Should you run a survey during a crisis?

During Covid-19, employee survey data showed an unprecedented (there’s that word again) rise in employee engagement.

While this might sound counter-intuitive when we remember the upheaval and uncertainty of the pandemic, organisations as a whole stepped up to support their people during this time. Empathetic leadership, communication and wellbeing support were thrust to the forefront as companies embraced the constant challenges and changes of the new normal for teams.

Rising inflation rates, political flux, and financial concerns are dominating the news, so now seems like a good time to look back on what the pandemic and the end of lockdown taught us about how to support, listen to and engage our people during times of crisis. Because, as the engagement scores below demonstrate, times of uncertainty or challenge are exactly when you need to be listening and asking for feedback.

The data: Comparing 2020 employee engagement survey data to 2019 results.

To understand how the pandemic impacted levels of employee engagement, we analysed the results of People Insight employee surveys that ran from April – September 2020. We then compared these to 2019 employee survey results, reviewing over 1.5 million data points.

2019 data set: ‘Pre-Covid’

This sample data set contains results from engagement surveys in SMEs-enterprise, in public, private and not for profit sectors, all using our core PEARL engagement questions.

Apr-Sept 2020 data set: ‘Post-Covid’

This sample contains survey results from a broad range of organisations in private and public sector including construction, utilities, financial services, healthcare & pharmaceuticals, professional services, retail/leisure, emergency services and universities. Again, the surveys used PEARL.

The outcome: Employee engagement reached an all-time high during Covid-19

The biggest news is that overall employee engagement actually increased by 7 percentage points between the pre and post Covid samples.

Overall engagement is an average of scores for the 5 outcome measures in our PEARL model of employee engagement.

This change is significant because the overall engagement score in our database of millions of survey responses is normally pretty stable, and usually varies by less than a percentage point between years.

In addition, each of the 35 questions in the PEARL question set has shown an increase in scores.

Why did employee engagement increase during Covid-19?

It’s pretty clear that organisations who chose to listen to their people through surveys during Covid really stepped up. In fact, surveying during challenging times is in itself evidence of an involving, transparent, engaging culture.

Crisis demands leaders be visible, directive and empathetic, that employees are supported as individuals, and requires social cohesion, or a sense of ‘we are all in this together.’ Our database during lockdown was full of positive comments about:

• The focus on employee wellbeing – both physical and mental
• The informal, frequent and heartfelt messages from senior leaders
• Leaders’ communication hasn’t been all one way; efforts to listen have been recognised
• The provision of tech, IT, hardware and system access (that happened almost overnight) has meant people could do their jobs

These comments correlate with the biggest increases in scores between the 2 periods:

One of the most interesting findings in the research is that ‘I believe action will be taken as a result of this survey’ is up 11 percentage points.

At People Insight, measuring belief in action is one of our favourite survey questions. It is a brilliant measure of trust in leaders, of a sense of involvement, and positivity about the organisation doing the right thing.

Measuring changes in this question score between surveys is a great way to assess how well the organisation has acted on results, made changes and importantly, communicated them to staff. During a crisis, studying these responses in your survey data gives a great indicator of how hopeful people feel that things will improve.

Questions with the smallest change in score pre and during Covid:

The questions that saw the smallest change in score between the periods include those relating to development and training.  It’s perhaps understandable in a time of crisis and short-term focus, businesses haven’t been able to prioritise career development. Training may have been limited by a lack of in-person opportunities; it perhaps takes longer to switch to online training and may not have been as high priority as day to day operations.

Another question score that bucked the improvement trend is ‘My organisation ensures that all people are treated fairly and equally.’  We suspect this is down to 2 issues; The events surrounding Black Lives Matter, and the higher awareness of fair treatment that may have come with this. In addition, some survey respondents have perceived that departments or teams have been treated more or less favourably during Covid. This may have been down to different kinds of roles and their importance to business continuity, some people on furlough whilst others not and other restructures.

What can leaders do to maintain employee engagement through uncertainty ahead?

Once again we are facing uncertain times ahead. We can’t assume that the goodwill and engagement achieved during the pandemic will be enough. Instead, it’s going to take the same level of empathetic leadership, focused wellbeing support, and commitment from leaders and line managers to support people through this.

1. Leaders keep the visibility, informality and empathy going

The informal ‘CEO-at-home-with-the-kids’ video certainly struck a chord in lockdown. More proof that leading with compassion is a winning strategy for times of crisis. It might not always be the CEO. Regional leaders may have more of a comms role if dealing with local issues, but the style and tone should continue.

2. Line managers are crucial – are we supporting them fully?

Line managers have a tricky role during times of uncertainty, and we saw this during Covid.  They are expected to remain upbeat and motivational, communicate honestly ‘up’ and ‘down’ the organisation, deliver tough news and try to do more with less.

So are we supporting employees at all levels with sufficient guidance, empathy and support from their own managers?

During times of economic uncertainty, where job cuts or redundancies may be necessary, line managers have a huge role in managing ‘survivor syndrome.’ Research from Mark Murphy shows people feel guilty, anxious and angry when they survive redundancy, but their friends & colleagues don’t. They are less likely to endorse the company and its products / services, report they are less productive, think there are more mistakes, and feel more negative about the company’s future.

Mark’s research found managers who were visible, approachable, and open made a significant difference to their peoples’ engagement:

“Managers need to be highly visible to their staff, approachable even when they don’t have anything new to say, and candid about the state of things in order to build their trust and credibility. It is imperative that you train your managers how to both manage (redundancies) and deal with the highly debilitating aftermath. You have to keep the surviving employees engaged and productive, or your company won’t ever recover.”

Mark Murphy, LeadershipIQ

3. LISTEN! Maintain employee surveys during change 

Listening during challenging times is absolutely essential. It might not feel like the right time, but the engagement scores above demonstrate that uncertainty or challenge is exactly when you need to be listening and asking for feedback.

“With advances in listening techniques… leaders can now address employee experience in a more targeted and dynamic way. While drilling down on which employees need more and varied types of support, they can also tailor actions that create widely shared feelings of well-being and cohesion across the workforce.”

McKinsey, How leaders can seize the moment.

At People Insight, we provided free question sets for fast pulse surveys during Covid. These survey questions can be adapted to explore how your people feel during times of crisis or change, either with the help of People Insight or when running your own survey.

Here’s what our clients have to say about why they ran a survey during Covid-19:

“Data from the pulse surveys helped us make smarter decisions during lockdown and target activity. Working with PI provided a high level of customer service and quick turnaround on requests.”

Adnan Bajwa, Head of OD and Engagement, London South Bank University

“We chose to survey during Covid-19 because we’re an essential service provider, we wanted to ensure our colleagues had what they needed to operate smoothly amidst the changing circumstances. We have built up a great relationship with People Insight and they really do understand the whole employee survey journey, and how to maximise the benefits of carrying out a survey.”

Steve Lynas, HR Director, Sunbelt Rentals

“One of our core values is we openly connect and communicate. The survey provided us with the opportunity to gather and understand feedback on subjects that we know are likely to be important to our employees during Covid as well as very important to us as a company and our culture. We are confident in PI end to end and know that our dedicated consultant is on hand for anything we may need.”

Paula Elliott, Senior HRM, Symphony Retail AI

4. Maintain the health and wellbeing support shared during lockdown

The results from surveys during the pandemic show great health & wellbeing focus. Your organisation must keep this going over the longer term and offer targeted support for physical, mental, and financial wellbeing. For example:

• Consider running a wellbeing and burnout risk assessment – either attached to your regular employee survey or as a stand-alone measure. You’ll be able to see which areas of the business and employee groups are doing well, and which aren’t, so you can act accordingly.
• Explore the needs of different groups such as women, carers, parents and younger employees. Their wellbeing needs are likely to differ, so consider how to tailor your wellbeing support. Keep reading for ideas about how to support women’s wellbeing at work.
• While bonuses and pay rises may not be possible right now, there are plenty of ways to support people’s financial wellbeing. For instance, you could offer financial support via platforms like Bippit or Neyber which provide accessible, expert advice. Also consider your existing benefits like employee discount schemes, employee pensions or private healthcare. Do these still reflect the needs of your people? And are people aware of, and making use of them?

5. Plan less, act more

We’re often oh so careful when rolling out new processes, policies and tech. If we’ve learned one thing from lockdown it’s that we can all be more agile. The things that have been released quickly rather than in a more controlled way have had a real success. For example, Nottingham Building Society and the University of Bradford rolled out IT in half the usual time – and it worked brilliantly. Organisations who are rapidly responsive garner the confidence of their employees.

This agile approach applies to employee listening too. Nobody wants to spend months trawling through survey data, locking down action plans, and nudging colleagues for updates. People Insight help organisations run faster, more agile employee surveys, and our survey results dashboards highlight the key areas for action and action plan with the built-in tool. So you can get on with turning employee feedback into real change, at the time it matters.

We’ve illustrated how to adopt this more agile approach to employee feedback in our guide here. 

6. Get back to career development

Covid gave people the opportunity to reassess their lives and what is important to them. We saw the Great Resignation, where people quit jobs in droves in favour of more flexible, more satisfying, or more rewarding roles. Most recently, ‘quiet quitting‘ took us by storm as people became fed up of working long hours for little reward or purpose.

We know from years of employee research that “My career development aspirations are being met” is one of the strongest drivers of employee engagement and talent retention. If these have been deprioritised in recent years, now is time to renew the focus on coaching, training, feedback and progression.

7. Check your culture for diversity and inclusion

As the results above show, peoples’ expectations for diversity and inclusion have shifted in recent years. So, what do people think of your culture? Are you doing a fantastic job like Vinci Construction or Brewin Dolphin? Our diversity and inclusion index helps you:

• Evaluate inclusion: how your people feel about your culture and how they belong using our psychologist-developed Inclusion index.
• Understand sentiment: Dig deeper into your employees’ comments about why they feel the way they do.
• Establish inclusive, sensitive demographic data so all of your employees feel represented.
• Include protected characteristics so you can report employee survey results accurately.
• Explore intersectional data to help you promote equity in underrepresented groups.
• Understand the relationship between intention to stay, engagement, diversity and inclusion so you can act.

Speak to us about how a Diversity & Inclusion survey could help you measure how diverse and inclusive your organisation is, and identify where change might be needed.