Employee surveys - guidance for managers

When the results of the survey are received, you are responsible for presenting them to the employees and then initiating development and improvement work where needed. Your employees also have a responsibility to contribute to a good dialogue and to participate in planning and implementing actions.

If you are a small working group with fewer than five respondents, you will not receive your own result. Instead, you will present the aggregated results to the larger group you are part of (unit/department or equivalent). On the basis of these results, you will have a dialogue with your employees and then together you will draw up an action plan for the areas that you consider to be most important for your group.

If you are a senior manager, you are responsible for developing an action plan for your organisation (department/department or equivalent) together with your managers.

Part of systematic work environment management

The work following an employee survey is a natural part of the systematic work environment management where you, as a manager, have tasks in the different stages: feeding back the results, formulating and implementing measures together with the group and following up your action plan.

Feedback results

• Make an appointment for feedback on the results in good time. If you have regular working meetings, it is a good idea to extend such a meeting; about an hour is needed for results review and initial discussion.
• Look through the results and reflect on them. On which issues/areas do you have high scores, and on which issues/areas are the scores lower? On which issues/areas are the scores high, and on which issues/areas are the scores lower? What are the results for the leadership part? What do you think might be the reason for this result?
• Present the results to the group.
• Discuss and analyse together what might be behind the results. If you get stuck in discussions about the wording of the questions, discuss instead what the employees meant by their answers in order to focus the dialogue on areas for improvement and development.

Develop action plans

• Identify the areas/issues you think are most important to focus on as a group. Let each employee think individually about which area/issue they think is most important before discussing it in the group. If an important area has low scores, it may be a necessary area to focus on, but also highlight the areas that have high scores. What can you do to promote and maintain what is working well? Also reflect on what might be possible reasons for the performance in the areas you have prioritised.
• Make suggestions for action. Feel free to let staff work individually, in pairs or in small groups. Agree on which actions are most important.
• Prioritise actions, 3 - 5 is a guideline. Few activities give focus and power to implement and follow up.
• Specify the actions, appoint a person responsible/action and set a deadline at least one year ahead.
• Document the actions in the risk analysis template.

Use regular meetings to implement and follow up

Remember that this is a continuous process and try to weave the actions into your daily activities. Use regular work meetings and staff meetings to check on progress.

What support do I have as a manager?

Support and resources at your department/counterpart: your line manager and the HR function. Also liaise with your local safety representative.

Falck Health Care counselling: 0200-21 63 00 (24 hours a day).

As a manager, you can have up to three telephone consultations on a case/situation. Consultants can provide general support on how to think about presenting the group's findings or how to encourage joint commitment to action. However, they do not have access to survey questions or results.