How to conduct Employee Surveys

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AN INTRODUCTION TO EMPLOYEE RESEARCH TECHNIQUES

Planning for Employee Satisfaction Surveys

The following table outlines some of the key messages that should be communicated at each stage of the survey process:

Pre Survey	During the Survey	Post Survey	Between Surveys
Objectives of the survey, rationale for the survey and how the results will be fed back	Reminder of the objectives and assurance that action will be taken	Thank employees for participating	Highlight and recognize successful examples of action planning
Use an independent, third-party agency for data collection	Assurance that individual surveys cannot be seen
Timing of the data collection	Regular reminders and a notice of when the survey completion period will end	Final response rate (Company wide vs. Business Units/Divisions)	Recognize the contributions of teams and individuals to the action planning process
Senior management commitment to the survey	How the results will be acted upon	Detail on how employees should get involved in the improvement action planning process	Senior management endorsement and support of the final action plan/survey outcomes
Importance of getting a good response rate so that all employee opinions are heard	Update on current response rate	Local results and local improvement action planning	Detailed plans for the next survey
Importance of participation	Reinforce the importance of participation	Provide top-level summary results	Highlight any areas where action cannot be taken and the reasons for this
Methodology to be used (online vs. paper-based or some combination)	How employees can participate and what employees should do if having problems accessing or completing the survey	Reminder of the action planning process	Highlight the impact of action planning on customer service and business performance
Assurance that the study will protect anonymity and preserve confidentiality	Reinforce anonymity and confidentiality of the results

Insightlink lets you see where your company stands on each of the critical 4Cs of employee satisfaction: Commitment to assess employee engagement, Culture to gauge leadership and accountability, Communications to identify roadblocks to effective management and Compensation to measure employee perceptions of pay and benefits.

It is the period between surveys that are the most important for determining the appropriate action, if any, on each of the 4Cs and for communicating the actions taken back to employees. Improvement action is the most important part of the survey process, especially since many employees believe that little or no improvements are generated from employee surveys. However, the perception that little action has been taken often is not true. Lack of awareness of improvements among employees, or their inability to link the improvements back to the survey, lead them to believe that nothing positive is happening.

Branding the survey and subsequent action planning activity with a name and/or a logo is another way of raising the profile. In this way, employees can link the results of improvement actions back to how they responded in the survey. A short-form name or acronym can help make your employee survey more memorable, especially if the name or acronym is used consistently throughout the survey process.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Research Benefits

Types of Employee Research

Deciding on Methodology

Satisfaction Surveys

Planning for Employee Surveys

Web vs. Paper Surveys

Questionnaire Design

Survey Completion

Analysis and Reporting

Action Planning

Prioritizing Actions

Formalizing Action Plans

Reviewing Action Plans

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