The employee survey is an effective tool for determining the health of an organization. Problems can be quickly identified and fixed, new ideas can surface, and overall morale can improve substantially, resulting in significant increases to productivity. However, if not executed properly, not only can the benefits of surveying be reduced, but severe damage can be done. Follow the tips below to avoid the common pitfalls and conduct an effective survey program.
Approach
Maintain confidentiality. Employees must be reassured that their responses to surveys are confidential. If the survey is not perceived as such, there is no point in administering it as the answers will not be forthright. One of the easiest ways to maintain anonymity is to have a third party conduct the survey. There are plenty of alternatives available in a wide variety of price ranges to suit your needs.
Keep it simple. Employees are doing this on their own time. You should not overburden them with hundreds of questions.
There are plenty of canned surveys out there that gauge employee satisfaction. Take advantage of what is already available. In addition to saving time and money, another benefit of not inventing your own survey is the ability to benchmark against other organizations in your industry, against national averages, etc.
Allow for and encourage free form comments. Numbers are helpful, but often the larger value is in the explanations behind them.
Administration and Reporting Results
Don't force employees to take surveys. Yes, participation is important. You want a representative sample of the employee population. However, forcing participation does not necessarily give accurate results. It also deprives you of important information. If employees don't participate, it's a sign that they either don't trust the process or have no faith that anything positive will result from it. This is a valuable piece of information to have and to track from one survey to the next.
Once the survey is completed and the results are tabulated, share all of them with the employees. Don't filter. Hiding information decreases trust and sabotages the process.
Don't make sweeping judgments about the results. "Oh, the economy has been poor. It has impacted raises. That's why the results are lower in this area." Rather, if you need more information about a particular area, ask for further clarification from the employees. This is easier with a third party as anonymity can be maintained. The next best approach is to have someone from a different organization, like HR, solicit the extra feedback. However, absent an HR department and deep pockets to pay for a third party, it is still worth having individual managers do the asking. If people think that something good can come out of sharing additional information, they will often risk anonymity to share it.
Action Plans
That brings up the most important part of surveying. Something must be done with the results. If survey results are taken, shared, and then ignored, the message to employees is that management simply doesn't care about them or their opinions. That is a morale crusher. Better not to conduct the survey at all than to conduct it and do nothing about it.
When putting together a plan to figure out areas to address, get the employees involved. If the employees are involved in the planning they will have more ownership in it, and the chances of completing it will be greater. They'll also tell you if they think a particular action will work or not.
Don't ignore an area just because it's equal to or better than a benchmark. Rather, address the areas that can impact your business the most. If a national survey says that 29% of employees are engaged and your results show 32%, that does not necessarily suggest you are sitting pretty. If you raised that percentage to 40% it might have an enormous impact to your business. It makes perfect sense to go after that area regardless of the position against the benchmark.
Don't bite off more than you can chew. Remember, results are the key. Pick a couple of areas, put together plans, and execute with a vengeance.
Share the plan with all the employees and report on progress against the plan frequently. This will demonstrate the importance of the plan.
Frequency
Don't stop with one survey. Surveying is an ongoing process. It should be done at least annually to demonstrate ongoing concern for employee opinions and to effectively measure the success of your action plans.
Conclusion
If executed properly, a good employee survey program can be extremely beneficial to a business. There are more resources available now than ever to assist. Follow the suggestions above and begin reaping the rewards.
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