We launched an employee engagement survey at work today, our first one ever, and a project that I am really excited about. What better way to learn about what is important to our employees other than to survey them confidentially? To collect hard data to learn what projects we should prioritize? To prioritize those things that will have the biggest impact? Over the past couple of weeks I’ve worked directly with the wonderful people at Culture Amp who have been so patient with me. I’ve asked endless questions about how to set up the survey, how to enter demographics, how to analyze the data. Which culminated in today’s launch.
I had some conversations with employees, mostly revolving around whether the data could be tracked back to them individually. I assured them that no, the data was confidential, and wouldn’t be reported for any demographic that had fewer than five data points. I encouraged people to be candid and honest. That the only way we could improve was to know what was working, and what wasn’t. Be honest!
In the quiet of my home this evening, I clicked on my own survey link to submit my thoughts about working at Automattic. I answered the first few questions, then came to a statement that I didn’t agree with. That I had critical feedback for.
And what happened next surprised me.
I paused before answering. Should I be completely honest? Or should I go for a more neutral answer? It’s kind of my job to make Automattic a great place to work. What did that mean if there were things that *I* wasn’t happy with? What if somehow the leaders in the company figured out what my answers were? Would that reflect poorly on me?
Let’s dissect this. I set up the survey. I *know* that answers can’t be tracked back to an individual. I’ve told this to multiple other people. And yet, there was a nagging fear that something bad would happen if I gave critical feedback (this is probably fodder for at least a few sessions with a psychiatrist). After the voices in my head debated for a while, I eventually gave honest feedback, and felt confident about my decision. But that moment of pause gave me a much greater appreciation of what we’re asking our employees to do.
LoriLoo 
I feel a little better about my own pause now 🙂
Thanks for sharing this.
Right? Unexpected, but really valuable.
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This is so interesting! I mean here,no one will ever answer complete honest,because of these voices. And I think it can be a real problem to employee
That’s one of the things we’re trying to figure out, Lina, is how to make it safe for employees to share honest feedback, without the fear of retaliation. It’s hard!
I keep falling more and more in love with you. The subtle degree to which you unpack “sense making” and how we attempt to make sense of what we and others often assume to be true or understood – not out of malice, mind you – is sweetly poignant and salient. Greatly admire you and your point of view on life.
Big hugs to you, Vincent! I so respect the work you are doing as well, and learn so much from each interaction with you. xo
I’m glad I didn’t submit yet and decided to wait and “sleep on it” some more. Glad to have read this, Lori, thanks for sharing!
Of course! I wish there were a way to “like” comments on our personal blogs. 🙂
They recently launched for all of WordPress.com! 🙂 You can turn them on in Settings –> Sharing: https://cloudup.com/cDuRg0yeARR
Great to know! Thanks so much, Mel!
My place of employment, a government agency, conducted an employee engagement/culture survey last fall, and recently rolled out the results. It was fascinating to me how few people wound up taking the survey (after *so* many reminders), and that so many people felt that they couldn’t answer honestly, or that answers would be traced (we are working for “the man” after all). They couldn’t believe that our administration would want our opinions to actually improve the workplace – they felt it was more likely a ploy to use our opinions against us in the future. Good for you for providing the constructive feedback when it was requested!
We’re a week into the survey, and 70% of employees have responded, which I think is great! I’d love to have 100%, but understand that some people may not want to share their thoughts. I’m really excited to see the results, share them, and figure out what we should focus on energies on.