Colin Wheeler, the Managing Director of Survey Solutions Ltd, outlines the challenges and the rewards when it comes to capturing stakeholder feedback
Managing key stakeholder audiences for any organisation is critical to success. Are staff able to deliver the services expected? Are clients/customers happy with what is offered? Is something missing?
Conducting leadership surveys for a government agency in some of their regions, identifying impacts leaders are having and where development should be prioritised.
Getting insight into stakeholder feedback is a powerful tool. It takes the guesswork out of decision-making and allows one to utilise often-limited funds to get the most value.
Recent examples of surveys having an important impact include:
- Helping organisations evaluate and amend the flexible/ hybrid working options, where a balance for staff who can work remotely and those who need to be on-site had to be managed carefully.
- Understanding customers in the education sector for a service provider whose “customers” are the children at schools, but the purchaser might be a Local Authority or central MAT Procurement Manager or a School Head. This involved unpicking the differences between those who are decision-makers vs. those receiving the service.
- Managing a regular (six monthly) cycle of surveys for an organisation managing significant change, but depending on central government decisions to confirm the strategy for the arms-length body for the next five to ten years.
- Conducting leadership surveys for a government agency in some of their regions, identifying impacts leaders are having and where development should be prioritised.
- Working with a company in a regulated sector, to ensure health and safety standards are being managed alongside quality standards, to share with the regulator.
We have worked with district councils, London boroughs, city councils, healthcare and education service providers.
The lessons we’ve learned are that:
- Be people-centric
- Participants in research need to be appreciated for their feedback.
- Be flexible
- Our clients typically already have a full schedule, and by doing the heavy lifting to complete the survey, we enable them to stay on track with everything else.
- Be proactive
- Suggest options for improving survey outcomes in terms of questions, approach or methodology.
- Be consultative
- Use the experience of working with all types of different organisations to share best practice.
- Be practical
- Move beyond idealism to give organisations results they can take forward.
- Be honest
- The survey isn’t an aim in itself. Organisations will have to develop and implement action plans after the survey results are shared, which will take time and resources from within.
So the challenges are ensuring that the plans for the survey are well thought through, and the implementation is managed well (for example, using an experienced external provider), and then ensuring the organisation is ready to take action once the results are reported and shared.
The survey: What are the rewards, then?
Better insights and understanding of stakeholders enable more focussed prioritisation, and with many cost pressures, showing the evidence for prioritising can be the tipping point for getting budget and resources assigned.
Providing better services also makes staff feel that they are doing a better job, customers/clients are happy, and the working environment is more positive.
The exercise of asking and listening to feedback is also empowering for both the participants who are given it and those who receive it.
What happens afterwards?
After spending time and effort establishing the survey, encouraging participation, and collating and analysing the results, what next?
Taking action from the survey results is as important as conducting the survey.
Organisations that use survey results to improve the experience and positively impact stakeholder feedback and engagement, from staff to end-users.
Taking action gets the best value from the investment of time and resources involved in the survey.
If no action is taken from the results, feedback in future surveys is likely to be similar, perhaps even more strongly advocating for action if the issues have become worse.
Or stakeholders might just not bother to respond at all – why make the effort when there is no change as a result.
Celebrate the positives!
It’s easy to focus on things which need work. Remember that highlighting the positives is a key part of the actions taken; it isn’t just about criticism. Understanding what is working well is as essential as identifying things to work on.
