Employee Surveys Gather Information for Strategic HR Planning and Action

The most successful companies in any industry know that there is a strong connection between the "soft" aspects of business and the success of their company. Business leaders often say people are their organization's most important asset. Some leaders just say it while others both say it and act on it.

Human Resources' value to their executive team and their company lies in HR's credibility and ability to go beyond performing the day-to-day HR functions necessary to keep the business going and keeping the lights on.

In today's competitive environment, the degree to which HR is valued is directly related to its ability to add value to the bottom-line. What are the most important and powerful steps you can take now as an HR executive that will focus your energy and resources to the ultimate success of your organization?

The goal in taking on this role is to proactively address ten strategic, often-overlooked or under-emphasized issues

1 - Corporate culture and values

2 - Leadership approaches and effectiveness

3 - Organizational effectiveness

4 - Internal communications and collaboration

5 - Employee engagement

6 - Aligning compensation/benefits to ensure performance excellence

7 - Employee development & performance measurement

8 - Key talent acquisition and retention

9 -Nurturing innovation and entrepreneurship

10 - Making mergers and acquisitions work and achieving expected returns

Successful HR leaders consistently link HR's work and related measures of success directly back to the core business issues that concern executives and boards, the financial and sustainable success of the company.

How employee surveys / employee satisfaction surveys / employee engagement surveys facilitate proactive HR leadership

Successful HR leaders succeed by employing a proactive approach. They create a vision for where their organization needs to be regarding the "soft issues" that drive employee and company performance. They measure the gaps in where their organization's "soft issues" are now compared with their vision of where they need to be. They conduct employee surveys to identify where they are now and to determine what needs to be done to close the "soft issue" people process gaps and to measure ongoing progress in closing the gaps.

Types of employee surveys that HR leaders use to measure and close "soft issue" gaps

• Employee satisfaction survey / employee engagement survey / employee opinion survey

• 360 leadership survey / leadership assessment survey

• Employee benefits survey / employee benefits opinion survey / employee benefits satisfaction survey

• Employee retention survey / employee turnover survey / exit interview survey

• Merger & acquisition survey / M&A survey (before, during and after M&A integration)

The HR leader's strategic "soft issues" roles include

1 - Creating a vision for where the company needs to be regarding its critical "soft people issues"

2 - Determining cultural gaps between where the organization is now and where it needs to be

3 - Establishing an action plan for executing the changes needed to reach the company's "soft people issues" vision

4 - Partnering with senior company leaders to assist them in engaging their people in the vision and plan for the company

5 - Aligning and reconciling people processes and inequities across the organization

6 - Guiding senior leaders in conducting and acting on talent assessments, compensation and benefits initiatives, strengthening the corporate culture and other needed actions

7 - Creating an ongoing process that keeps the company's "soft issues" that drive employee and company performance and success on the senior team's radar screen

8 - Conducting ongoing employee surveys to measure ongoing progress and to adjust the "soft issues" vision to meet changing competitive business needs