As a professional, you understand the importance of providing surveys for your employees. The development of this type of listening strategy provides insight to help make more data-driven decisions, support your workforce, and take impactful action in line with your business strategy.

However, you may be concerned about an inability to act on the feedback, surveying too often, or overburdening your already busy employees with one more task. Although these are valid issues, they may prevent you from gathering valuable insights that can benefit your organization.

Knowing your goal for surveying and how often to survey your employees helps you gain the feedback you need to move your company forward. Because this impacts your workforce, you need to take action now.

Find out how often you should survey your employees and which issues you should focus on.

Begin by Surveying Annually

You need to survey your employees a minimum of every 12 months. This frequency may need to increase if your workforce makeup and demographic tend to change throughout the year.

Your frequency of surveying is especially relevant during the coronavirus pandemic. Your employees likely have been dealing with increased anxiety and stress, an abrupt transition to remote work, and elevated concerns over personal issues that affect work performance.

The more you understand how your employees react to these rapid changes, the better you can respond to your organization’s evolving needs. Because your employees may not be comfortable sharing feedback during one-on-one meetings, offering a confidential survey can uncover more open and honest input.

The information you uncover can be used to gather buy-in for new initiatives. It also can be used to back up ideas and decisions.

Increase Your Frequency of Surveying

Take the time to get used to working through your survey feedback and communicating the results. Then, consider providing a survey on a more frequent basis to increase your strategy for listening to your employees.

Sending a survey on a twice-yearly, quarterly, monthly, or weekly basis lets you gather additional data to improve your company. The more you are able to implement the feedback you receive, the happier your workforce should be. This can increase your attraction and retention rates for top agricultural talent.

Focus Your Survey Topics

Use the results from your first annual survey to uncover your main opportunities for growth. Then, consider creating a pulse survey around one or two specific areas that need further development.

For instance, your annual survey may show that your seasoned employees are having a less positive experience than your new hires. You may want to follow up with a pulse survey containing questions about your new hires’ training and onboarding experience. You also might set up a listening session with your seasoned employees to uncover why they are having a less positive experience. Then, use your findings to create and implement a plan for improvement.

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