Writing for the Forbes Human Resources Council, our Chief People Officer Greg McCaw explains how applying curiosity to data from engagement surveys can empower you to make informed decisions and drive positive change.
Engagement surveys: a timeless tradition of HR teams everywhere. It’s another way to show how much you care, right? You might even throw in a quarterly pulse survey if you feel extra progressive. But let’s face it: These tools aren’t as effective as they might be, because you and your executive team are just not curious enough.
With the right questions and a curious mindset, though, data can be a powerful tool, empowering us to make informed decisions and drive positive change.
Why You’re Not Focusing On The Right Things
We live in an age overflowing with information and are absolutely fixated on data. It’s the be-all and end-all, whether regarding technology, customer experiences or employee experiences. Even though we’ve become quite skilled at gathering data, in my experience there’s still a massive skills gap in HR when it comes to being truly curious about data—and by that I mean integrating it to achieve positive outcomes.
Without a curious mindset, data stagnates and remains underutilized. This lack of curiosity leads to excessive time spent discussing symptoms, rather than finding solutions. The consequence? Issues persist, and opportunities for improvement are missed.
Consider feedback, for example. The issue may be that feedback is infrequent, and managers are only given a single score that’s meant to somehow improve everything. But that’s just part of the job, right?
Let’s delve into the real issues (apart from our unrealistic expectations of managers). How well were they supported when they took on their new role? How many direct reports do they have? Are they overwhelmed with responsibilities? Do they avoid conflict or upsetting the team?
We need to question if we’re truly helping managers reach their full potential. A one-time training session won’t fix everything. I firmly believe that HR needs to move away from one-off initiatives and stagnant action plans and instead be more inquisitive and proactive.
4 Ways To Become More Curious With Data
1. Start asking open-ended questions.
Go beyond asking whether a number is good or bad. Instead, ask questions like “What does this data really tell us about behavior or trends?” and “Why might we be seeing this change now?”
This approach can help uncover root causes and unexpected insights. For instance, if a sales team experiences a decrease in conversions, asking “What factors influenced this drop?” may reveal seasonal impacts, competitor actions or internal inefficiencies.
Similarly, if engagement scores decrease, don’t just assume that engagement is low. Instead, ask, “What does this shift tell us about the behaviors and trends within our culture?” or “Why might we be seeing this change now?” These questions encourage a broader look at the underlying reasons behind the data, which could range from operational inefficiencies to unaddressed workload pressures or unclear communication.
Likewise, if a sales team observes a decline in conversions, the focus shouldn’t just be on the loss itself. Instead, ask, “What factors influenced this decline?” It could be a seasonal trend, or there might be internal inefficiencies slowing down the process. Similarly, for engagement surveys, you should ask, “How does our culture reward or discourage curiosity and innovation?” or “What behaviors are being incentivized?”
2. Disaggregate the data.
One of the most significant issues I’ve noticed in my career with engagement surveys is the “majority effect.” This occurs when we lose our curiosity because the majority of people are content. If 90% of people are happy in our company, we pat ourselves on the back, believe we’re doing a great job and don’t do anymore.
This overlooks the fact that our workplaces are a microcosm of society and are composed of various experiences that encompass all aspects of diversity, length of service and role. Humans are not a monolith; we don’t all share the same experience, and our approach to engagement surveys has to reflect that.
Take a question on inclusion, for instance. If you aren’t disaggregating data, the reality is you’re letting minority voices get lost in your data, which means you can never truly be sure you’re creating an experience that works for everyone
3. Focus on key moments and trends.
Engagement surveys conducted once a year can be a hindrance to fostering curiosity and gaining valuable insights.
Instead of trying to tackle 10 different engagement factors, it might be more beneficial to focus on specific key moments. These moments could include an employee’s first day on the job, a promotion, returning from parental leave or a post-performance review. By concentrating on these moments, you can prioritize the overall employee experience. The goal is not to achieve the highest engagement score but to create meaningful experiences you can be proud of.
Rather than following the traditional employee life cycle, start identifying and measuring the moments that truly matter to you.
4. Connect different data points.
Data becomes powerful when you start thinking about connecting it to other data points. Just looking at engagement data by itself isn’t enough anymore. You’ve got to bring in customer experience data, sales data and other key employee data points to get a bigger picture of how the experiences you create are affecting everything else.
If you’re only looking at engagement data on its own, that shows a lack of curiosity about using data to drive overall business performance. It might have been tough to do this 10 years ago, but today we have so much technology at our fingertips to bring all this data together. And even if you don’t have fancy tech, you can still ask open-ended questions to get some valuable insights.
Final Thoughts
In summary, if you’re chasing the highest engagement score, you’re chasing the wrong thing.
We measure employee engagement to understand the culture and deliberately design better experiences for colleagues. So let the score take a backseat, let your curiosity into the driver’s seat and ask yourself: The last time you ran an engagement survey, did you really interrogate the data?
This article was originally published by Forbes Human Resources Council and is available to read on the Forbes Human Resources Council page.
In 2024 Greg was accepted into the Forbes Human Resources Council, an invitation-only community for HR executives across all industries. Find out more here.
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