In late 2020, nearly every organization was trying to regain its footing while the world navigated COVID-19. The pandemic caused both predictable outcomes (think remote work) and unexpected effects (hello, Great Resignation). To help our clients understand what their employees were going through and how they were doing as an employer, we launched employee surveys. With this tool, our clients could get real-time employee feedback. They also got our expert guidance on how to review and analyze results, segment data without compromising employee privacy, and strategize their next steps.
Early in 2021, we used this data to launch staffing industry benchmarks related to the employee experience (EX). Our staffing clients could now compare their EX scores with others in the industry, giving them a better idea as to whether they were doing relatively well or had work to do. Imagine having an internal Glassdoor that gives you the first peek at employee feedback so you can identify and fix any issues, or celebrate your wins. Once we’d successfully helped current clients use the employee survey tool and generated industry benchmarks, we figured it was our turn to take a look in the mirror.
We Love Being Guinea Pigs: Why ClearlyRated Turned Its Employee Survey on Itself
Once we could take a breath after sprinting to create, test, release and help clients with this new tool, we thought, “Uh, duh. We should take this ourselves.” And that’s just what we did. During Q2 of 2022, we launched our own employee survey with a 90% response rate. To be fully transparent, we had two main reasons:
1. We wanted to walk our talk.
We’ve surveyed our clients for a long time, but we hadn’t yet used our tool on the employee side — and it was time. Plus, we could then confidently serve as an example of how the tool works to future and current clients. First-hand experience is best, right? We now have our own public example of employee ratings on our Directory page.
2. Like many others, our turnover rate spiked during 2021.
We wanted to understand what was going on with our employee experience and how we could do better. Throughout 2020 and 2021, we made big adjustments to when, where, and how we all work. Our workforce is now fully dispersed and working from anywhere. While this seemed like what people wanted, we couldn’t be sure whether people still felt connected to our mission and in tune with their teams. Plus, we’ve onboarded new people who weren’t here when we still worked in close physical proximity to one another. Were they still feeling included, though they joined after we’d gone fully remote? Clearly we had a lot of questions about the health of our workforce, and we didn’t want to wait for the next turnover report to find out whether our changes were helpful or hurtful. By then, it’d be too late. What better way to find out than using our own employee survey tool?
What We Learned By Surveying Our Employees
You know that exciting-trepidation feeling you get before learning whether you’ve made the team, gotten hired, or achieved anything you worked really hard for? Yeah. That’s how we felt awaiting our results. In the end, it was fun, inspiring, and incredibly beneficial. While reviewing our results, we saw some commonalities with our clients. For instance, compensation is nearly always one of the lower-ranked factors. We realized we could get more competitive with our salaries.
We also saw some bright spots. Our employees reported that we’d managed to maintain a great work environment and positive team cultures despite having lost the in-person element. They also celebrated our flexibility, confirming we were on the right path.
What We Did With Our New EX Insights
First we focused internally, using what we’d learned from our results to develop and share a roadmap for improving employee satisfaction. We’d do this by capitalizing on what we’ve done well and by working on compensation, including being more transparent about why compensation is the way it is. Hey, we get it: Portland (where we’re HQ’d) is an expensive city!
We also recognized our responsibility to use this experience externally. Our employee ratings now show on our public ClearlyRated directory page along with our client ratings. So, our clients and potential clients can see a transparent example of how this works (not to mention how we treat our people and our clients).
Why We Believe Every Organization Should Survey Its Employees
Following the workforce upheaval of the past two years, it’s clear that lengthy annual surveys just aren’t going to cut it anymore if you want to hold onto your employees. While those tools still serve a purpose, you need to know in real-time whether your employer brand is beginning to wilt on the vine. Plus, you can get instant feedback on whether employees feel they’re benefiting from any updates or changes you make in response to their suggestions. Our employee survey worked for us. We plan to continue surveying our employees on a regular basis—and we can help you do it too.
Learn more about ClearlyRated’s Employee Satisfaction Survey.
