Employee Survey Overview: Many companies regularly administer surveys to employees to gauge their level of satisfaction with their work, their supervisors, their pay and benefits, and the firm as a whole. The most reliable results come from surveys that are administered anonymously and tabulated by independent outside firms who protect respondents’ identities. The degree to which companies act upon the survey results varies. In some companies, managers’ performance reviews include how they very evaluated by their staff in surveys of this type.
Using Employee Surveys to Your Advantage: If you are in a managerial position, deft use of employee satisfaction surveys can strengthen your own political standing or reduce the influence of disruptive peers. A case study follows.
Case Study: The managers within a department included a manic and incompetent friend of the department head. Both the department head and his friend had worked together in lower-level jobs. As the former rose through the ranks, he brought the latter along in subordinate positions. However, the department head was blind to his friend’s many faults and track record of failure:
- He had extremely high staff turnover. His typical employee would resign or demand a transfer after only a few months.
- He was constantly accusing his staff and even peers of incompetence.
- He regularly tried to force his peers to become responsible for projects that he continually failed to execute, and would send weekly memos in an attempt to document transfers of responsibility.
Because of their relationship, anyone in the department who dared complain to the department head about his friend fell into disfavor with the former. This allowed the latter to strengthen his hand, and thereby increased the morale problems in the department.
Having come into this group as the result of a high recommendation from a previous superior who was very influential in the firm, the new controller and chief of staff for this department (the duties being combined in one position) quickly established a high degree of credibility with the department head. Quickly recognizing the malign influence of the department head’s friend and advised by peers and subordinates alike about the department head’s inability or unwillingness to recognize it, the new controller saw the utility of an employee survey in dealing with this situation.
The department head was aware of the severe morale problems in his department, although he refused to recognize their cause. The new controller suggested that, to understand the root causes of employee dissatisfaction, the rank and file should be given an anonymous survey in which they would evaluate the management team that included, among others, both the department head’s friend and the controller. The controller also suggested (to increase the palatability of the idea) that the survey would not ask the respondents to rate the department head. The survey would be developed in association with the human resources department, administered by them and tabulated by them. It would follow the basic format of other surveys used throughout the firm to test employees’ attitudes toward their managers.
The department head agreed to the survey. As the controller expected, the tabulated results offered scathing reviews of the department head’s friend. This finally opened the latter’s eyes to the problems caused by his friend. While the department head would not fire his friend, he relegated the latter to a much less important role. The department head’s friend, being a person with little self-awareness, was so completely stunned by the results that he nearly suffered a breakdown. Luckily for the controller, the rank and file rated him by far the best manager, which strengthened his credibility with the department head.
Postscript: From his first day on the job, the new controller was continually badgered to do something about the department head’s friend by a physically imposing and tough talking member of the department. He had worked for the department head’s friend previously, found the experience to be terrible beyond belief, and kept insisting that something had to be done about him soon lest the department collapse completely.
However, when the survey was administered, this outwardly tough employee lost his nerve. Leading the controller to a secluded spot where they were certain not to be overheard, he was frightened out of his wits that his survey responses would be traced back to him and that he would suffer retribution. The controller assured him of the elaborate measures undertaken with human resources to ensure that responses would be kept confidential. The controller also reminded him that, as the biggest complainer about the department head’s friend, he should be the most eager to utilize this opportunity to fight back. Lesson here: beware of whom you enlist as allies in a tough fight. Some of them may be cowardly instigators who shrink from putting themselves at risk, although they stand to benefit.
