In this article you will find out…
- What ongoing HR measurements look like on the market
- What is in demand right now
- How others do
- What is the biggest reason for changing from annual employee survey to ongoing measurement
- Who should initiate the change
- What you gain by answering the survey in an app or via a chat versus a traditional web survey
Quicksearch has been conducting relationship surveys for over 20 years and are experts in statistics, survey methodology and analysis.
When I meet HR managers among both existing and potential clients, I increasingly get questions about the advantages and disadvantages of annual and ongoing HR measurements.
The questions are usually:
- What does the market look like?
- What is most in demand right now?
- How do others do?
There is a curiosity in the market, partly about how others work with HR measurements in general and partly about how one could work.
We see that the trend indicates that more and more people are starting to use smart apps to send out and answer questions about, for example, effective teams, which is of course easy and flexible for HR. But we have also noticed that it becomes difficult to present a result that managers and management can actually work with afterwards. We also see that it is difficult to give suggestions for improvements in the apps. The trend is towards more and more choosing to switch to shorter and more frequent measurements such as heart rate measurements and other ongoing HR measurements.
Which method is used varies from company to company. I usually recommend making a year wheel to map the different HR processes that exist in the company. An annual wheel provides an overview of when the various HR processes take place during the year, and in this way it is easier to identify any needs and time perspective for the measurements.
Before a company changes the routines around its/its HR measurements, it may be good to have thought through the following:
- What is the biggest reason for the change from an annual employee survey to an ongoing measurement?
- Who is taking the initiative for the change, e.g. HR, managers or management?
- What do you gain by answering the survey in an app or via a chat versus a traditional web survey?
Most often, you want to follow up on a more ongoing basis how the group/team is doing, partly at question level but also as a measurement figure, e.g. eNPS® (Net Promoter Score®).
I believe that one does not have to exclude the other, but the need must guide the demand. Often a combination of different methods is the best solution. In the larger measurement, which is carried out less frequently, for example every two years, major questions are often followed up such as that the workplace is free from discrimination, that the employees feel safe in their workplace and/or that they know and live by the company's values. If you also want to capture what happens in everyday life out in the teams, a pulse measurement or app can work as a good supplement.
Companies can also benefit greatly from following up ongoing HR processes during the year such as Recruitment, Introduction or Exit. An exit conversation often takes place through an interview with the employee who is leaving the company or alternatively via a survey. Unfortunately, there are an alarming number of companies that do not take advantage of the views from the exit interviews or the surveys. The biggest reasons for not acting on the feedback are lack of time or lack of routines for handling it. It increases the risk that more employees quit for the same reason, which could possibly have been prevented if the feedback had been acted upon earlier. Likewise, it can be costly for the company if new employees quit due to flaws in the introduction that are not revealed and then cannot be remedied.
To succeed with ongoing HR process measurements, an automated flow is needed where the results go directly to the responsible manager. The manager, in turn, must in a simple way feed back to the people concerned and act on the results here and now. That's exactly what Quicksearch can help you with.
Regardless of which measurement you make via Quicksearch, our measurements have a common denominator – the recommendation question, NPS® (Net Promoter Score®). A metric that can be followed over time and used as a KPI (Key performance index)/metric. NPS® makes the customer or employee experience measurable, provides a key figure to work towards and it's easy to compare yourself to other companies around the world.
On the customer side, there is a well-established way to measure and follow up customer loyalty. This is often done through a combined arrangement of an annual customer survey (relationship measurement) that gives an overview of how the customer experiences the company as a whole and ongoing transaction measurements that measure individual purchase occasions in everything from product/service to service and purchase experience. Just as you measure customer experience, insights around the employee life cycle require a more continuous flow of information and insight that helps the company act to become better and strengthen employee engagement and loyalty. Therefore, we recommend a combination of the more comprehensive employee survey (the annual/biannual measurement) which is followed up by more ongoing HR processes, such as e.g. exit, in order to optimize their recurring processes in the employee life cycle.
Bottom line - don't measure just for the sake of measuring. Measure because there is a need, a desire to develop and constantly improve so that you can continue with your core business.
Semcon is one of our customers that has automated the process to continuously ask current questions in business-critical areas to its employees.
Do you want to discuss which is the best HR measurement solution for you? Warmly welcome to Contact Us for a meeting.
