Question: My organization recently undertook an employee engagement survey. Our department head shared the results. The results included historical data for our group and comparisons against other groups. The data was mostly quantitative. What do you recommend we do in terms of actionable next steps?

GetHRSmart: If an organization doesn't review the results from the employee engagement survey, learn from them, make changes from them and communicate the changes, then the survey isn't very meaningful to the employees who have provided honest feedback. In fact, distrust of senior management can occur and/or employees may treat the survey as just an administrative exercise. My recommendation is that in addition to sharing the data with all members of the department and celebrating the positive results, that the department identify the most pressing areas for improvement and have everyone agree on action plans to address those areas. Once action plans have been agreed upon, individuals/teams should be assigned actions and communicate the progress against the plans.