Employee focus groups serve many purposes of human resource executives such as – gathering feedback on pilot programs. On the other hand, they check the pulse of the workforce that follows a major, change in the organization and so on. However, what is the purpose of employee focus groups meeting if it is not effective? So we have the best employee focus group meetings tips.
Nearly 33% of organizations in India use employee focus groups to determine the levels of employee engagement. This kind of meeting is beneficial. You need to understand an issue at a deeper level. Focus group questions for employee retention can be very effective. Although they are the best ways to determine the perception of the employee, there are some guidelines to make them much effective.
Here are the tips to focus group meetings effective so that you get the results to help your employee engagement strategy.
Plan the sessions wisely
Schedule the sessions for 1-2 hours. Check for sample employee focus group questions. Create proper employee focus group ground rules. Post-lunch sessions seem to be a good time for participants to attend. Hold the sessions in a conference room or similar setting with proper air and lighting. Make sure that the setting can accommodate 10-12 people easily, where everyone can see each other.
Identify good facilitator
The role of the facilitator is very important in focus group meetings. The facilitator must have leadership skills and should be able to manage the group with his communication skills. Focus group hosts need to deal with issues wittily and take the discussions on the right track. If you have a good budget, you can hire a professional facilitator to get a more positive response from participants.
Select the participants carefully
Employee engagement focus group invitation is an important aspect. You must follow a list of attributes while selecting the participants. Each focus group can have 8-12 members to allow smooth conversation flow. The common practice is to invite more than one and half of the people you want. For example – if you want the group to have 6-8 members, you must invite 9-12 participants. Make sure to keep the manager session separate from the non-manager session.
Set clear objectives
Develop an agenda by outlining the questions and topics to be covered in the focus group meeting. Moreover, sample focus group questions for employee engagement. A typical agenda includes – welcome, review of agenda, meeting objectives, introduction, discussions, summary and wrap-up.
Be open-minded
Open-minded discussions always give fruitful results, as it helps you know about the willingness of employees to learn new technologies. Such discussions develop confidence in employees that you are thinking about their skills. Moreover, they make the participants adaptable to the environment. It is hard for groups to optimize quality without the spirit of listening and cooperation.
Bottom Line
Remember that the focus group meetings lose their credibility if the participants fail to see the results of their efforts. If there are several group meetings across different departments, it is worthwhile comparing the results.
Focus groups are offering a variety to the discussion, which you may not achieve through feedback forms and surveys. Moreover, they can yield a lot of information in a relatively short time.
Do you have any employee focus group best practices for meetings in mind? Please suggest employee focus group ideas in the comment section below.
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