It's time for a conversation around employee surveys

At their best, employee surveys are a quick and practical way to ensure your people are having the conversations that matter.

And in today’s world, where connection is harder than it used to be, that has never been more important.

Without survey insights

Alan Evans, Chief Marketing Officer, and Warren Fenn, Chief Operating Officer at Fragile to Agile, described a frustration that will feel familiar to many organisations.

“Formal employee feedback came once a year during performance reviews, which started to feel a bit disconnected from the day-to-day work and didn’t paint a clear picture overall,” they said.

When feedback is infrequent and removed from the reality of daily work, it becomes difficult to see patterns clearly or act with confidence. Leaders are left relying on instinct, and teams can feel as though their voice isn't welcome.

This is where a well-focused, regular pulse survey can make a real difference in building consistent visibility and conversations.

As Alan Evans points out "the real value comes when we pair the (employee feedback) data with trust, context and genuine follow-through.”

Uncovering unseen issues

Christine Inkster, Manager of Student Engagement and Customer Service at TAFE SA, shared an experience that highlights the human side of this shift.

While it is normal for energy levels to dip during peak periods, their real-time Teamgage results showed something unexpected. More staff were reporting low energy for reasons outside of work.

“It opened the door to some really valuable conversations about wellbeing that I might not have had otherwise,” Christine said.

In a remote and hybrid world, where informal conversations are easier to miss and organisations must be mindful of psychosocial hazards, that kind of early signal can make a real difference.

Andreea Visanoiu, Engineering Practices Lead at SEEK and member of the Team Health Working Group, described a similar experience.

“I’ve found that people have openness and trust when using the Teamgage platform, with comments updated in real time and surfacing issues that might not appear in our regular retrospectives. It’s this kind of visibility that has meant that we’ve been able to identify issues early and ensure action is targeted at the right demographic and areas.”

Outside of a traditional office context, the story is much the same. At Rackman Australia, where maintaining a constant focus on safety is critical, Craig McSweeney, General Manager, explained:

“I have found the Teamgage experience to be effective in raising issues that people may not necessarily raise in a group, meeting or toolbox scenario, and it has allowed Rackman to maintain a high number against our Safety question.”

Across very different environments, the pattern is consistent. When people have a simple way to raise issues, concerns surface earlier and with more honestly.

Removing barriers to performance for your teams

So what happens when those unseen issues are brought into the light?

Nicole Newton, Manager People and Culture at Mount Barker District Council, had a great example of where employee feedback led directly to action.

“A standout moment was receiving 66 comments in Teamgage about what a barrier to performance our IT systems had become,” she said.

The message was impossible to ignore. But after three months of focused effort from their teams, the number of IT-related comments dropped to just six.

That is what visibility looks like when it translates into improvement.

Over at NEC Australia, Steve Burnell, Senior Organisational Development Specialist reflected that Teamgage insights were “helping business leaders and business partnering teams identify and address issues early, delivering a positive outcome for staff engagement and business performance.”

When feedback is regular and visible, productivity conversations become part of business-as-usual.

Safe and secure conversations with employees

Another real shift, as we explored earlier in this post, is that leaders can now have these conversations in a new, safe and secure way.

With Teamgage Conversations, leaders can reply directly to survey comments and continue the discussion online, while employees remain protected and anonymous. That changes everything!

So instead of feedback disappearing into a report, leaders can thank someone for raising an issue. They can ask a clarifying question. They can dig a little deeper into an idea. They can explain what action is being taken and why.

For employees, it shows they have really been heard and leaders gain all the context and clarity they need.

Productive conversations with your team managers

There is another benefit of regular pulse surveys that often goes unnoticed, particularly for senior leaders.

Yes, they need to support team managers and department heads, but they also sometimes have to raise sensitive topics, and doing so can be a challenge.

Luke Havelberg spoke about this during his time as CIO at Flinders University, as he reflected on using a team's survey results when having one-to-ones with team managers.

“So the conversation isn’t ‘how’s your team going’ and they go ‘yeah, alright.’ It’s ‘I can see your Communication dial is trending down, I can see some of the comments coming through, why do you think this is, what actions are you taking to remediate it?’”

That shift is subtle, but it's actually really powerful.

Instead of a vague check-in that lacks some direction, the conversation becomes specific and really grounded. Both sides have something concrete to respond to, and the discussion moves from opinion to understanding, without feeling personal or accusatory.

Christine Inkster described the same benefit.

“Sometimes you can sense that a team or a team leader might be struggling, but bringing it up directly can feel awkward or accusatory,” she said.

When leaders have clear employee insights in front of them, the tone changes. The conversation no longer relies on instinct alone. You can point to what the feedback is showing and say, “Here’s what the feedback is telling us. How can I help?”

That simple shift makes conversations less emotional and far more productive.

The recap

When surveys are quick, simple and connected to real conversations, they become something people genuinely want to engage with.

A way for employees to speak up, and for leaders to listen with confidence and clarity.

If you'd like to know more. get in touch.