Studies have concluded that a negative, causal relationship exists between employee satisfaction and employee turnover, and conventional wisdom insists it is true—improving employee satisfaction appears to be instrumental in decreasing employee turnover.
But, how do you determine what employees want in order to be satisfied? The same way you find out about what customers want. You ask—through an employee survey.
An employee survey is not a one-shot event eliciting general feedback. It is not a report that sits on managers’ shelves making them feel good that at least they asked. Employees will stop taking surveys if they know nothing will come of their feedback. They will know it is an exercise in futility. Sure, a report might be generated, but if the survey didn’t spur any action plans or an interactive, ongoing dialogue between managers and employees, the agents will be rightfully frustrated.
If conducted correctly, surveys can have tremendous impact on turnover. One financial services company began the survey process with an annual turnover of 55 percent. Instead of the “usual” survey, this company decided to implement a new “business focused” survey that would allow them to develop specific action plans to address key business issues. The key questions involved issues over which a manager had some control. Managers designed the questions to reflect drivers of agent satisfaction, engagement, and retention (e.g., “How likely are you to leave the company?”. Once the agents answered the survey, managers determined which items in the survey most highly correlated with turnover and focused on these first. The company engaged the agents to help design the solutions – ensuring the “voice of the employee” could be heard in the solution. The following year, the turnover rate dropped to 22 percent and then to 14 percent after a second survey.
One caveat for those of you looking for fast wins—it may take longer than the annual survey cycle to see the effect of some process changes. For example, if a new hire training process needs to be implemented or frontline supervisor training requires update and deployment, the actions may take longer than a year to complete.
If improvements cannot be made overnight, managers should communicate with both the agents and upper management to let them know the center is moving forward. A subsequent survey score could lag behind, causing management and employees to question the effectiveness of the action plans. Rely on your expertise to defend your plans and respond with patience and tenacity to drive the change forward.
