Hi!
Organizations need to pause and assess their situation when problems start to show up more frequently; when production targets are missed; when operating costs start to balloon; when bad orders and quality defects increase; and, when sales and revenue targets are not met.
An in-depth organization study and diagnosis, by external consultants equipped with the approproiate tools, can provide the company an objective feedback that can put the organization back on track, especially when it comes to employee morale and satisfaction, manpower turnover, etc.
My company is doing Employee Surveys and Organization Scan and Diagnosis. We have been hired by companies to run them, and most of their reasons are the same as the framework we have established for our programs.
Some, esp. bigger organizations with thousands of employees, would want to get the feel of the majority of their employees on specific issues/ problems confronting the company, and /or policies that the they plan to implement.
We have the impression that employee surveys can have real positive effect in an organzation when the company acts positively on the survey result, esp. when there are urgent issues raised by their employees.
Morevoer, surveys must be commisioned only when the company is ready and has decided to fund and implement organizational changes.
There must be a great amount of information before its launching to make people understand and cooperate with it, and prevent the rise of undue or false expectations.
The results of the survey should be used to determine the appropriate OD intervention tools, and guide the depth and mix of the intended organizational intervention.
The problem of surveys is: many times it only raises employees expectation beyond the real intent of the top management agenda. When that happens, the level of negative employee feeling towards the company can multiply more rapidly than before the conduct of the survey.
Best wishes.
Ed Llarena, Jr.
Managing Partner
Emilla Consulting