An engagement survey can tell leaders how employees respond to the questions asked. It may not, on its own, explain the unwritten expectations influencing what people do. When results identify a concern but action plans keep missing the mark, those expectations are worth exploring.
Imagine a team with weak results on whether ideas are welcomed. Leaders could respond with an innovation workshop, a suggestion channel or another message encouraging contributions. Each might help. But if people believe that proposing an improvement simply creates extra work without support, those actions may leave the underlying expectation untouched.
Ask what lies behind the result
UGRs®—Unwritten Ground Rules—are people’s perceptions of “this is the way we do things around here”. They focus attention on what people have learned about the workplace: what gets rewarded, ignored, challenged or treated as risky.
The example above raises questions a score alone cannot answer. What happens after someone proposes an idea? Who follows up? What happens if an experiment fails? Do people have time and authority to act? These are questions about everyday experience, rather than whether employees have heard the organisation’s aspiration.
Keep the strengths of each approach
Engagement surveys vary. Some include useful open comments and detailed measures of leadership and workplace experience. It would be misleading to say they all measure the same thing or that they cannot reveal cultural issues. Equally, a score should not be treated as an explanation of every behaviour beneath it.
UGRs inquiry can complement survey findings by examining specific areas in the language people use themselves. The UGRs Stock Take uses tailored sentence starters, completed anonymously, to explore perceptions relevant to the organisation’s priorities. The method and its interpretation deserve the same scrutiny as any other diagnostic approach.
Move from a broad concern to a testable response
Choose an important area from the survey results and explore the experiences behind it. Separate what people report from the explanation leaders initially favour. Consider differences between work areas without exposing individuals, and identify productive patterns worth protecting as well as problems.
Then agree actions that directly address the expectations described. If people expect suggestions to vanish, establish clear ownership and feedback. If they expect disagreement to be punished, examine how leaders respond when challenged. Ask employees what would count as credible evidence of change.
Check whether experience changes
Follow-up should ask what people now experience, rather than only whether an activity was completed. A workshop delivered, a policy issued or a committee established is evidence of effort. It is not yet evidence that the unwritten expectations have changed.
Repeat measurement can help, interpreted alongside participation and organisational context. The purpose is to understand whether actions are changing the workplace people experience and to adjust when they are not.
Explore the UGRs definition and examples, read the research and Stock Take methodology, or discuss your survey findings with Steve.
Back to all insights ←