Despite the many opinions about organizational climate, there is widespread consensus that climate fundamentally forms the soul of the organization and can significantly influence employee performance and attitude. In fact, research has shown that a better workplace climate not only makes people more motivated, it can improve bottom-line performance too — by up to a staggering 30%. Here’s how to get the most out of your climate assessment to set you on the road to profitability.
Climate assessments provide the leadership of an organization with an indication of the views, attitudes and sentiments of those who work in the organization. These assessments differ from employee engagement assessments in that they typically measure ‘hygiene’ issues — the extent to which employees are satisfied with their pay and working conditions.
Conducting a climate assessment in any organization is a complex, time-consuming and often expensive exercise. Initially, it is imperative for the organization to clarify what it expects to achieve by conducting the assessment, and clearly determine the scope, purpose and desired outcomes of the assessment process.
Who’s involved?
HR will generally be responsible for ensuring that a climate assessment framework is in place. It will also be their responsibility to see to it that the climate assessment process is properly managed, that management is involved at the appropriate stages, and that outcomes are rigorously followed up.
But this doesn’t mean that HR should necessarily conduct the assessment. It could be outsourced. It also doesn’t suggest that HR alone is involved in the climate assessment process. In fact, it is imperative for line management to be involved in key aspects of the process too.
The 7 steps
Follow these steps when introducing a climate assessment survey into your organization:
1. Initiate the assessment
The decision to undertake a climate assessment must be made with the full commitment of senior management to follow through on all steps in the process, particularly the step involving acting on outcomes. Clarify what the assessment needs to achieve and consider the direct and indirect costs.
2. Decide to build or buy
Will the assessment be done in-house or outsourced to an independent service provider? The main advantages of outsourcing, among others, are the ability to benchmark against other organizations, perceived independence, and the expertise of a specialist service provider. The key advantage of an in-house route, usually driven by HR, is flexibility with regard to administering and managing the assessment (cost and control).
3. Design and administer the assessment
Whether you are using an in-house route or outsourcing your climate assessment, there are various design issues that need to be clarified. Aspects such as language and literacy levels, assessment reliability, clarity of survey questions, etc. all need to be considered. A reliable questionnaire is one that would give the same results if used repeatedly with the same group under identical conditions.
In terms of administration, decide on the form of assessment, i.e. paper-based, electronic, focus groups, or a combination of all. It is largely accepted that a combination of information gathering is the best form of assessment, for example an electronic survey followed by a series of focus groups to strengthen the validity of the data.
4. Collate data and analyze results
Data capturing can be a time-consuming exercise if the format of the survey is not well thought through. Ensure that the program used to capture and sort data is capable of generating intelligent analyses once the capturing is done.
There are two ways to analyze your results. One is to do a qualitative analysis, looking for trends and patterns in the data, and transforming the patterns into information. The second method is through statistical analysis, which involves the collection, examination, summarization, manipulation and interpretation of quantitative information to identify underlying causes, patterns, relationships and trends.
5. Package data and communicate results
Package data in such a way that it will be meaningful to the audience to whom it is presented. Develop a very specific feedback plan with activities and actions required, and identify the responsible person or team.
If conducting climate assessments is a new initiative, you will need to ensure that the feedback sessions are particularly well planned and managed. The data can be overwhelming and might lose meaning if presented in bulk to all levels.
6. Act on results
Communicate the results as soon as they are available. Feedback is important to show that employee opinions are recognized. Introducing an assessment and then not giving feedback or not being seen to be acting on the results can have a severely negative impact on your employees. The nurturing of mutual trust between management and the workforce is perhaps the most important aspect of a climate assessment.
7. Measure impact
Once you’ve taken steps to act on the results, it is vital to measure whether the action plans are having any impact on addressing the issues that were identified in the first place.
For example, if poor communication between team leaders and their teams was identified in the assessment, and steps were instituted to hold daily team meetings with clear agendas to address this issue, then measures should be put in place to establish whether the team meetings have in fact improved communication.
Assessments of any kind can be intimidating and unsettling for employees if they do not understand why assessments are being conducted and what is going to be done with the results. It is therefore important to take great care to ensure that information about the assessment is correctly communicated. Generally, organizations need to undertake one major climate survey every two years to be supplemented with mini climate or pulse surveys when required.
DOWNLOAD How-to Guide: Driving employee engagement on the CI journey for tips and techniques to keep your employees motivated when CI maturity levels out.