The Truth About Those Employee Surveys

Let’s have a little conversation about employee surveys.

A week or so ago, there was a report swirling around about grumblings from Microsoft employees regarding the company’s annual employee survey. The concern wasn’t necessarily with the survey itself, but rather how the results were presented back to employees. Many felt the findings were framed in a way that didn’t fully reflect the feedback people had actually provided, creating a disconnect between what employees believed they said and what leadership chose to highlight.

The issue centered around a long-standing survey question that asked employees whether they felt they were getting a “good deal” at Microsoft, essentially whether the value they contributed to the company was fairly balanced with what they received in return. When the annual survey results were shared, that question was noticeably absent from the headline findings.

Of course, employees quickly took notice, and the conversation shifted away from the survey results themselves toward a larger question of trust, transparency, and whether companies can ask for feedback without making employees wonder which answers actually matter.

After eighteen years of being a leader in various organizations, I can tell you I’ve seen and heard a lot with these surveys.

First off, I think the routine and the concept of these employee surveys are truly fantastic, but it all depends on who your HR team and leadership team are, and whether they agree on who should do what and how to make these things go.

I’ve known leaders who use the results to fire people. I’ve known leaders who use the results to promote people. I’ve known leaders who have done everything they can to tamper with the results, and I’ve known leaders and organizations who have hidden results from the masses.

In a particular organization I worked for, we did an employee NPS score. In one survey period, the scores were off the charts positive. Everyone celebrated. In another survey period, the scores were off the charts negative. Middle managers got blamed, employees were told they were ungrateful, and training sessions were launched to fix the organization. The organization was more than happy to celebrate how amazing they were when the scores were good, but quick to point blame when things weren’t great.

In another organization, I had a leader who refused to show the negative results in the town hall, saying he would only show them in individual manager meetings, essentially withholding the broader company results. All this did was cause people to talk and create more of a negative narrative than what was needed.

One company I worked for didn’t even share them broadly. You took them, you wondered, and unless you had access to the data, nothing really happened.

Which brings me back to Microsoft.

I have no idea whether the company intentionally omitted anything, and that’s honestly not the point. The fact that employees immediately questioned the presentation of the results tells you everything you need to know. The conversation wasn’t about a survey question anymore. It was about trust.

The survey itself is rarely the problem.

The problem is what happens after the survey.

Most employees don’t expect leadership to fix every issue overnight. They understand that some things take time, budgets exist, and not every piece of feedback can become a company initiative. What employees do expect is honesty. They expect transparency. They expect to feel like someone actually listened.

The moment employees start believing that survey results are being filtered, spun, hidden, or selectively shared, the trust begins to disappear. Once that trust is gone, future surveys become little more than a checkbox exercise. People stop telling the truth because they stop believing the truth matters.

The best leaders I’ve worked with weren’t the ones who received glowing survey results every year. They were the ones willing to stand in front of their teams and say, “Here is what you told us. Here is where we agree. Here is where we need to improve. Here is what we can fix, and here is what we can’t.”

There is something incredibly powerful about hearing a leader acknowledge reality without trying to explain it away. Employees don’t need perfection. They need consistency. They need to know that the organization is willing to look in the mirror when the reflection isn’t flattering.

The organizations that get the most value from employee surveys aren’t using them as report cards. They’re using them as a compass. The goal isn’t to prove that leadership is doing a great job. The goal is to better understand where people are struggling, where teams are thriving, and where attention needs to be focused next.

That is why trust matters so much when you’re evaluating a company or deciding whether to follow a leader. Every organization talks about culture. Every organization talks about values. Every organization says they care about feedback. The real test comes when the feedback is uncomfortable.

Pay attention to what happens when people disagree with leadership. Pay attention to what happens when the scores go down. Pay attention to whether leaders become curious or defensive.

Those moments tell you far more about a company’s culture than any mission statement ever will.

The reality is that no company gets everything right. Every organization has problems. Every leader makes mistakes. The companies worth staying with are usually the ones willing to admit it. They don’t spend their energy trying to convince employees that reality isn’t real. They spend their energy trying to make reality better.

If you’re fortunate enough to work for leaders who tell the truth, share the results, admit where they’re falling short, and genuinely use employee feedback to improve the organization, hold onto those people. They are far rarer than most employees realize.

Trust is built when people believe their voice matters.

Employee surveys simply reveal whether that trust already exists.