Internal Focus Groups: Unlock the Secrets to Growing Your Organization

It should be no secret that your employees took the brunt of any layoffs, restructuring, or pay cuts that were implemented at your organization in past months. So, it should also not be a secret that it is time to step back and evaluate how smoothly your organization is running. It probably needs a tune-up because of the changes made in survival mode. However, what may be a secret to you is that those same employees who took the brunt may hold the answers to the question, “How do we move forward now that we are out of the woods?” Answers, opportunities and ideas that you typically would seek from your upper management may best be answered from the people they manage.

Just Ask
When you think of research, your mind likely goes to your customers or your competitors. What are they thinking? What are they doing? How can we use this information to sell more widgets? All good questions in their own right, but when you are looking to recalibrate and grow your company, one of the best sources for answers may be your own employees.

Internal employee focus groups can be a very effective tool in discovering how you can move your company forward by working smarter and changing policies and procedures that are no longer relevant.  These focus groups can also be a treasure chest of ideas and new opportunities that, if implemented, can contribute to the growth of the organization. Remember, your employees, probably subconsciously, have shifted and adjusted to personnel losses. They have used their internal and external resources to realign and perform their jobs, with added and unexpected responsibilities, effectively. How did they do that? Is it working better? Do we still need to make adjustments?

All you have to do is ask.

The Realities
If you are open to the idea of asking your employees what they think, you need to acknowledge a few realities before you begin. First, be honest. Are you completely open to shifting and changing your organization to become more efficient and profitable? It sounds easy on paper, but true change can be painful. Change doesn’t have to happen all at once, but you need to take responsibility to be the catalyst for change in your organization and be committed to it.

Second, it’s best to have an outside source to facilitate the focus groups. Employees are much more likely to open up and be honest with someone who doesn’t have a say in their position or the ability to influence someone who does. Many employees may need to unload, express angst, or get something off their chests. They probably need to do this before they can refocus and concentrate on positive, or even communicate, potential actions they may have already implemented. You ultimately will get more out of your employees if you provide them this safe environment.  They may need to purge the negativity before they can formulate useful and productive ideas.

Next, you need to be very clear about what you want to find out from your employees’ answers. For instance:

    • Is your corporate culture working?
    • How are your employees really feeling—stressed, happy, angry,
      underappreciated, scared, ambivalent?
    • Are some departments running more smoothly or struggling to stay afloat? Why?
    • Are you clearly communicating as an organization and working as a team, or working in
      individual silos and getting by?
    • What ideas do they have that will make the organization stronger and start to grow and 
      become profitable again?
    • Do you need to replace people? Hire more? Restructure departments?

Finally, before beginning this process, let your employees know you recognize the hard work they have done. Acknowledge they had to handle forced changes and recognize they kept their departments functioning with fewer resources. Communicate why you are conducting employee focus groups—to find out how the organization adapted and what is working and what isn’t. If they know you are interested in what they have to say and feel their input is valuable in moving the organization forward, you will be more successful.

Get It Done
After you have gone through the process of executing employee focus groups, you end up with a lot of information that needs to be organized and analyzed. Some of the key areas to consider when analyzing and cataloging your data include:

     • Identifying the true pain points in your organization that can be addressed through an 
       action plan
     • Identifying the people who came up with resourceful and creative ways to do their jobs after
       layoffs that can be used in other parts of the company
     • Looking at the departments where you lost people without hurting productivity and where
       it did hurt productivity. What does this mean for the current structure of the organization? Can you streamline
       even more? Or do you need to add or shift resources to be more efficient and better focused?

After you organize and analyze the information and develop the plan to shift your organization into grow mode, it is imperative that you present the plan back to the employees for feedback. Ask them if you missed anything. Did you misinterpret anything? Are the most important issues being addressed first? Continue to keep an open mind and embrace feedback in all forms. Employees will want to know that you took everything they said and incorporated it, on some level, into the end plan. So, be prepared, based on the feedback, that you may have to go back and make adjustments.

In the End
Ultimately, the most important part of this process is what you do with the information you received. The follow-up, which includes analyzing, planning and implementation, is unfortunately where many companies stall out. They analyze and talk about a plan, but never put one together. Or, they get to the plan, but never mobilize and take action. You are better off not embarking on this journey if you are not going to see it through. You can potentially do more damage by talking to your employees and not following through, than you could by not talking to them at all.

Using employees as an instrumental research tool to be the catalyst for change is a shift in the way many companies are accustomed to capitalizing on their employees. However, it is both respectful and inclusive: they are the ones who can hold many of the answers traditionally addressed by upper management. If you, as a company, are finally ready to start growing your profits instead of remaining status quo, it’s time to consider looking in your own backyard for your answers.