Outsourced Exit Interviews, Stay Surveys, Leadership Assessments and so much more.
Many employers are focused on collecting data because solid, accurate data can be difficult to come by, particularly for human resource professionals. But the journey from data collection to action is long and complex. Ultimately, the key to a successful data collection program is the impact the data has on the organization. Thus, employers who want data need to be prepared to pass through several phases to see the return on investment of time and dollars. Those phases include data collection, analysis, report creation, report distribution and post-survey action. Understandably, many employers have trouble thinking beyond data collection, but each phase is important for business leaders who want to improve the employee experience. As with any change effort, the data itself will not create change.
Many employers fail to recognize how many positive outcomes start to germinate when a team successfully disseminates the results of an employee survey. The richness of the data is often a meaningful trigger for change, but if it is too “on the nose” it may have the opposite of the intended effect for business leaders. We will often advise clients to read comments three times. The first read may provoke shock or hurt (e.g., who is that person and why would they say that?). The second read may move the reader to frustration (e.g., we have been working on this all year but no one is behind it). The third read typically allows the business leader to accept the comments with a better perspective (e.g., well, that person has a point). How employers share the results of a survey can impact change almost as much as effective post action planning.
Another challenge associated with sharing the results of a survey is time. The survey team needs to consider how to analyze the data, how to filter the data, and how to build reports that are relevant and timely for the business unit leaders who can most impact change. For a human resource professional with multiple priorities, making time to build and send reports is difficult. After sending the report, it is typical that the HR professional would work with business leaders to help them process the data. By the time the business leader has received the data, read the report, understood the results, and processed ideas for change, the memory of the survey may have lost its impact for the general workforce. Associates and team members may even feel as if they made themselves vulnerable by offering input that the employer either didn’t read or read but did not see sufficient reason to act or respond. Data collection creates the foundation of an ongoing dialogue between employer and employee. The employer is telling employees that employees have opinions that the employer wants to hear. If the employer does not share results, it is akin to a friend bearing their soul only to have their friend walk away without listening or responding. If data collection has the greatest impact on listening strategy, report distribution has the greatest impact on messaging strategy. Aside from the post-survey actions themselves, how the data is distributed will determine the readiness of the organization to absorb change. Thus, it is important that employers consider the best way to analyze the data, create reports and distribute findings in an efficient and effective manner.
strong>Keys to success include:
Below is an example of an effective report that is automatically sent to leaders. Note that it is very short increasing the chance that the business leader will make time to read it. It is also clean and easy to read. The recipient can also interact with the data in a very manageable way using a custom cut of their business unit’s data.
We often think of communication in terms of the message and even the medium but we often do not define communication in terms of the listening and responding that is necessary to make it successful. Employers who can master the dissemination of survey results in a healthy manner will create a more positive employee experience. Thus, when approaching data collection, take time to consider how the results will be shared.
Human resource professionals are often the catalyst for improving employee engagement in organizations. One of the challenges for HR professionals is the constant need for them to roll up their sleeves and focus on day-to-day operations. As it relates to employee feedback, HR professionals are often trying to collect data, build surveys, create reports…all of the things that take time away from the high impact work of changing outcomes. There are a number of administrative hurdles that need to be overcome before the functional teams can see a payoff. Data collection can be time-consuming, particularly for respondents without access to email. If data collection can be overcome, the team next has to figure out how to analyze the data that has been collected. Often, factors are overlooked in the survey design phase even with the best of templates, which challenges the analysis phase and limit reliability and validity. Report development is the next obstacle to overcome. All leaders need data how they want it, when they want it. Once these leaders buy into the report types, the HR team then needs to focus on getting the data to the businesses so that they can collectively impact change in the organization. It takes a lot of time and investment to get to this point, which could be why HR leaders have so little time to be strategic. Software tools can help HR professionals move from administration to consultation by offloading the administrative work and get data in the hands of the business leaders. Once leaders have an opportunity to review the data, it creates a fertile ground for HR leaders to impact change. We call this being addicted to the data. One of the obstacles to success with data is that it exists but it is underutilized. The best way to overcome that issue and ensure leaders are paying attention to the data is to offer high impact dashboards, automate the notifications and provide business leaders with engaging visualizations on a regular basis. The data needs to be relevant to the business leaders and presented in a similar way as the rest of the data they receive. Functional leaders receive data in dashboard format, so HR professionals need a system that can automate data distribution, which saves time and sets the team up for success. Best practices for data distribution include flexibility (giving leaders the chance to provide input to how and when they receive the data), prioritization (aligning data to success indicators in the organization) and assimilation (how does this report fit into the total amount of critical data I receive in a day?). For example, monthly push reports with 3-4 key visualizations embedded in an email or attached as a PDF can be a valuable way to engage leaders in the data. The email may include access to an interactive dashboard with which the business leader can engage if they need additional information. This process gets the business leader “hooked” or addicted to the data. The leader is now ready to understand more about what is happening in their organization and how to fix it. HR professionals can use software tools to get their business leaders “addicted to the data,” which is a precursor to action. This strategic distribution of high impact, simple data presented in a simple way is how HR professionals can get their business leaders addicted to the data which will lead to a change in outcomes. Through this process, the HR team becomes a strategic partner–vital to strategy and a trusted business advisor to business leaders in the organization. Click here to learn more about the HSD Metrics Interactive Dashboard
Now that people are staying at organizations longer, it’s important to keep a pulse on their engagement. You don’t need to launch a massive project, but instead can identify your primary goal and start learning. Here are some listening strategies to consider: Candidate/Hiring Manager surveys go to the origin of your search for talent and help you understand the recruiting process better. It is critical to ensure candidates are being brought in and educated about the organization and the role they will perform. The better your recruiting efforts are, the more you can influence satisfaction and longevity of your newly hired employees. New Hire/Onboarding/90-day surveys help you understand how well the new employee is being integrated into your organization, your culture, the technical aspect of the job, tools, and resources, etc. Many of our clients avoid high turnover by instituting steps in their onboarding process to contribute to engagement early on their new employee journey. Training-Specific surveys ensure that new employees are being equipped with the right knowledge and tools to perform their jobs. This is a clear milestone for disengagement if the training does not set them up for success. Six-Month Check-in surveys take another pulse at employees’ experience. By then, the employee has had a chance to take your organization in as a whole and can provide you with more educated feedback on their experience, as well as their engagement level. It is important to understand the new employee journey closely up to one year after joining. Pulse surveys are launched at any time when you want all employees (or a target group or team) to answer a specific question. These can have recurrent surveys to measure the topic over a year, for example, with surveys every month or quarterly; or they can be a one-off survey to take a ‘pulse’ at a given time. 360° surveys provide valuable feedback to the employee being evaluated. This type of survey is particularly used to evaluate supervisors, employees you are thinking of promoting, employees on a development plan, or in general employees in leadership positions. Engagement/Stay surveys are the foundational pieces of HR People Strategy. When done with a thorough and holistic approach, you are able to measure engagement from all sides of the employee’s life at your organization. Finally, let’s not forget Exit surveys, as they provide valuable information often given candidly by the exiting employee. This feedback could be seen as an opportunity currently latent in your organization, but not being expressed by active employees for reasons unknown to you. These dormant feelings end up causing organizations high turnover, and much can be learned and done with this data. Is it time to tap into the insights of your employee feedback data? We’d like to help. If you’re a current client, contact your CSM. If you are not yet a client, email us at info@hsdmetrics.com/.
Covington, KY– February 2, 2023 HSD Metrics and TiER1 Impact have joined forces to provide a comprehensive suite of data and consulting services to clients looking to improve employee experience, recruitment, engagement, and retention. TiER1 Impact, parent company of TiER1 Performance and XPLANE, has invested a 40% share in HSD Metrics. HSD Metrics is celebrating 30 years in business this year. They started as an innovator for outsourcing the employee exit interview process. They have evolved to offer a comprehensive suite of interactive human resource metrics and analytics including new employee onboarding tools, 360-degree feedback, and employee engagement data; as well as insights from their benchmarking database. The organization has grown to approximately 40 people. “We are the world leader in outsourcing the exit interview process,” shares Dan Cahill, CEO of HSD Metrics. “As we evolve into our next phase of growth, it is important we have a world-class partner to help clients with the data we collect. TiER1’s client-centric approach is the perfect complement to our high touch service model.” TiER1 Impact aims to build on healthy, people-centric practices, helping firms preserve the high-trust cultures that make them attractive while also providing tools, practices, coaching, and resources to further grow and scale. “HSD Metrics has a long history of client partnerships and trust while providing valuable employee data to organizations,” said Greg Harmeyer, CEO of TiER1 Impact. “We believe a combined data and consulting service partnership will positively impact the ability of their clients to improve their employee experience and retention while accelerating the innovation and strategic vision that the HSD team is poised for this year.” Employee engagement and retention outlooks continue to be a top concern of leaders within large organizations. “In the past, HSD Metrics has been integral in providing the data that helped organizations identify opportunity areas. This partnership allows us to support clients with the interventions needed to improve their metrics in the future,” shares Cahill. About HSD Metrics: HSD Metrics provides an employee survey management software platform that transforms Human Resources teams into strategic partners that continuously impact business goals without increasing their administrative burden. Their expertise spans over 30 years and more than 4 million respondents with 300+ organizations across the globe. Learn more at hsdmetrics.com/. About TiER1 Impact: TiER1 Impact PBC, Inc. is an employee-owned, professional services development company that aims to invest in, develop, and grow purpose-driven, people-centric professional services firms that have a long-term outlook and an interest in helping clients build healthy, high-performing organizations. With more than 300 employees, TiER1 Impact’s portfolio of companies also includes TiER1 Performance and XPLANE. Learn more at tier1impact.com.
Candid data from exit interviews enables organizations to identify why employees are leaving and how to stop it.
Human resources professionals and their senior teams are keenly aware that turnover comes at a high cost. Employee turnover also has a rolling effect throughout any company. In healthcare especially, losing employees has the effect of greater works burdens, less favorable scheduling and low morale. HR departments are left with the task of managing and improving turnover. As in most projects, the first step in solving the problem is understanding it. Many employers will either create a short survey that they try to get in front of exiting employees. Others will schedule exit interviews. The problem with these solutions is that they are time-consuming and the data is difficult to capture. In addition, the participation rates are low, the responses are not secure and the respondents often do not want to tell all to someone from the company they are leaving. As importantly, these processes may not flag important issues like harassment and intimidation. Your employees–including the exiting employees–are your best source of data about your company. In the last 20 years, we’ve worked with over 80 healthcare organizations to improve their employee retention and work environments by capturing key, actionable data. We also have over 25 years of normative (also known as a benchmark) data that has been collected through ExitRight® our flagship product. Based on the data we’ve collected regarding 12 controllable turnover causes, the top 5 most important reasons for employee turnover in the healthcare space are:
Reacting to clients’ needs for accurate, rapid, cost-effective solutions, HSD Metrics continuously innovates its reporting features and technology.
