The success of an employee engagement survey initiative relies on an inspiring and engaging communication plan. Employees must understand the reason behind such an approach and why their participation is essential.
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To help make the initiative a success, here are the key steps to consider in your communication plan and the key messages to include in your communications for each of them.

The members of the management team are the first supporters of the initiative. They themselves must be made aware of the importance of caring about the work environment in order to transform it and help the organization thrive and succeed.
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It is therefore essential to demonstrate to the management team the risks of not caring about the work environment and the benefits of proactively taking action.
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Employee demotivation leads to negative repercussions on the organization, including increased risks of errors, poorer concentration at work, more production defects, time or resource theft, poorer customer service, and overall poorer company performance.
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Compared to others, organizations with high levels of employee engagement have lower turnover rates and less absenteeism, which saves significant costs (calculate the costs of your turnover rate).
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These organizations manage to keep their employees motivated on a daily basis and are more profitable in the long term because they rely on a strong sense of belonging to create good internal ambassadors and ensure exceptional customer service.

The first step is to present the approach to the management team.
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The key messages must demonstrate the importance of taking the pulse to understand what aspects of the business motivate your employees, as well as your managers, and what can be improved to keep them with us for a long time.

An effective strategy to position the approach with managers is to hold an internal training session or webinar.

Some elements to cover in this training:

To avoid any concerns, emphasize that it is not a tool for measuring or evaluating the manager's performance.
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It's important to remind managers that this is a management tool for them. This approach will help them keep their team motivated and engaged by helping them understand the next small action to take to help their employees give their best.
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This makes it possible to target where to put their energy to have the most impact.

To fully involve them in the process, demonstrate to them the importance of their own participation in the surveys.
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Managers themselves face challenges within their team and in managing their employees.
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​The tool allows them to express their experience both as an employee and as a manager. Their survey responses will help their manager in establishing enabling conditions to be a good leader for their team.

Involve the leadership! The success of the process depends on how the management talks about it to the employees.
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The message will have meaning if it emphasizes the importance of employees in the company as its most valuable asset.
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It must be supported that everyone's involvement in the process is essential to create a work environment that reflects and motivates us.

Here are some ideas for strategies to introduce the process to employees:

The key is to rely on everyone's participation to create a work environment that reflects and motivates us. It is important to emphasize that taking the pulse and questioning our work environment is essential to enable us to improve.

To take the right actions, we must know how our employees feel and what their impressions are of their team, department, and the company as a whole. The answers, comments, and suggestions of the employees will help to understand the results better and help to target more concrete and relevant actions that will be meaningful for each team.

Overall, this communication should present the purpose of the process, its confidential nature, and clearly indicate the next steps.

A good participation rate allows for gathering the impressions of a critical mass of employees and taking relevant actions for everyone.
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Maximize the tools already available to you. For example, use automated reminders in the platform to easily reach employees who have not yet responded to the survey.
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Monitor participation rates among different groups within the company. In collaboration with the relevant managers or leadership, follow up with groups with lower participation rates.
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It may sometimes be appropriate to remind employees of the importance of the survey and its purpose in these reminders or to explore potential issues that are hindering employees (e.g., difficult access to a computer or their cell phone).

Here are some suggestions for encouraging or improving a high participation rate:

However, be careful not to confuse participation incentives with incentives related to the level of engagement.
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Creating a contest for the highest level of engagement would encourage employees to falsify their survey responses to achieve better results.

Quickly share some of the key findings after the first survey is completed. It is essential to show employees where we stand and what the next steps will be.
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Key findings may include the overall participation rate, total number of employees who responded, number of comments collected, or any other general information you would like to highlight (e.g., the organization's main strength).
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In this communication, remind employees why the survey was conducted and how the results will help achieve the goal of improving the work environment.
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Explain to employees that the results will be analyzed, and more detailed information will be shared with them soon.

It is essential for employees to know that this is an ongoing process, and other actions will be taken, with follow-up from the management on what they have shared.
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This helps manage employee expectations by demonstrating that some elements shared will initiate immediate changes, while others will take time.

If you conduct an ongoing survey, this step will also help prepare employees for the future by reminding them that more surveys will follow, and they will receive new questions soon.

One factor for the success of a survey process is the involvement of leadership in establishing and implementing initiatives at the organizational level.
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Whether it is a climate survey or a continuous survey process, leadership should be informed of the results and take a position on the next steps.

Some questions to explore in relation to the results:

Organizational initiatives should support the strategic objectives of the organization to promote synergy and convergence of everyone's efforts to help the company grow.

It is therefore important to communicate these initiatives quickly after a one-time survey or 1 to 3 times a year if conducting continuous surveys.
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This demonstrates that leadership is serious about the process, considers the opinions and experiences of employees, and is genuinely committed to creating the right conditions for everyone to contribute to the organization's success.

It is important to communicate the survey results to employees, in order to implement targeted initiatives for each team.
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Here are some communication strategies for managers to share survey results:

The last strategy is the most effective for improving the team's work environment. Encourage managers to present the results to employees and discuss them together. This will help demonstrate why everyone's participation in the survey is important, as it can improve their daily work life.

This meeting should aim to define priorities for the team and involve employees in finding solutions or actions to implement immediately. This will allow targeting initiatives that will have the most impact for the team, and act where it will have the most impact.

As a manager, take this opportunity to focus on successes. Continue to act on strengths and the most appreciated aspects of employees, as these are the elements that contribute to a pleasant work environment and that can exceed employee expectations.
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If you conduct recurring surveys, define the ideal frequency for holding this team meeting. The more often you conduct the exercise during the year, the more simple and high-impact actions you can put in place.

Employees will be more motivated to respond to the next survey and add constructive comments if they see that serious actions are being taken and improving their daily life.

Remind them of the corporate initiatives that have been implemented, even those that have been tried but have proven to be less fruitful.
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It is important to demonstrate that the company is taking concrete actions based on employee feedback and suggestions. Emphasize once again that it is through everyone's collaboration that we can build a motivating and inspiring work environment.