Carrying out an employee survey is by no means a straightforward process. Effectory would like to give you some valuable advice.
Fifteen handy tips for a successful employee survey:
- Define your survey objective very carefully. What is the reason that you would like to conduct an employee survey? Do you need to monitor a reorganisation? Would you like to increase your employees’ productivity? If you have a clear objective you will be able to manage the expectations among your employees and management correctly. Also, you will only measure the essential and current topics, which makes sure your survey is to the point.
- Clarify what you would like to achieve: Do you aspire to generate a culture change, an actual movement or an organisational development? This means your achievement is based on a behavioural/tactical or strategic level. Or is just a comprehensive insight enough at this stage (operational level)? Besides, you also need to know whether you would like to have a general impression of the organisation or a thorough picture per division or department. Your choice will partly determine whether you involve the whole population or conduct a more random sample. A sample is a time saver, however a survey amongst all employees will lead to greater returns: as everyone can contribute, everyone's ideas are expressed which creates employee empowerment.
- Employership or employeeship. You can run an employee engagement survey in order to find out what an organisation needs to do in order to engage the employees to the company. We call this a measurement of employership. You could also approach the survey from multiple angles: employership and employeeship. Some companies work very hard to engage staff but it could appear that the individual employee is not willing engage him/herself to the organisation at all. In that case the resources put in employee engagement are useless.
- Ensure you have the buy-in of key employees. The survey will provide important information for your organisation and everyone must therefore be enthusiastic about it: before the survey, during it and afterwards. When you do not have the buy-in of the key employees, your survey will not be embraced enthusiastically. As a matter of fact, we have experienced the cases where the results ended up in the drawer.
- Inform your employees about the survey in advance and clearly communicate its importance to the organisation as a whole and to your employees in particular. This will lead to a higher response and quality in the answers. So, it should be very clear what the survey objective is, what they can expect and what they can do when they have a question or a remark.
- Involve the line management in the survey setup and when designing your questionnaire. Their commitment is essential when you want to get to work with the results. Moreover, the line management know what is going on the work floor. By adding their information to the questionnaire, you survey becomes more topical. You could consider drawing different questionnaires per department, but make sure at least 80% remains the same and therefore comparable.
- Involve the works council and perhaps the trades union in compiling the questionnaire (for the same reason as the line management).
- Guarantee anonymity/confidentiality. Only then will employees feel free to give their genuine opinion. For that reason we advise you to let the survey be carried out by a neutral third party. A competent agency will, for the same reason, set strict guidelines for reporting standards (for instance; groups should contain a minimum of 10 employees to guarantee anonymity). Remember that even though the survey may be completely anonymous, employees must also perceive it as such. Communication is again very important.
- Spend ample time on the questions. Be aware that composing good questionnaires is specialist work. Keep the questionnaire short and limit yourself to essential questions. Do not shy away from open-ended questions: they often provide valuable ideas and keep the survey interesting.
- Select a suitable method for the survey. Bear in mind anonymity and the perception of anonymity amongst employees. Written surveys and online surveys are the most common methods. But the combination method is perceived as the most confidential method. Furthermore, try to avoid employees completing the questionnaire in their department, as this will limit them in voicing their own opinions and increases the risk of group opinions.
- Ensure that the reports are accessible and easy to read for all levels. Large folders quickly disappear into the drawer. Provide a summary of the main themes. In the case of reports per organisational unit, make sure that everyone receives the relevant information.
- Communicate the results: show that you are pleased with the input. Make clear what the next steps are and what the planning looks like. Keep the organisation informed about the progress that is being made. Provide information once every quarter in the company newsletter or put the information on the intranet.
- Focus not only on areas for improvement but also stress the positive results.
- Measure periodically, but not too often. An annual survey is usually sufficient.
- Involve employees when initiating improvements. Improvement is not just the responsibility of management.
The suggestions mentioned above are fixed points of focus in all
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