Undercover Boss Survey Lessons

One of the most popular shows on television is “Undercover Boss.” It’s a show where the CEO of a company puts on a disguise and goes undercover within their own organization to see what the employees are doing, how they’re feeling, what the work is like, and more. Like most reality shows, some of it is real, and some of it is fabricated or set up. For example, every employee seems to have a difficult life story, and it’s likely those stories are hand chosen by producers. Still, most experts believe that the show is real in theory, and that means that some of the most important parts of the show are real as well.

While several of the episodes differ, one constant is the idea that the CEOs can learn a lot from their employees if they’re willing to listen. Some of the employees had fantastic ideas or noticed easy to fix problems that the CEOs didn’t know from their chairs at the home office. Every company has the potential to learn from its employees, but not everyone can have a boss go undercover to find out what the employees’ ideas are.

Your employees have thoughts and needs. You can find them out with employee surveys. Sending employees a regular survey once every few months to vent out their frustrations or needs within the company may be exactly what your industry needs to continue to compete in the economy. You can make the surveys optionally anonymous or hire someone in the company to look into the thoughts and concerns, and you can make sure that each department has a voice so that you can see what can be done to improve revenue, make employees happier, and more.

No matter what you may think of Undercover Boss, there is no denying that CEOs do not always know of the challenges, ideas, and improvement opportunities that the employees within your organization see. Are they all accurate? Of course not.

Not every idea is a good one, just as not every employee that believes they deserve a raise actually deserves one. But no organization is perfect, and there are always improvements to be made. Some of those improvements will come from your own ideas, but others are going to come from the very people that work in your company every day.

Using employee surveys, you can potentially give yourself numerous new ways to improve your business from top to bottom, with ideas that could keep you competitive for years to come.