client. In just the past few weeks, I’ve started working with clients that I first wooed (oh, and you need to do the woo-ing, no-one’s going to sweep you off your feet…) 18 months, and I think about 4.5 years ago respectively. In that time I’ve offered ideas, completed proposals, shared experiences – and generally been a continual, unashamed I-want-to-work-with-you presence. This is stuff that, as part of a bigger agency, I didn’t take nearly as seriously, and relied on the efforts of others.

When you work project to project you have to constantly look for the next one.

Thing 5: It is hard to do it by yourself

I have had to turn down work recently. And that hurts. But more often I have worked with some trusted and rather excellent associates to deliver the work. (You know who you are. Thanks). That makes the offer wider, it means I can say yes more often and let clients down less.

But there’s another side to this. When you’re on your own, you are often your only critic. How do you keep improving, developing new ideas, pushing yourself to take the work to the next level? How do you hold firm with bold ideas or in the less busy times?

It’s probably the biggest challenge that I have faced, and it’s one I haven’t fully resolved. It’s why, as well some of the informal partnerships, I’m potentially on the lookout for something more formal. Someone that complements some of my skills and abilities, and who I can help too. Someone that – together – we can iron out some of the peaks and troughs. Someone with whom we can achieve real mutual benefits.

So, do you know anyone?