Employee Engagement Surveys Are So Passé 2013

It’s no secret that we are in the middle of an HR Technology revolution. Yes technology has been around for a long time but we have seen unprecedented growth and development of new platforms in terms of the value they can generate for business, along with user adoption. We still have a long way to go but I am personally encouraged by what I am seeing in the industry.

Customer Engagement and Employee EngagementOne of the most critical areas to business performance is employee engagement. There is a direct positive correlation between the levels of customer engagement and employee engagement. This makes sense because both are driven by the experience between people. If employees are engaged they will likely exert additional discretionary effort in their work, which benefits the customer. Now, “HOW” an organization supports higher levels of employee engagement is easier said than done. I know this — I’ve done a lot of work during my career helping organizations increase their levels of employee engagement.

You are likely wondering what an employer needs in order to effectively influence employee engagement. The answer is employee information. Traditionally this came in the form of an annual employee engagement survey—large initiatives, somewhat clunky and expensive. HR collects responses and spends its time assessing the data and then… umm…. well… depends on the organization. Months and months may pass by before anything is mentioned about the results and/or plans for action. I could go on but the point is that this process is no longer effective. In fact, I would argue that it does the opposite of what you are trying to do. Employees lose trust in the process — feel disconnected, undervalued, not listened to and the list goes on. The longer the process takes to get to action the more negatively impacted the organization is.

Now what if we were able to solve this problem by using a method that completely opens up communication between employees? Not only do you solve the problem of feeling disconnected from the organization, you actually can collect more accurate and reliable data. Real-time information from your employees via an open and safe network — this kind of sounds like a social network doesn’t it? I am not talking about Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and the many other niche social platforms. I am talking about a platform, a practice that employs the principles of social networking inside an organization for the purposes of driving employee engagement.

Disruptive Innovation and TechnologyPulse Survey Meets Social Network

Maybe it’s time to think “pulse survey meets social network”. Imagine for a second that you have the capabilities of a survey platform but it lives in real-time constantly collecting the most relevant information from employees, collaboratively.

I attended the 2014 HR Technology Conference and spent the majority of my time in the tradeshow. One of the key things that was talked about in my many conversations is the idea to make the traditional survey more conversational and interactive. HR will never stop using survey tools, but they are looking for tools that enable conversation and interactivity. Time-specific and difficult to understand data is so passé 2013.

I had the fortunate opportunity to get to know Australian start-up CueZero at the conference. Their platform does exactly what I am talking about in this post. People in their personal lives engage in many real-time conversations—why not translate this natural habit to the workplace to support the most critical driver of organizational success, employee engagement.

CueZero.com #HRTechConf

CueZero is a “pulse survey meets social network” and I have been directing people that I have spoken with about this specific problem to them since the conference ended. Please meet Co-Founders Nina Dejmanee and Jeremy Noble… and Rufus the Kangaroo. They’ll explain what they’re trying to do to disrupt the market.

https://youtu.be/E9GU161qfN4?list=UUDLK0yIAAhgT3-gJicc44RQ

As I have said on many occasions, you owe it to your organizations to relentlessly continue learning about new ideas, concepts and technologies. Want that seat at the table? Go to www.cuezero.com and check them out, reach out to them and learn about their platform. I know you’ll be glad you did because what they are doing will help you propel your organization into the future.