Action Planning

In general, there are three ways your organization may choose to manage the post-survey action-planning process:

Centralized:

The organization, based on discussions with Human Resources and the senior leadership team about the survey results, will identify a shortlist of issues to focus on during the ensuing months of the post-survey phase. The logic of this approach is to ensure that every part of the organization is focused on the same list of issues in order to maximize the odds of improving these areas.

Decentralized:

Survey results are disseminated to all parts of the organization and managers are expected to identify a few (e.g., two to three) key issues to discuss and develop actions to improve. The logic of this approach is to maximize ownership of action-planning at the local level and allow flexibility for departments/teams to decide what they believe is most important to work on based on their individual survey results.

Hybrid:

This approach combines the best of the centralized and decentralized approaches. The organization identifies a few issues that it would like every manager to work on, which maximizes organizational focus. But it also allows managers the freedom to add an issue or two to the list of priorities for discussion and action on their individual survey results.

If your organization uses either the decentralized or hybrid approaches, you will need to identify the issues you would like to focus on for action with your team.