EMPLOYEE SURVEYS
The value of this test, and this anecdote, is that it illustrates the power of providing both leading and lagging indicators on an assessment. Lagging indicators reflect those processes and actions that one should have already achieved (in this case, simple math). Leading indicators reflect those processes and actions one knows one has not yet achieved but would like to, or need to, achieve in order to be successful (multiplication).

Good employee survey design reflects good strategic thinking. Good strategic thinking involves both an understanding of where you have been and where you are going. Unfortunately, most survey content is heavy with lagging indicators measuring where the organization has been, yet it is light on leading indicators pointing to where the organization is going. Ideally, to help your organization move forward, there should be a balance.

LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER
Employee surveys have always been a useful measure of how well an organization is doing in its practices and procedures. When well designed, they provide insight into employees’ perceptions, organizational behaviors and achievement of certain initiatives.

Surveys are also very helpful in monitoring the “foundation” factors that help make an organization successful. Much like simple addition, these are basic steps the organization needs to have in place to achieve more challenging objectives.

For example, an organization may aspire for its employees to truly embrace the company’s strategy and breathe life into it in everything they do on their job. To work toward this goal, foundation factors that should be in place include good communication of the strategy from senior leadership, employee understanding of this strategy and trust that leadership is moving the company in the right direction. Having these factors in place will help the company achieve its more lofty goals of creating a passion around the company’s strategy.

If you survey effective organizations, you will likely find that most of their employees have a high favorable rating on performance of these areas. The companies probably know they are already doing well in these areas. As such, by measuring these elements in the survey (lagging indicators in the survey), they are effectively looking over their shoulders—confirming what they already know.

This validation is important. It makes sure that their perceptions are accurate. It also provides clues to any problems that might be bubbling beneath the surface. There may be room to strengthen the foundation as the company moves forward. Thus, the lagging indicators measuring these elements provide a specific value. They gauge what we have accomplished over time, and confirm that the basic needs of our company initiatives are being met and strengthened.

Many organizations, however, become fixated on these lagging indicators and do not expand their thinking to the next steps. If your organization has ever consistently “topped out” on a survey, meaning scored very favorably and above the normative comparisons on most of the items in the survey, then the survey is probably too reliant on lagging indicators.

The consequence is that you are spending all your survey energy measuring things that have already been mastered. You need to start thinking about what you are putting on these foundations. Where are you going? What are the next steps?

LOOKING AHEAD: DEFINING YOUR NEXT STEPS
Some people have a tendency to view what is currently being measured on the survey as the only end goal for the organization. In reality, we know that organizations continuously change and evolve. There is no absolute end. The survey program should help lead this evolution. It has the potential to pull the organization into its desired future, not just reflect on its recent past.

This is where the power of leading indicators in your survey comes into focus. Regardless of what is measured in your survey, there should be some thought about what your organization wants to do with success in those areas.

Although there is no single way to best determine what the leading indicators should be for your company (it is as unique as your organization’s approach to strategic planning), there are some suggestions to help guide you:

1. Review your current survey content and results
Look to see if you are measuring a lot of things that are already known by the organization as its strengths. Consider those areas on your survey results where you are performing well. If there are a clear number of strengths, then you might want to consider adding more leading indicators to your survey content.

2. Focus on those areas that need a next step
Once you have identified areas of strength, focus on these as ends to current initiatives or strategies. Try to re-focus one to three of these strengths in terms of being a means to the next end. Ask the questions, “Now that we have achieved this, what are we going to do with it? Where will it take the organization?”

3. Involve your leadership in the discussion
Leading indicators require more in-depth strategic thinking than is typically planned for during the survey design stage. Whether your survey program is brand new or well established, there should be an ongoing dialog with the leadership regarding the direction they want the company (and the survey) to take. You can have a survey program without this involvement, but not with the same impact the program has when leaders are part of the discussion.

4. Keep measuring your foundation
A good survey will have the right balance between lagging indicators and leading indicators. Even in areas where you are strong, it is advantageous to keep one or two foundation measures in place. These are usually items that have some kind of normative comparison. In areas where you need more development, or there is inconsistency of scores across the organization, you may need more lagging measures to help build a stronger foundation and create alignment across the organization.

5. Define your leading indicators
Avoid the risk of getting too ambitious with the next steps. Keep focused on one to three next steps to be measured in the survey. These items tend to be more customized to the organization, so they should be carefully written to clearly direct managers’ actions appropriately.

6. Train your managers
Help your managers who use the survey results to understand how to prioritize results. A manager who is not doing well on the lagging indicators is likely not doing well on the leading indicators either. When it comes to action, they could pick either item. Guide them to focus on any priority items first (i.e., those that drive engagement) and to know the difference between the lagging and leading indicators. This will help all managers build the foundations they need to be part of the future success.

Returning to our “live the values” example: Let’s say that we know from our experience and from previous surveys that the foundations we already described (strategy is communicated, understood and trusted) seem to be in place for most of the organization. People know what the values are. This is not enough, however, to bring the strategy to full life.

Using next-step thinking, the company plans what it will do with this knowledge, understanding and trust in the strategy. Leading indicators that match desired
company behaviors are then defined. These indicators may include measures of how well employees are encouraged by managers to incorporate the strategy into performance plans and goals, how much the strategy “inspires” employees in their day-to-day work, and how effectively the organization rewards and recognizes those who are bringing the strategy to life.

These elements may not yet be fully in place, but they are things that the organization hopes to achieve. By measuring these things in the survey, the company is not just giving managers actions to work on once foundation factors are in place, it is communicating to its employees and managers what it wants to achieve—just as my daughter’s math test told her not only what she should know, but also conveyed to her what she will hopefully learn.

Adopting leading indicators in your survey means accepting the reality that good surveys are changing documents. Some elements are retained over time, while new elements come in to help direct future actions. As your survey evolves over time, leading indicators will slowly become lagging indicators themselves, waiting for you to take things to the next step again. And like my daughter, you can reflect on the satisfaction of your accomplishments, and be inspired to do more.