Some of us are old enough to remember Richard Wagner, the original host of the long-running TV game show Family Feud.  (Some of you might even remember his earlier stint on Hogan’s Heroes).

Richard’s signature line on “The Feud” – a show where competing families scored points  by guessing the most popular survey responses to different questions –  was to shout “survey says” as the answers rolled. 

Survey_Says

What do you think happens when you ask a bunch of employees about workplace surveys these days?  What does that survey say?

We were drawn tis week to a recent blog entitled “7 Tips For Getting Valuable Information” in which Graham Winfrey shares the following infographic on the perils and pitfalls of employee surveys:

Surveys_Infographic

 

The bottom line?  The idea of employee surveys providing actionable, reliable information you will be able to use to transform your organization seems a bit of a stretch.  Everything from participation rates to value of process and feedback received seems to score low on the charts.

The cynic might even suggest that employers and employees are really using work related surveys to avoid direct and difficult conversations about work related issues…and then ignoring each others’ thoughts on the topic.

A faster and easier alternative?  Here’s a suggestion.

Get your team org chart up on Organimi.  Then, give yourself a survey question.

Ask yourself how much you really know about their opinions — about the workplace, about your team, about you, and about how things can get done better.

Better yet, make it a goal to make sure you spend a bit of time each week talking individually with your team members to find out how things are going, about what’s working for them and what isn’t.  

When you can look at your team org chart and know you have a really good sense of who everyone on the team is, what motivates them, and what they want to see changing, you are well on your want to a better connected, better engaged team in the workplace.

You can connect your team at Organimi starting here.

Decidedly low tech we know, but we saw a great slogan this week “at the end of the day, business to business is still person to person”.  

That applies as much inside your organization as it applies to the clients you deal with.