When you answer these surveys, because you are that p!ssed off you want them to know, the paper pushers come back with the line that 'staff engagement' is up.
These surveys actually allow them to meet a target of getting 'staff engagement'.
Unfortunately the way management is now run in Australia these dodgy surveys are a win either way for ineffectual management.
If the usual suspects, who don't have anything better to do, and habitually fill these things out are the only ones to reply, then 'staff engagement' is down but most people (the oxygen thieves) are happy. It is then trumpeted about how happy (oxygen thieves) the staff are. Therefore management need to continue doing whatever it is they do to 'engage' the other staff to fill out the survey.
If the bulk of the staff are that unhappy that they bother filling these things in, then 'staff engagement' is up and we need to further 'engage' the unhappy staff in the ethos of the company. Thereby showing that there is a continuing need for the oxygen thieves to exist. The level of 'unhappiness' is then not actually stated, but handpicked areas are shown against some industry average to show that it isn't so bad.
The organisations or consultants that bleed money from companies are happy because they will get another go , and corresponding paycheque, for the next survey and the oxygen thieves are happy because they have justified their existence.
Seriously, when was the last time anyone ever saw something constructive come out of one of these surveys?
There is a whole industry that exist like ticks on a dog feeding off companies around Australia. Unfortunately companies have these 'ticks' living inside them and it is a symbiotic relationship between those inside the company and those outside acting as consultants. They are very clever at justifying each others existence. They are actually parasites.