How should the HR manager convince senior leadership of the value of measuring employee engagement through an annual survey?

A HR manager of Terrain Inc., a personal goods retail company has to go on FMLA leave to care for her mother who suffered a fall. The HR manager asks a HR professional in the department to collaborate on her behalf with a consultancy firm to provide recommendations to management on employee engagement. The consultancy firm has conducted a focus group with 15% of support employees and 5% of line employees. The HR professional upon reviewing the firm’s work believes the firm’s method is insufficient to gather the full information needed to create an effective solution. The HR professional determines that a different data collection method is necessary.

The HR professional chooses to carry out a survey of all employees, proceeds to obtain the support of the CEO, CFO, and COO and makes a presentation to the senior executive team. The senior executive team approves the HR professional’s initiative, the survey is carried out, and 85% of the employees respond to the survey. Impressed with the survey exercise, the CEO shares the survey results with the consultancy firm and requests that the firm works closely with the HR professional in the implementation phase.

Some executives are reluctant to have another survey this year. The executives state that last year’s survey is sufficient to understand employee engagement levels for this year.

How should the HR manager convince senior leadership of the value of measuring employee engagement through an annual survey?
A . By explaining how other methods of determining employee engagement are unproductive
B . By convincing leadership that the survey outcomes will create viable solutions to organizational problems
C . By providing benchmark data that detail the annual survey results of comparable companies
D . By demonstrating how the survey can reveal unreported problems

View Answer

Answer: D

Explanation:

Employee engagement surveys that are done on an annual basis can help reveal unreported problems that employees face and provide an opportunity to take proactive action in resolving the identified issues. Employee engagement survey outcomes will not solve organizational problems. Benchmark data of survey results do not provide the specific value of annual engagement surveys.