Human Resources: Workforce Innovation

"We now have the ability to recognize and analyze trends that can literally predict behavior, [...] match capabilities to marketplace needs, [...] and act on time-tested insights to drive business outcomes" (IBM, 2013).

Workforce Surveys have such broad reaching capabilities. With the right content, confidentiality, and response rates, organizations can equip themselves with the data needed to drive the most important business decisions. If this topic intrigues you, I encourage you to download the CEB whitepaper 'Rethinking the Workforce Survey'  here - http://bit.ly/1qWtEW1.

In the emerging work environment, we should focus on using survey data to determine how workforces use technology to network and collaborate among teams, departments, branches, etc. Data collected about leaders is often upward feedback, and we determine how leaders are able to work successfully within their teams, but without a 360 degree perspective, the data might not be so informative about how successful a leader works with leaders of other networked teams.

"What if organizational interventions were designed around informal networks of employees?" (Mastrangelo, 2013). Network performance is made up of individual performance within the network, and identifying the competencies of the most highly networked leaders is critical to organizational and leadership development. There needs to be strategic, cultural, and goal alignment across teams and it begins with a focus on network competencies and technology.

Resources:
Mastrangelo, P. CEB (2013) 'Want Employees to Work Smarter? 3 Ways to Foster Network Performance' http://bit.ly/1qENyT7

IBM (2013) 'Redesigning work creates a smarter workforce' http://ibm.co/1vhTRfx

Workforce Surveys: Introduction

Time to reflect on my experience with CEB Workforce Surveys & Analytics to this point. Sharing this knowledge is certainly past due, but I hope you find my insights valuable none-the-less! To start, I work with two distinct types of surveys:

Employee Opinion Surveys (EOS)- Sample or census survey in which content is used to collect employee opinions about key business strategies, decisions, processes, etc. and determine the effectiveness and alignment of these initiatives via the performance of the business and the engagement of its employees.

360 Degree Feedback Surveys (360) - Sample survey in which leaders gain 360 degree feedback from multiple levels of the organization (upward, downward, peer). Content is specific to assessing an individual in relation to the key professional development and leadership metrics of the organization.

Consultants work to develop survey content/response scales/metrics that align with an individual business's needs. In almost all cases, individual questions are categorized into mega themes, and open-ended questions are coded into mega topics for reporting purposes.

Survey data is often compared to historical data, internal benchmark data, and/or external normative data in order to gauge positive and/or negative progress on company initiatives and compare results to industry best practices.