Hi Lenka,

Whilst it may be frustrating to see what individuals have written when you think it is malicious and you may be tempted to match comments to commentators I would resist going down this path. This is not going to prove to be helpful so try not to take it personally.

The best thing that you can do at this stage is to communicate the results to employees even those areas where things are not so great. If you try to hide the results this can cause mistrust. The good thing about this survey is that you have some areas where you are doing well so equally, make sure you highlight this too.

So basically, acknowledge the areas that need working on and outline the steps you will take to address these areas with a clear plan.

In addressing issues, the best approach is to focus on a few key areas at a time. You may want to get clarification from the employees themselves on what areas they feel needs prioritisation or it may be very clear from the feedback where the focus should be.

Also, make sure that you follow up on this. This could be via forums or pulse surveys and can be advantageous in terms of employees putting forward ideas and also this can be a way of preventing problems from escalating.

Whilst disconcerting, without the less positive feedback, you wont get the insight required to make improvements.

This is my experience, I hope this helps.

In reply to Cass Clothier:

 Hi Lenka 

Totally agree with Cass.

Far better to focus on all the constructive aspects - matters  that can and should be addressed. And not to ignore the criticisms - certainly not at all to be seen to be trying to assign ‘anonymous’ comments to any particular individuals. You can acknowledge them with something like ‘ some concern was expressed in a small minority of responses about (whatever)’........

The old adage applies that, whatever you do, there will probably always be someone unfairly criticising and loudly berating you about it : just try to accept and live with that.

In reply to David:

Thank you David and Cass for taking the time to respond. In respect to the malicious feedback, that was not actually directed at me, but the line manager. I know what you are saying, not to try assign comments to individuals which of course I would not do openly, it is just hard not to in my head as it is quite obvious who wrote what. In those certain instances there are blatant lies. I guess as you said I will just concentrate on the good ones and make a plan with the management how to address the issues which were highlighted by the majority. I dont think we will be able to address all, so perhaps choosing 3 main thing would be a start.

In reply to Lenka:

Whether or not the actions taken against these individuals were entirely justified, sometimes its hard to predict how they will be interpreted or to what extent it will impact an employees perception of 'fairness', particularly if overall employees have what appears to be mixed feelings about the company which therefore impacts their sense of engagement. Some people are good at taking feedback on salary and progression on the chin, some may suspect that there may be concerns about their performance and understand it, whilst others may be dissatisfied or be in disagreement in regards to how matters are approached. This can all depend however on the culture of the company and how these things are communicated to them.

In relation to the feedback on promotion and salary etc, to show that you have listened and taken comments on board you could for example ask relevant managers to look at performance review and succession planning in general. Similarly with salaries, are your organisation competitive in the market? Just to check there is no room for improvement.

In terms of the process for performance management, just making sure that this clear, consistent and transparent so that employees know where they stand and that there can be little room for accusations of unfairness would also show that you have taken on board what has been said.

Survey's are one way for employees to be heard and whilst this may be your first time having had responses that were not all positive, you now are armed with the information needed to be able to look at what has been said and address these areas. It is important that you dont just pick and chose what points to address however, addressing more than a few issues may take time so definitely start with a few a manageable amount.

In reply to Lenka:

You ask for feedback. You get feedback.

You may not agree with it. The motivation of the giver may be suspect but they felt strongly enough or passionate enough to write the freehand comments. I personally wouldn’t leap to discount that depth of hurt/mistrust/anger/frustration. Whilst the comments in part may not be true you need to develop an action plan to renegage the employees who wrote them. It’s a great challenge and will have far more long term benefits than most of the actions companies do after engagement surveys.