A few times each week, I receive a customer satisfaction survey from a company I deal with. It can be from my car dealership about my oil change, from my dentist about my kid’s last visit, or from the phone company after I called to question a charge on my bill.
I rarely respond to the surveys. In part, it’s because I prefer to spend my time doing other things that are more important to me. But more importantly, it’s because I never hear about the results of these surveys. Neither my dealership, nor my dentist, nor my phone company sends me a report showing how satisfied their customers truly are and how they intend to change based on the feedback I and others have provided. In other words, I get very little, if anything, out of the process.
This is why I find it critical for leaders to share the findings of any employee survey conducted at work. Not just the big annual or biennial employee survey but any survey, including the one we send after a short training session. It shows respect for those who took the time to answer it. It demonstrates leadership’s willingness to be transparent and vulnerable. It evidences the effort that leadership put into reviewing the answers and coming up with action plans. And it creates accountability for the execution of said plans.
It’s a great way of saying “Thank you for caring.”
The Ethical Leader 