The benefit of running an annual employee survey has for a long time been widely accepted but many organizations have been put off by the amount of effort that is required.
Many organizations who have bit the bullet and conducted their own internal employee satisfaction surveys have often relied on word-processors to allow them to design and compile a survey, then gone through the effort of printing and distributing the survey and spent time chasing and collecting the completed surveys and then even more time transferring the survey response information into a meaningful management report.
Fortunately with the introduction of the Internet and hosted survey websites what was once a time consuming, resource hungry, long winded and cumbersome process is now slick, quick and easy.
Document here is a step by step guide to help implement a survey that will bring considerable benefits to any organization.
Step 1 - Identifying The Need
There are numerous reasons an organization might benefit from a survey. The following are a few of the common reason why employee satisfaction surveys are conducted.
Event Driven Drivers
If your organization is about to embark, or is going through, a change management program employee surveys can assist in managing the change, measuring the effectiveness of the change, help to deliver a ‘message’ and gather valuable feedback throughout the change cycle.
Where an organization is experiencing a period of rapid growth employee surveys can make sure that the employees are aware of their reporting and management responsibilities.
Where an organization is suffering from poor moral brought on by either internal or external influences an employee survey can be used to identify the specific concerns of employees so those concerns can be properly addressed.
Where there is an increase in turnover of staff employee surveys can help an organization identify the underlying cause of employee unrest and through their findings help find solutions.
Periodically
As part of a periodic assessment, surveys will help an organization review their personnel and monitor on an individual level job satisfaction, training and career development.
Employee surveys offer the senior management the opportunity to look at the soft underbelly of their organization and will help them confirm, or otherwise, that their ‘top down’ view of the organization matches the reality and the ‘bottom up’ perspective.
With the help of employee surveys an organization can establish good employer/employee communication that will in turn bring both direct and indirect benefits.
Step 2 - Management Support
Management buy-in is always desirable for any initiative and many will argue that it is essential to ensure a successful employee survey, however, in some instances the findings of an employee survey can lead to kick-starting a management that has grown complacent and detached from their employees.
Some organization may be fortunate in that the senior management recognize and drive the need for employee surveys, while in others the management may need to first be convinced of the direct and indirect benefits an employee survey will bring.
The level of management commitment to an employee survey will have some bearing on the nature of the survey and to some extent will help determine what questions are to be asked and the manner they are asked.
A management that is supportive of the initiative may have specific areas of concern that they require feedback on or they may give the go ahead simply because they have no reason to think that the level of employee satisfaction throughout the organization is anything other than high.
Step 3 - Designing The Survey
Designing a good survey will take some time and effort but by following the basics of survey design and concentrating on the ‘need to know’ questions and removing the ‘nice to know’ a survey will rapidly take shape.
Deciding on what questions should be asked will be entirely dependent on the individual organization, its structure and the previously identified primary need and objectives of the employee survey.
When considering what questions to ask consideration should be given to how the results are to be analyzed. As an example you may be tempted to ask for individual comments but these types of answer formats can be very cumbersome and time consuming to analyze and it is recommended that they be avoided or at least used sparingly.
With online surveys it is generally better to do a few smaller surveys than one very long survey as the longer the survey the higher the drop out rate will be.
Step 4 - Checking And Testing
Spelling, Grammar and Clarity
Before the survey is published carefully check that there are no spelling and typing mistakes or incorrect grammar. If available it is always better to have someone who has not been involved in designing the survey to proof read the survey with clean eyes, if no one is available try to take a break before checking through the survey again.
Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say
When checking the survey consider the survey from the respondent’s viewpoint, you may know what you mean by each question but will the employee?
Allow The Employee To Answer Truthfully
Check that for closed questions where the employee will be required to choose from a number of available responses; have allowed the employee to answer accurately? Make use of answer response options like ‘Don’t know’, ‘No comment’ or ‘Not Applicable’ where you have made the question mandatory but the employee may not be able to answer.
Give consideration to allowing the employee to include an ‘Other’ answer but be mindful that ‘Other’ answers add to the complexity when analyzing the survey results.
Don’t Insist on a Response to Questions that may not have one
Check that for questions that have been made mandatory that you definitely do require an answer, for example open questions that ask for additional comments should be made optional unless you really do require the respondent to write a comment.
Check you will be able to Analyze the Data
Make another check of the survey but this time examine how the results of the survey will be analyzed. Consider how you are likely to want to analyze the survey data, have you asked the right questions to be able to perform detailed analysis? For example if you wanted to view the detailed response data from the perspective of the different genders, or maybe departments, check you have asked the employee to indicate their own gender and/or department.
Don’t Ask More Questions than you Need to
Consider all the questions in the survey and ensure that they are all ‘need to know’ questions.
Test the Link and Try Completing the Survey
Publish the survey and then send the survey’s link to a number of people who will be willing to test the survey. By completing you own survey yourself you will get a feel for how the respondent will view the survey. From your own and the feedback of your colleagues stop and fine tune the survey as required.
Continue to repeat this process until you are happy with the survey.
Check the data
Take the time to view the online results of the test data and ensure that the data is being collected and can be analyzed in a manner that will give meaningful results.
Step 5 - Deploying and Promoting the Survey
Where all or the majority of employees have access to the Internet or company intranet deploying the online survey is easy, either via email and/or by establishing a link to the survey from your own website or the Intranet.
Where there are some or many employees that do not have direct access to the internet there are a number of alternatives that can be used from issuing the survey in printed form, providing a shared terminal or giving them an incentive to complete the survey at home.
Step 6 - Monitoring
While the survey is in progress you will be able to view the summary results online and also monitor in real-time the number of surveys that have been both started and completed.
If after a few days the number of completed surveys falls short of any set target it is recommended to send employees one or more reminders to ask them to complete the survey.
Step 7 - Analyzing The Results
There are no hard and fast rules for analyzing the data. Much will depend on the specific survey, the questions that are asked and the number of responses that are received.
On the proviso that the right questions have been asked a number of ‘headline’ results will often stand out when the survey data is first analyzed that can provide you with an overview and an assessment of the general mood of the organization.
In areas where the results indicate areas of concern a more detailed analysis may be advisable. For example if employees were asked if they felt the organization provided equal opportunities to both genders and 25% gave a negative response it would be useful to know the gender split of the organization and also to look at what the gender split was of the 25% that answered negatively. Was any negative view shared by employees of both genders, is it a view held throughout the organization, or is it one that is limited to a particular gender and/or a particular department?
Step 8 - Post Survey Action
The most important step is probably the last. An employee survey will either confirm that the perfect organization exists or it will highlight areas that are less than perfect by identifying individual and common concerns.
It may be that further more detailed surveys are required that target specific areas. For example the survey may reveal that employees working in a particular department are collectively unhappy, but the reasons for their dissatisfaction may not be clear. A specifically targeted follow-up survey may help reveal the root causes.
When employee surveys are run on a regular basis an organization that has a track record of addressing the issues highlighted by surveys will see their efforts rewarded in the results of subsequent surveys. Almost all organizations have problems and it will help the moral of an organization to see that a channel is available that will highlight problems that can then be addressed and resolved.
Summary
It is hoped that these guidelines will help an organization conduct successful employee satisfaction surveys, they are however, only a guide.
By utilizing existing technology and conducting surveys online you are now able to monitor the heart beat of an organization, quickly, easily and at minimal cost.
