Dig into data to reveal what's motivating your employees

Employers shouldn't be left scratching their heads trying to figure out what motivates the decisions employees make around their health and well-being. Data can reveal all — if you know how to use it. 

Workplace experts shared their secrets for using data and employee surveys to reduce healthcare spending, improve employee productivity and revamp total rewards packages at Reuters Total Health conference in Chicago. While employers have traditionally turned to data to look for ways to reduce their bottom line, that's just the start. 

"Leaders want to see, can we reduce costs and increase revenue?" said Enpei Lam, VP of people analytics and planning at commercial real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield. "If people are taking care of themselves, how is their productivity enhanced? We can see correlation and quantifiable results for that." 

Read more: If you're not surveying your employees on their benefits this year, you're doing renewals wrong 

Tasha East, vice president of workforce analytics, planning and technical products at Fannie Mae, said that digging into EAP utilization showed that employees were burned out during the pandemic. Her team paired these findings with productivity tracking to analyze work patterns in order to reduce stress. 

"We looked at their online activity and dug into different working patterns," East said. "We tried meeting-free afternoons, but that didn't work. We decided to allow them to log off at 1 p.m. on Fridays, which worked for our entire team. We knew it would mean something." 

In order to get employees to give you their data in the first place, they need to trust you'll do something with it, East said. If you're implementing a survey or want to track employee behaviors, employees need to be reassured that there will be a payoff in the end. 

"We never ask a question we aren't willing to do something about," East said. "We can't put the genie back in that bottle — we're living up to the promises we're making to employees." 

Read more: How to track employee productivity without crossing privacy lines 

Those promises — be it changes to work culture, new benefits, or actionable solutions to their issues — can solidify an employee's loyalty to your company and prevent turnover, said Lam. Yet the surveys must be intentional — he recommended ensuring surveys take no longer than 15 minutes to complete, keeping questions to a minimum, and making sure you act on it soon after.  

"Gathering data is never fun. People have a lot of concerns — you have to do it with a purpose," Lam said. "You have to act on the data after you collect it and the participants will be more likely to fill in your survey. The employee sees, 'my voice is being heard,' and that will help with the collection process." 

East said Fannie Mae takes a different approach — they survey employees three times per year, asking nearly 50 questions each time. While the surveys are more involved than Lam recommended, their completion rate is high — nearly 70%, East said. 

"We have a robust employee listening program and survey our employees frequently, and it's successful because we do something with the feedback," she said. "We lead with transparency. You get to see the results. It's not taboo."