Ditch the Annual Survey? Truly Get to Know What Matters to Workers

The average response rate on the often nameless, faceless annual employee survey ranges from 65 to 85%. Given the perceived success rate of organizational improvements from that input, a sizeable percentage of employees may also classify those surveys as “pointless.” But what if there are better, more personal ways to learn what employees actually want and need?

“We continue to use annual surveys to hear from the voice of our people and identify insights to respond and take action. However, annual pulse checks are not enough anymore,” said Sharon Danhart, a managing director and the head of North America total rewards, recognition and performance at Accenture. “They need to be supplemented with a larger listening framework that captures more frequent listening across multiple dimensions, including the ability to probe deeper and ask follow-up questions.”

“Annual pulse checks are not enough anymore.”

— Sharon Danhart, Accenture

Workforce sentiment and experience are fluid constructs, agrees Pete DeBellis, a vice president and human capital insights lead at Deloitte.

“In addition to challenges around frequency and timeliness, employers in some industries may struggle to assemble the tools, technology and time required to engender substantive survey response rates from front-line workers,” DeBellis said. “Other traditional listening approaches include one-on-one conversations and interviews, focus groups or even larger meeting forums with time set aside for feedback or Q&A. They tend to be more labor-intensive to both perform and analyze, but such touchpoints can provide extremely valuable qualitative data.”

Walk a Mile (or More) in Your Employees’ Shoes

At WorldatWork’s Total Rewards’24 conference in Cincinnati, featured speaker Theresita Richard, the chief people and culture officer at outdoor recreation clothing retailer Patagonia, shared details about the company’s “Slice of Life” program, which utilizes in-person “ride-alongs” to better understand what obstacles employees face to get to work each day — and how those obstacles can be alleviated through corporate benefits.

Patagonia is known for its incredibly low employee turnover rate, including a mere 4% in 2019.

Through the “Slice of Life” program, total rewards team members shadowed workers on childcare drop-offs and pickups, dog walks, and more.

“We actually accompanied some of our employees on their way to work and on their way home,” Richard told the audience in Cincinnati. “So, we got to understand the experience. What was the commute like? Were you on a train? Were you driving? Did you live 50 miles out from a [Patagonia] store because that’s what you needed to be able to do to afford the life that you wanted to have? What were the choices that you needed to make?”

Other companies, including Uber and Taco Bell, have utilized “undercover boss” moments to understand what realities their front-line employees face.

Such strategies can help HR departments design total rewards programs that are more effective, relevant and supportive of employees’ needs and wants, Danhart said.

“Walking a mile in our people’s shoes allows us to gain firsthand insights into our people’s experiences, aspirations and challenges to develop empathy and build trust,” she explained. “It also helps us gain a better understanding of what motivates our people, and it helps us design employee-centric programs that hit the mark and ultimately better attract, retain, engage and motivate our people.”

Several Strategies to Consider

Danhart recommends a variety of strategies to improve feedback loops, including:

Social listening (monitoring social media platforms and online forums)
Data analytics (leverage listening tools to analyze employee data and identify patterns or trends)
Focus groups (also a great tool to utilize as new total rewards programs are being designed)
Persona development (creating different demographic profiles to tell the varying stories of your people)
Continuous feedback channels (regular check-ins, suggestion boxes or anonymous feedback platforms can encourage people to share their wants, interests and needs on an ongoing basis)

Another strategy DeBellis finds particularly effective is conjoint analysis, which leverages input from individual employees about trade-offs they would hypothetically make in their rewards packages.

“By aggregating this data across a population or segment, a more nuanced understanding of preference and value can be developed — helping employers make informed decisions about where to invest (or not) their limited resources for the greatest return,” he said.

Don’t shy away from the power of technology to get at the root of people preferences, he added.

“Recent technological advances around virtual, AI-enabled focus group solutions allow the efficient capture of qualitative insights at scale and seem to be changing the listening game,” DeBellis said. “We are entering a ‘golden age’ of people analytics. Teams are leveraging more data from more sources and placing greater emphasis on using data and analytics to design, deploy, communicate and optimize their offerings.”

“Teams are leveraging more data from more sources and placing greater emphasis on using data and analytics to design, deploy, communicate and optimize their offerings.”

— Pete DeBellis, Deloitte

And remember, at the end of the day, rewards are personal.

“By adopting these approaches, we can gain valuable insights into what matters most to our people for themselves and in support of their families,” Danhart said. “The understanding of what our people want as well as their interests and needs is ultimately a personal initiative that involves direct interactions, empathy and active listening.”

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