Anyone who's worked in the corporate environment for a decade or more will remember, with something less than affection, the annual survey. Maybe it's even something your company is still doing. There is a better way: real time employee engagement offers all the benefits of the staff survey - and more - while being easier to manage, evaluate and act upon.
Before we discuss a few of the advantages of real time employee engagement, we should first ask why companies traditionally relied on the annual staff survey. Giving all staff members an opportunity to comment on their working environment and practices is invaluable. A company can gain insights into staff retention (or lack of it). It can identify what needs to be changed to improve working conditions. It measures how engaged employees are in their own roles; with the company's vision, mission and values; and in short, with the corporate whole. But as an employee engagement platform, carrying out a survey once a year, even when best practice is employed, is a cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming undertaking. What's more, by the time the survey has run for several weeks to offer all an opportunity to respond and the results have been collected and analyzed, that data is totally out of date. Any changes to working practices discussed and implemented as a result, for example, may have been overtaken by events in today's fast-moving working environment . Ongoing use of employee engagement software, by contrast, can capture mood changes and shifts far quicker and more effectively - in real time, in effect.
Add to that the fact that the typical response rate to old-style staff surveys is likely only to be 30-40% and you have the views of the majority of your employees going unheard. Even with assurances of confidentiality and anonymity, many people just aren't comfortable enough to offer honest views on their own experiences. Others would simply say they don't have time to answer a lengthy survey. However, by capturing data through utilizing tools such as employee training tracking software and employee recognition software on an everyday basis, you are effectively routinely taking the temperature. This is especially important during the onboarding stage, whereby ELMO onboarding software can be beneficial, helping employees to integrate but also providing useful analytics too.
Staff engage habitually with the organization without having to set aside particular time to do so - in fact, it becomes embedded naturally into their role and routine. And because management at all levels within the organization has instant access to real time results and insights, they can act fast when issues arise, determining whether the concern affects a small team or requires a cross-company solution. Implementing a social learning platform as part of your employee engagement program brings other benefits too: employees increasingly work together, within and across teams, to share learning, to problem solve and to create their own solutions to emerging issues.
Your people are your best asset. Nothing valuable gets done without their co-operation in working towards your company's common goals. Real time employee engagement allows you to keep your finger on the pulse 365 days a year, moving swiftly to tackle emerging problems and rewarding success to encourage even greater endeavor.
