As an HR professional, you are always looking for ways to improve the work environment. You want to create an organization that is not only productive and efficient, but also a stimulating and enjoyable place for everyone.
This is where organizational diagnostics come into play. By in-depth analysis of HR metrics and the organizational network, you can gain valuable insight into patterns that may be hindering your team's performance.
But - what will the employees think about such analysis?
Read:
- What will be the employees' attitude towards the analysis?
- How to ensure high participation in the analysis?
- How to ensure that employees answer honestly?
What will be the employees' attitude towards the analysis?
This is a valid concern, and many of our clients have had similar concerns before working with us.
As Andrea Pulević, Head of HR at Gamanza Services, said, they were most concerned about how the employees would perceive the questionnaire and whether they would trust it.
The thought of employees feeling uncomfortable or uncertain about responding is a concern for any organization. If employees are not fully informed about the purpose and benefits of analytics, they may perceive it as intrusive or irrelevant, leading to incomplete data and inaccurate results.
What's more, if employees feel that their privacy or confidentiality is at risk, they may lose trust in the organization itself, leading to a decrease in engagement and a worse atmosphere.
On the other hand, employees will be more engaged and motivated to participate if they feel that their contribution is valued and that the analysis is important to their work -- an opportunity for positive change.
Andrea Pulević therefore recognizes the great benefit of Quantifly in the fact that all employees have the opportunity to express their opinion -- that they are heard. Nina Pirc, Customer & Partner Enablement Specialist at Better Meds (Better), sees the benefits of Quantifly both on an individual and team level, as it allows her to more easily identify opportunities for development.
For a truly positive attitude of employees towards organizational diagnostics, it should not only be about identifying opportunities for development, but based on the findings, the management should also encourage, enable and implement actual changes.
As Andrea Pulević said, they also noticed this: "Employees perceived Quantifly positively. They were happy because we were finally addressing the problems we had."
However, it is not enough for employees to see the sense in organizational diagnostics. We have to convince them that they actually participate in the analysis.
How to ensure high participation in the analysis?
We must be aware that the success of the analysis depends on the cooperation of the employees. Without sufficient participation, the reliability of the results is reduced, which may not accurately reflect the true state of the organization.
Unfortunately, employee participation can be hindered by several factors, such as lack of time, lack of motivation, or a complex, user-unfriendly questionnaire.
The last thing an organization wants, however, is to spend time and resources on an analysis that doesn't live up to its potential.
Rebeka Tramšek, Head of HR at Elpro Križnič, also expressed concern about whether employees will fill out the questionnaire or not.
The team therefore paid a lot of attention to communication with employees. As Roko Malkoč, Business Unit Director at Better Meds (Better), said, a similar approach was chosen in their team as well. Before starting, they held several internal discussions to ensure the cooperation of the employees, which he believes was a very successful approach.
We believe that communication with employees and making sense of the analysis before starting is essential. A mandatory step in the process is therefore our 20-minute presentation of the purpose and process of the analysis for all employees, during which employees have the opportunity (anonymously) to ask additional questions and share their concerns.
In addition, the questionnaire is designed in such a way that, despite the comprehensiveness of the data collection, it is still simple and easy to answer.
"I liked the questionnaire. It was really nicely structured. He encouraged us to think in a different way – about different perspectives of our team and different situations.”
Alja Polner, Implementation Consultancy Lead, Better Meds
The thoughtful design of the questionnaire also allows for relatively quick completion. As Janez Zadravec, CEO of Deutz Engineering, confirms, everyone was able to find time to fill out these questionnaires, and the work process did not suffer.
With such an approach, we consistently achieve good results in data acquisition. However, the large amount of data obtained does not guarantee its quality. The success of the analysis also depends on accurate and truthful answers.
How to ensure that employees answer honestly?
The fear that employees would not be honest during the analysis is a valid concern.
If employees do not feel (psychologically) safe to answer, the results may not reflect the true situation in the organization and ineffective solutions will be proposed. This misses opportunities for improvement and keeps the organization stuck in the same patterns of inefficiency.
For the management of Brihteja, this was a key question: "The biggest concern was how the employees would react to the questionnaires. We were mainly concerned about the aspect of anonymity." As a company that works in the field of IT, they are aware of how it is possible or as anonymity cannot be guaranteed.
To address this concern, at Quantifly we incorporate several measures into the process to ensure anonymity of responses and data protection. These can be classified into three levels: technical, procedural and legal protection.
However, part of the results – the employee's self-assessment -- is not completely anonymous in the final report. In this part, we need information about the (self) assessor for the preparation of individual reports and the analysis of the organizational network. In the case of individual reports, it is only in this way that self-assessments of competences can be connected with the assessments of colleagues. Additionally, in the sociometric analysis we must find out who in practice works with whom, which choices are mutual and how the employee's perceptions differ compared to the perceptions of their colleagues.
Despite this, anonymity in the very process of analyzing the data and preparing the report is also preserved in the case of data collected through self-assessment. Pseudonyms are used in the preparation of the report, and only in the last step, when the report is completed, does the responsible person change these pseudonyms to their real names.
Direct communication with employees is one of the approaches to ensuring honest answers. The process of data collection and protection and anonymization is therefore clearly presented at the introductory presentation for employees.
This was also the case when working with Brihteja: "Experts from Quantifly explained to us everything about anonymity - how it is ensured and how the data is protected during the analysis. So then there were no more worries. We received no feedback from employees that they were in doubt or that they did not want to participate in the analysis.”
As Janez Zadravec said, the guaranteed anonymity of the participants was the decisive reason why Deutz Engineering decided on Quantifly.
Here, too, it is a good practice for management to be involved in communication with employees, which Janez Zadravec is well aware of: "We had an introductory conversation with all employees. I specifically emphasized and asked them to be honest. I think that is the foundation of the analysis.”
In communication with employees, it is also important to emphasize that the purpose of the analysis is to identify patterns and areas that need to be improved in the organization, not to find the culprits and consequently punish or even fire them.
If these concerns are addressed, management finds that employees prefer and respond more honestly to outsourced questionnaires due to the greater sense of anonymity, which is one of Quantifly's advantages over in-house surveys.
Only by understanding the real situation in the organization and participating in the introduction of positive changes can we create a more efficient and pleasant working environment.
Conclusion
Concerns about how employees will receive organizational diagnostics, whether they will participate in the analysis and whether they will answer honestly are therefore completely justified.
The success of the analysis depends on the cooperation of employees and accurate and truthful answers.
However, as our customers confirm, we can successfully resolve these concerns through transparent communication with employees, a user-friendly process, and ensuring anonymity and data protection.
What's more - by implementing changes based on findings, employees will be even more motivated to cooperate in the future, as they will feel that their contribution is valued and that organizational diagnostics is an opportunity for positive changes.
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