People Analytics is exploding on the data analytics scene like - WHOA! From Historical Data to real time data to predictive data, companies are trying everything to harness the power of digital intelligence. Employees Survey’s is one type of data capture that may just help employers keep a happy ship. In this article we discuss employee surveys and how they are used.

I saw an ad,, ha, ad - who am I kidding, it was a VIDEO! I saw a video from Gary V talking about the importance of letting unhappy employees go. As a boss, it is your duty to not allow someone’s sub-par attitude about work infect your culture. Releasing that employee to find their better calling was good for them. Another leader echoed this sentiment in her book, “Radical Candor”. In this book, Kim Scott, recalls a time when an employee’s work was causing everyone else to pull overtime to help get work done. She goes on to state that, they did this because she condoned the behavior. She told the sub-par employee “it was ok” and that the team would pull his weight. When she finally did fire him, he asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?” It is the duty of the boss to terminate poor performing employees so they do not lower morale, do not create more work for everyone and do not develop a culture of sub-par, poor quality work. So how do we identify these poor performers before they infect the whole ship? Surveys.

Employee Engagement Survey’s are real time data opportunities for companies to identify problems or (opportunities for improvement) as they are happening. It’s immediate. Verizon Media uses real time data surveys called “Employee Engagement Surveys” with it’s 12,000+ employees. We interviewed Kelsey Wise on the TechRecruit podcast recently and she described how Verizon Media is using tools like Glint, Visier and Survey Monkey to conduct these surveys. A dose of i/o, a pinch of survey, a dollop of dash boarding and whole lot of GDPR and you have a recipe for Drivers and Actions. “Drivers” are what Verizon has identified as catalysts for engagement and satisfaction; ie: new projects, great boss, training to gain new skills, etc. “Actions” are what Verizon Media does with that engagement or satisfaction score. Verizon wants it’s employees to be happy, so they set the bar high and ask questions like, “Do you LOVE your job?” What they analyze in the results are drivers that improve engagement. Anomalies (vs. trending), in this sort of analysis, ensure the surveys are asking the right questions. Its only there that you can make improvements.

In this article, we discussed Employee Engagement Surveys. TechRecruit conference speaker & podcast guest Kelsey Wise, M.S. is the Sr. People Data Researcher at Verizon Media.

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