Action Planning Methodology with WorkBuzz

WorkBuzz data shows a strong correlation between action planning and engagement. Where little or no action happens after a survey, employees question the value of the exercise – and of participation in future research.

On the flip side, showing your organisation has listened to your employees’ thoughts and concerns – and is making changes based on what you’ve learned – is the biggest driver of future survey completion.

However, if you’re to facilitate development and action, you need a plan – and we can help.

Our People Science team combines your survey data with decades of employee engagement experience to build people-centric, manageable action plans that will make a tangible difference for your organisation.

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How to approach Action Planning

We’ll work with you on a five-step process to turn your engagement survey insights into long-term organisational change.

 

1. Understand

We’ll help you understand your data, and the issues behind it, before you start putting solutions in place – using methods like focus or listening groups to delve deeper into what your survey data is telling us. We’ll spend time fully understanding your results so you’re fully informed before you enter the planning stage. That includes analysing your response rates and your overall employee engagement score to discover the themes that are having the biggest impact.By comparing your results to longer-term trends, external benchmarks and previous surveys, and by analysing open text comments, we can also investigate how the employee experience differs throughout different parts of your organisation – and how that compares to other companies in your field.

 

2. Communicate

Communicating your findings to your employees is important. They expect to hear the results of a survey they’ve participated in, and they want to contribute to the solutions, so we’ll help you get the message out there.

There’s lots to consider when communicating your results, and our experience will ensure you avoid pitfalls and adhere to best practice. For example, we’ll help you review your feedback objectively, and be balanced in how you share your findings.

We’ll also help if you need to communicate disappointing results, considering the wider context – such as management changes or macroeconomic factors – that may have negatively impacted your scores.

 

3. Plan

Next, we need to think about how you can realistically make change happen within your organisation – and a timeline for doing so.

This includes running results sessions or action planning workshops at a local level (usually on an individual team level) to understand whether the results reflect how employees are feeling right now – and if they have any further feedback they want to share.

We’ll help you focus on three simple priorities to focus your action plan and keep it manageable. We’ll plot your results against our Celebrate, Investigate, Improve model, and help find priority areas where you can have the most positive impact.

 

4. Share

Colleagues don’t get survey fatigue, they get lack-of-action fatigue. It’s important to make changes that are visible and tangible but, while operational changes are often easier to see, we may need to be more active in highlighting behavioural changes.

Employees want to know that their participation is making a difference, so share what’s working well and praise colleagues for their contribution. If improvements have arisen from acting on their feedback, make sure there’s an explanation how the change arose, and their ideas influenced it.

We’ll help you show your people how you’re using your survey results to take action, and help get your line managers on board so they can ‘role model’ your desired culture and help embed new behaviours throughout the organisation.

5. Iterate

You’ll never reach a point where you’ve ‘completed’ your employee engagement journey – so you need to iterate and build on your strategy.

WorkBuzz will set you up for success but, alongside regular surveys, it’s important to discuss progress against your action plan – and any pressing issues – during regular briefings.

Keep an ‘open-door’ policy, so colleagues feel free to come to you with any questions. The more informed colleagues are, and the more context they’re given, the better equipped they’ll be to make day-to-day decisions that support organisational objectives.