What's the answer to all these engagement surveys?
We live in a feedback economy. I am bombarded with endless emails and alerts asking me to rate Uber drivers, shoe shops and even short rail journeys. 'We'd love two minutes of your time to hear your feedback on your recent booking to Watford Junction,' was a recent one. But for many, there is one feedback request that has become as a regular feature of office life as the stressy emails about dirty mugs in the kitchen: the employee engagement survey.
Last week, I attended The Festival of Work, which you may think is oxymoronic, but there were taco stalls, selfie booths, a 'wellbeing village' and lots of bunting. It was the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's annual conference, a shindig for HR executives, held in Excel London; 13,000 people attended and I don't think all of them were there for the free biros and Cadbury Heroes, which — and surely a sign of an impending recession — appear to have replaced Tony's Chocolonely as the free confectionery of choice at conferences.
HR used to be about recruiting and firing workers, sorting out their pay and benefits. Now? In the words of Hi Bob, the main sponsor of the Festival of Work, it's all about 'powering productivity, engagement, and retention'. The Holy Grail of all HR managers: engage your workers and they'll be more productive. Or that's the theory. 'Absolutely, you can see that connection between a highly engaged workforce and a higher performance,' says Steph Kukoyi, senior people scientist at Culture Amp, another sponsor.
How do you know if your workers are engaged? Well, you survey them. As both Hi Bob and Culture Amp design and undertake employee engagement surveys for companies it is understandable they emphasise the relationship between productivity and engagement — a rather woolly term that can mean anything from 'highly-motivated' to 'not resentful about turning up to work'.
The biggest of all these survey companies is Gallup, which claims 'measuring and managing engagement in your organisation is critical to the success of your employees and organization as a whole'. Could there be a link between this statement and the fact Gallup charges thousands of pounds to companies to survey their workers? I couldn't possibly say. What I can say is that the employee engagement industry has become a huge one, supported by company directors.
At Lloyds Bank, Charlie Nunn, the chief executive, last year received a £1.27 million bonus, some of which was decided on a 'culture and colleague engagement' score — one of many CEOs rewarded in this way. This, of course, may explain why workers are endlessly pestered to fill in forms saying how happy they are.
But is it making any difference? Is asking millions of workers how strongly they agree or disagree with the statement 'my manager genuinely cares about my wellbeing' improving productivity?
Looking at Gallup's data, the answer is: no. Its most recent data prompted the slightly hysterical headline from Gallup itself: 'Employee Engagement on the Brink'. This was because the global percentage of engaged employees fell from 23 per cent to 21 per cent. But, if you go back to 2011 it was 12 per cent and had steadily increased since, before reversing slightly in the last couple of years. Engagement has slowly improved over time but we know from the economic data, productivity has stalled. The link between the two is shaky at best, and even companies that can prove a correlation — from their own data — struggle to prove a causal link.
Paul Sweeney, author of Magnetic Nonsense: a short history of bullshit at work and how to make it go away, categorises engagement surveys as: 'Let's ask the children how they're feeling, and then we can give them a playdate to cheer them up.' They tackle the symptoms of problems in the workplace, not the root causes.
Also, he says, the surveys create 'an unhealthy dynamic where employees think the way to solve problems is to complain about them in the survey, with no responsibility on their part to help resolve the issues'.
There are some solutions. One is to forget a big, cumbersome annual survey with 57 different questions to which most people answer 'neither agree nor disagree', with so-called pulse surveys asking just a couple of focused questions once a month.
Another route is the AI one. I met an interesting company at the Festival of Work called Inpulse, which instead of asking workers to 'agree or disagree' with rote statements, asks them how they feel by getting them to write a sentence or two into a text box. It then asks them why they feel that way. 'It is super open-ended. It lets them direct the conversation,' says Andrew Nguyen, co-ceo at Inpulse. 'By asking the employee how they're feeling and why, you get a much richer data set.' The company then uses AI to scan the language and categorise the comments so the company can work out how proud, committed or stressed and unappreciated they are. Inpulse is already working with the likes of Balfour Beatty, Lastminute.com and Arriva.
It is very clever and I can see this approach might get more useful results than asking people to score everything on a five-point scale. But the method doesn't matter if the management uses the data to prove what it wanted to hear in the first place or uses it as a way to ignore having difficult conversations with its staff. As Nguyen himself says, the survey only works if workers can see that 'their input is heard and valued and acted on'. Did anything change as a result of the last employee engagement survey? Were the nightmare rotas sorted? Did someone stop leaving dirty mugs in the kitchen?
Because if nothing changes, these surveys are as pointless and as annoying as asking me about my trip to Watford Junction.
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But the white elephant flats have still not sold, despite efforts to variously market them off-plan, after completion and at 25 per cent under market value. Valentine London has claimed this is because buyers see it as a risky investment, fearing the principal residence rule would make it hard to sell the flats on. But Mr Marigold did not agree: 'The main reason that the flats are not occupied is because of the marketing strategy, which I have found has not sufficiently explored all potential opportunities.' He said as far as he was aware, new dwellings granted permission in the South Hams area since the rule was implemented in 2019 have sold without any problems. The inspector added a lower price may yet pull potential buyers in. He also remarked: 'I do not accept the contention that the planning system entitles developers to expect a reasonable return from development or that the need for a return justifies non-compliance with planning policy.' Mr Marigold also said not upholding the rule would undermine its function - to 'redress the balance of an unquestionably high proportion of second or holiday homes in Salcombe'. 'Tourism is important to Salcombe, but the level of second homes and holiday lets is harming its vitality', Mr Marigold wrote. 'Policy H3 clearly sets out that new unrestricted market homes will not be supported, to meet the housing needs of local people and to strengthen the community and economy.' District councillor Mark Long has previously said, after the appeal was submitted: 'We need people living here full time. 'What we're looking for is to try and balance things out so that we actually have a vibrant, viable community.' If Valentine London won, all areas with principal residence conditions would be at risk 'right across the South West and around the country', he warned. 'And so I think it's important that we try and hold the line here.' Salcombe Town Council has previously echoed this sentiment: 'Nothing in any document submitted persuades us to waver from upholding the principal residence Policy SALC H3 which is and has been very clear: "New unrestricted market homes will not be supported at any time"... 'Many other parishes are protected by similar policies and any deviation would set a dangerous precedent in and beyond Salcombe. This policy must be vigorously upheld.' Salcombe is one of 12 parishes in the South Hams district, on Devon's south coast, which have adopted principal residency conditions 'to achieve sustainable communities'. Such policies have been adopted in other parts of the country too, like the coastal town of St Ives, Cornwall. A spokesperson for Salcombe Town Council has now commented, after this week's decision: 'This is more than just a planning decision. It's about keeping Salcombe a lived-in town throughout the year... 'We want our streets to stay alive all year round, the school well-used, neighbours sharing a coffee and local shops and services supported by residents who call Salcombe home. 'Other coastal communities which have a substantial visitor economy and many houses not permanently occupied have been closely watching this appeal. 'This decision helps reinforce the shared importance of protecting space for permanent communities in areas under intense second-home demand.' It added: 'We welcome everyone who loves Salcombe, whether you're here all year, some of the year or just visiting. 'What matters is that we work together to ensure Salcombe stays vibrant, resilient, and inclusive. 'Supporting principal residence new homes is not about exclusion - it's about keeping the heart of Salcombe beating year round and for generations to come.' Valentine London co-director Mr Manning-Smith, has previously been quoted as refuting the council's claims developers knew about the restriction when the homes were built. He said: 'This was the first primary occupancy restriction in Devon. 'When we applied for preplanning and planning the primary occupancy restriction did not exist. 'It also did not exist in the statement of common ground agreed with the council a month before the appeal. 'The point we were aware the restriction was requested to be applied by South Hams Council was on the day of the appeal. 'We have applied to remove the condition as the apartments are unsaleable at a proper price with the condition, which we told the inspector on the original appeal, and highly unlikely to be mortgageable. 'Despite numerous reductions in price and offers of incentives, the apartments have failed to find a buyer in the last three and a half years due to the condition on this site.'
