AN INTRODUCTION TO EMPLOYEE RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
Prioritizing Improvement Actions
Prioritization of improvement actions based on your employee survey should be taken under consideration. Some organizations struggle with improvement action planning because they try to tackle far too many improvement actions at once and start spreading the valuable resources they have too thinly over too many actions.
Our recommendation is that not more than three to four improvement actions should be tackled at one time and that further actions should not be pursued until at least one of the existing actions has been fully completed.
There are a couple of simple models that can be used to prioritize improvement actions:
Improvement actions could be plotted on this quadrant map plot and, ideally, you should start with the issues and actions that are important to address but are the least resource intensive (i.e. those in the top left hand quadrant of the quad plot). An example of this type of action could be improving communication by reviewing and changing the structure and content of monthly team meetings. These types of actions should be mixed with some of the "Quick Win" actions. These would fall under the "Minimal Returns on Minimal Effort" category.
The four key questions to address in the Action Planning Prioritization are:
- How important is this issue to your employees?
- Is it something you have direct control over?
- Are the benefits of improving the situation worth the effort?
- Will there be a marked improvement in business performance and/or customer satisfaction?
This model that can be used in conjunction with the action planning process by simply reviewing proposed actions against each of the above questions. It is of particular importance that each of the proposed actions lead to some improvement in customer satisfaction and business performance. This reinforces the commercial and business imperatives of the employee survey.
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