You can’t really blame most people for thinking employee surveys are a lost cause.
Survey fatigue is a real thing, and every organization has its unique red tape when it comes to data collection and HR policy.
If you can even manage to convince your employees to respond to that well-crafted questionnaire, how do you separate the signal from the noise and operationalize this information for ITOps? How do you make meaningful judgments based on both hard technical metrics and genuine employee sentiment data?
After helping hundreds of IT departments answer these very questions, we’ve realized our most successful customers follow these 2 simple rules:
1) They use survey tools that are powered by transactional end-user triggers and criteria
Imagine you have lunch with a friend at an Italian restaurant. You bump into that same friend six months later and you ask him, “Hey, how was the bolognese you had six months ago?” Your friend would probably look at you like you’ve lost your mind, and for good reason.
That’s because context matters.
Yet most IT departments still take context for granted. They send survey questions to employees asking them to recall incidents that happened weeks ago. They base their questions around their own department’s needs, and not the needs of their employees.
But with transactional-based end-user survey tools like Nexthink Engage, you can ask your employees the right questions at the appropriate time. For example, if a colleague is waiting longer than usual to boot up their device, IT support can instantly trigger a campaign question to ask that person to rate their current experience.
Pertinent questions warrant complete answers.
When you have the right IT communications and survey tool you can tailor questions by specific geographies, devices, applications, and users. Our customers save hundreds of hours a month by re-using workflows for future surveys and analyzing survey responses in conjunction with unique digital performance metrics for memory, CPU, data throughput, bluescreens, logon times, crashes, versioning, and other key statistics.
Combining this unique employee sentiment data with real-time technical data puts IT departments on even terms with their employees. They both become part of the same conversation and business strategy.
But believe it or not, powerful technology can only get you so far. Our customers are also successful because they follow this second important rule:
2) They get buy-in from corporate communication
Let’s face it: it’s never a good idea to appear like you’re taking somebody’s job or that you’re going behind official channels to get something done.
Even if you have the right survey tool you’ll want to partner with your corporate communications department or internal communications lead to ensure you’re not stepping on any toes.
Since IT employee surveys fall into a sort of grey area between both technical data and employee sentiment, we always recommend our clients use corporate communications channels to elevate their actions.
It’s important to remember that survey and communication tools like Nexthink Engage are incredibly effective at targeting the right sample size of employees at the right moment—but that technology is pointless without the right policy approval—employees will simply ignore your survey if they’re told to do so.
The Right Tech + The Right Policy = Success
We’ve found that our customers are able to achieve 80% response rates because they had the right technology and they received buy-in from their corporate communications teams.
For some of our customers, Nexthink Engage has even been adopted by corporate communications as an internal messaging tool because it offers such remarkable precision and functionality.
Contact a Nexthinker today if you’re interested in carrying out an employee survey and want to learn more!
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