As Chase LeBlanc, author of “High Impact Hospitality, Upgrade Your Purpose, Performance and Profits” points out in his recent Fastcasual.com article, employee involvement is one of the top ten ways to motivate managers. Internal surveys allow organizations to involve employees in ways that positively impact motivation, cost savings, and revenue production.
These surveys offer five principal benefits:
- Learn about employee concerns quickly. Since internal surveys are web-based, employees can voice their opinions on communication between departments quickly and conveniently. Companies should be sure to encourage employees to complete the internal surveys on a regular basis, so that the information remains current.
- Improve employee satisfaction. Companies obviously only realize this benefit when they acknowledge and act on the employee feedback that the internal surveys capture. Once firms identify departments that need guidance on how to better interact with internal peers, they can create an action plan for improvement. An example of this is communication between bank branches and the mortgage department. If a mortgage department takes many days to provide information to branch employees regarding a customer’s mortgage application, employees feel frustrated and may also feel that their own relationship with the customer is at risk due to the slow response. Employees who receive better internal service in the future will be more satisfied in their positions. Employees who feel that they are “heard” are motivated to work harder.
- Reduce turnover. With improved satisfaction comes a smaller likelihood that employees will seek employment elsewhere. Even in tough economic times when applicant pools are larger, turnover is time consuming and costly.
- Improve Teamwork and Communication. When employees call other areas of the firm, do they understand what their peers are trying to convey? Do they sense an “Us vs. Them” mentality, or feel that both departments are on the same team? Feedback can reveal important insight into key interactions within your firm.
- Better Internal Service Leads to Improved External Service. Employees who receive clear and timely information from other departments are better equipped to serve external clients.