Learn what makes a great employee engagement survey

1. Why you need an employee
engagement survey

2. To ensure your talent strategy
supports your business strategy

3. But first, a bit about me:
Maria Jimena Cespedes
People and Data Geek
(a.k.a. Industrial-Organizational Psychologist working
in Talent Management in the High Tech industry)
In this deck, I share some of my lessons learned from
running an employee survey and leveraging insights to
guide talent strategy… Read through and you’ll find a
cheat sheet at the end.

4. Old management adage:
You can’t manage
what you can’t measure

5. Old management adage:
You can’t manage
what you can’t measure
However…

6. Finding the signal
There’s so much noise in the employee survey industry that
companies don’t know where to begin or finish

7. Finding the signal
There’s so much noise in the employee survey industry that
companies don’t know where to begin or finish

8. Finding the signal
There’s so much noise in the employee survey industry that
companies don’t know where to begin or finish
STOP!

9. You need simple answers

10. You need simple answers
The problem:
• There are hundreds of different options
• Everyone wants to add questions
• Too much data causes analysis paralysis

11. You need to find the needle in the haystack…
but where do you start?

12. Let’s look at the landscape…

13. Companies are
competing for a
limited pool of
knowledge workers
more fiercely than
ever

14. Companies are
competing for a
limited pool of
knowledge workers
more fiercely than
ever
Retention incentives
(evoke need) are
short lasting and
lead to mediocre
performance

15. Companies are
competing for a
limited pool of
knowledge workers
more fiercely than
ever
Retention incentives
(evoke need) are
short lasting and
lead to mediocre
performance
People perform
their best when they
love their jobs and
feel connected to
their colleagues and
company (inspire)

16. The edge is in building a company people
identify with and believe in

17. How do you make people love
your company

18. Purpose that inspires

19. Purpose that inspires
Walking the walk

20. Purpose that inspires
Walking the walk
Transforming careers

21. Your employee survey could be your
best ally in attaining this

22. Your employee survey could be your
best ally in attaining this
Here is why and how you do it:

23. Have you asked yourself:
Why should people work here?
Do leaders communicate a vision that inspires?

24. Have you asked yourself:
Why should people work here?
Do leaders communicate a vision that inspires?
Feeling inspired is correlated with
retention and engagement

25. So ask in your survey…

26. Do you feel inspired by leaders?

27. is also correlated with engagement:
WALK THE WALK

28. is also correlated with engagement:
WALK THE WALK
So, ask them…

29. Do we conduct business with integrity?

30. If you promise career opportunities at hiring, follow
through and invest in people

31. If you promise career opportunities at hiring, follow
through and invest in people
Ask if managers…

32. listen to employees’ goals and challenges often
tolerate mistakes and failures to promote innovation and learning
empower teams with opportunities

33. listen to employees’ goals and challenges often
tolerate mistakes and failures to promote innovation and learning
empower teams with opportunities

34. Back to the signal
There are many questions you could ask when
designing an employee engagement survey, and
benchmarking against your peers is important, but…

35. Back to the signal
There are many questions you could ask when
designing an employee engagement survey, and
benchmarking against your peers is important, but…
what works for some, does not work for all!

36. PERSONALIZE YOUR SURVEY

37. PERSONALIZE YOUR SURVEY
Include questions about…

38. your company’s culture and values –
do people feel connected?
your business strategy – what keeps
your execs awake at night?
what matters to your people –
are you delivering on the employee value
proposition?

39. Leverage

40. Leverage
Once you have identified the key things that matter
to your people and are measuring it –
draw the connection points to all talent practices

41. Collaborate with coworkers
in other disciplines

42. And empower executives and managers – be
transparent and share the insights

43. And empower executives and managers – be
transparent and share the insights
And do it
FAST!
Or your data will lose relevance

44. A culture driven with Purpose, Integrity and
Opportunity will attract, engage, grow, and
retain the best talent for your company

45. A culture driven with Purpose, Integrity and
Opportunity will attract, engage, grow, and
retain the best talent for your company
But growth and scale can be a threat

46. Leverage your employee engagement survey
to support your business strategy
and strengthen your culture
as you scale

47. (Cheat sheet next)
Please send questions or comments to
mjimenacespedes@gmail.com
Maria Jimena Cespedes
People and Data Geek

48. (Oversimplified)
Cheat Sheet
1. Make sure you ask about: purpose (inspiring
leadership), integrity (walking the walk) and opportunity
(advancing careers)
2. Design your survey to align with your culture, business
strategy, and employee value proposition (EVP) – this
may change over time
3. Make connection points to all talent practices, share the
insights with colleagues and managers, and do it fast
4. Keep your survey under 50 questions, if possible
5. Not in this deck, but make sure to also dig deep in the
data to answer strategic business questions (you may
need different feedback tools and/or analyses for this)