# Workplace Surgery — Do anonymous surveys actually work?

- **Episode:** [198](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/198.md) (2025-05-20)
- **Type:** workplace-surgery
- **Tags:** anonymous-surveys, employee-feedback, workplace-culture
- **Time:** 39:40–45:32 (start 2380s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/198?t=2380](https://truthliesandwork.com/198?t=2380)

---

[39:40] Leanne Elliott: What a great question. And this is right, right up my street, Al. Like you said, you put 50p in me and now I'm gonna go. Are employee surveys a good way of gaining feedback? Yes, but they're not the only way of gaining feedback. And as you rightly pointed out, the massive plus about doing an employee survey, an employee engagement survey, is if you offer confidentiality, you make sure it's anonymous. Now, in my world, I believe the best way to do that is to have that run by a third party who will basically be that wall
[40:11] Rose Soffel: Yeah
[40:12] Leanne Elliott: that you will never see any of the raw data. So even if you wanted to as an employer, there's no way that you can see this raw data or the comments or identify who said what. The problem is, is when an organisation runs this internally, even with the most well-meaning of HR practitioners or managers, there is a human tendency to just want to know who said, who said what, especially if it's something negative. Like, I went off on one when somebody off of YouTube called me grotesque. I'm not so bothered, but you know, you kind of, you want to be defensive and your back gets up and you want to know who said it and who they are. So my advice would be, if you're going to run a survey, use a consultant, use a third party, somebody like myself, who will be able to provide that reassurance and gatekeeping. The thing, the point that I always make as well as the teams that I work with in terms of surveys that I do, confidentiality is a key pillar of the ethical code of conduct that I'm governed by, by the British Psychological Society. If I breach that, and an employee that I've run a survey with feels that I've breached that, they can contact the BPS, put in a formal complaint, and there's a very good chance that I'd get struck off and I can never practice again. So for me, maintaining confidentiality is, is, is utmost important for myself, as well as creating this psychological safety that people need to be honest in terms of giving that feedback. So if you're going to use a survey, my advice would be to use a third party. In terms of incentives to fill it in, Um, I, I don't know of any psychologists who would recommend that, um, because it doesn't necessarily mean that you're, you're gonna get the best data. You just want people to be honest, um, and you almost want to give them the reason that they want to fill that in for themselves, in that if I know what's happening, I can do something about it. We can look at ways to make, make this environment better. And that after that first survey, make sure that you do Do something with those results, because if you don't, you'll do more damage than if you'd never done anything in the first place. People will never trust the survey going forward. So kind of the first time you do this, it has to be so well thought out and well-intentioned and well-structured. Otherwise, undermine any kind of insights you try and gather, gather again. Are there other ways of doing it? Of course, you know, you can have use and view sessions, listening events, ask for feedback. Of course, it's going to be tricky sometimes in terms of people feeling comfortable to do that. That immediate defensive reaction that you might have can be really tricky to manage. And then, of course, we have the problem with some people just feel more comfortable speaking up in a group, others less so. You could do the old kind of comment box forms digitally and all that kind of stuff, but I think insights is a really good way to do My advice would be to do it properly from day one. Um, and if you want to have a conversation about that, free, no, you know, no pressure to, to work with me, just to go through it. Um, a link to booking a meeting with me is in the show notes
[43:11] Al Elliott: Fabulous. Yes. I think the temptation is, particularly if you're in like a tech or marketing business, is to go and find, uh, go and find like an app that will do it for you. Um, so something like Highbob or something. Don't do that. Don't do that. Because the fancier the dashboard on the app is, the more likely it's just hiding the fact that it's got no scientific basis whatsoever on it. The only other bit of advice I would give, and we've said every time we talk about engagement surveys or any kind of surveys, we always talk about this, is don't peg what— don't peg your worth to the results. Just, this is just a really great way to find out how well things are going, what's going well, and what's not going well. And there will be bits on, you know, on either, either one of those camps. But don't go, oh my God, I'm so nervous. What happens if everyone says it's awful? If they say it's awful, you'd rather know. It's gonna be so much cheaper paying Leanne a couple of grand to find out how much, find out how bad it is right now, than paying for all, paying to replace all the people who are gonna leave over the next year, which will cost you 200 grand. So that's definitely—
[44:11] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. And remember, as you always say, Al, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference. I'd be more devastated if I ran an employee insight survey and got very bland. neutral result. To me, that's a sign that people are so checked out. Well, yeah, they're so checked out, they can't even be bothered to moan about it anymore. You know, having, having some brutal feedback is actually pretty useful as a business owner
[44:33] Al Elliott: Beautiful. Okay, lovely. So don't forget the link for Leanne's email or no, not Leanne's email. Sorry. How old? Hello, boomer. The link for Leanne's Calendly link or SavvyCal link is in the show notes. Question number 2, Le. How do I know if I'm actually any good at interviewing? I run a small business and I've done a lot of hiring over the last few years, but if I'm being honest, I still don't know whether I'm any good at it. Sometimes I've made great hires and sometimes I've made terrible hires. And when it goes wrong, it costs me a lot, not just financially, but also culturally too. I've read plenty about structured interviews and bias and all that, but it still feels like guesswork half the time. My friend, I feel your pain. When I was recruiting back in my very first, my second company and my very first company, oh God, I made a real hash of it before I knew Leanne. So I guess my question is, how do you really know if you're interviewing well and what can you do to get better, like properly better, they've said, at choosing the right people? Oh, these are great questions this week