29 Feb 2024
An invaluable resource for business leaders is the employee survey.
It serves to reveal discrepancies between perceived and actual situations, offering invaluable insights for informed decision-making.
Addressing issues such as workplace stress, enhancing engagement, and improving culture, initiating an employee survey is paramount.
In this guide, we’ll outline 10 straightforward steps for conducting an effective survey.
Before you conduct your survey, you need to clarify what outcomes you want to achieve.
As a business leader, you’re probably already aware of some problem areas that you know you need to improve.
Examples might include high rates of absenteeism or a negative atmosphere impacting productivity.
Be clear when defining the outcomes you want to achieve in these cases.
If you’re just beginning to take a proactive approach to your HR responsibilities, you’ll likely need to identify which areas of the business require attention.
In such instances, it may be necessary to conduct a broader survey to gain a better understanding of the situation.
Usually, you have three options to conduct your employee survey:
Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Depending on your objectives and the nature of your business, you can determine the most suitable approach with guidance from an HR consultant.
The manner in which you construct your survey holds significant importance – the questions should be formulated in a manner enabling comparison, benchmarking, and derivation of actionable insights from responses.
Hence, online surveys are often favoured for employee feedback, primarily due to the uniformity of questions and the controlled environment in which they are completed.
To facilitate this process, here are several popular question formats suitable for inclusion in your online survey:
Multiple Choice Questions
This format entails posing a question accompanied by a range of answer options from which employees can select. You can specify whether respondents are allowed to choose only one option or multiple choices.
Rating scale
This involves posing a question and presenting response options at opposite ends of the scale.
For instance, you might inquire, “How likely are you to recommend working for the company to a friend?”
The scale typically ranges from 1 to 10, where 1 signifies “very unlikely” and 10 indicates “very likely.”
Respondents then slide the scale to indicate their chosen response.
Matrix questions
Matrix questions are frequently used when addressing multiple related items or statements with the same set of response options. This format streamlines the presentation of information, enabling respondents to provide feedback on numerous items in a structured manner.
For instance, in a customer satisfaction survey, a matrix question could be utilised to gather feedback on various aspects of a product or service. Rows might represent different features or aspects (e.g., product quality, customer support, pricing), while columns could offer response options like “Very Satisfied,” “Satisfied,” “Neutral,” “Dissatisfied,” and “Very Dissatisfied.”
Having crafted the ideal survey, it’s now time for your employees to fill it out.
However, before they do, it’s crucial to set the right context for the survey.
This is essential not only to encourage employees to take the survey seriously but also to mitigate response bias. Response bias occurs when your pre-survey framing unintentionally influences employees to provide inaccurate responses.
Navigating this challenge can be complex, so it’s advisable to collaborate with an experienced HR consultant to ensure accuracy and effectiveness.
Similar to how pre-framing can impact survey responses, peer influence among employees can also affect survey outcomes.
This underscores the significance of controlling the survey environment.
Arguably, the most reliable approach to obtaining accurate responses is to have employees complete the survey individually in a distraction-free environment.
After your employees have finished the survey, it’s time to delve into the analysis of the results.
There are numerous methods for conducting this analysis, depending on the survey’s characteristics.
Our top recommendation is to breakdown the data extensively and in a manner that you can understand.
Once more, seeking assistance from a skilled HR consultant can prove invaluable in this process.
After analysing your findings, the next step is to develop an action plan aimed at addressing any issues identified by the survey and attaining your desired objectives.
This phase is likely the most challenging aspect of the entire process, and working with an HR consultant to devise a comprehensive plan can be really useful.
It’s crucial to communicate both the findings of your survey and the actions you’ve chosen to take.
Why is this so important? Engagement.
Employees want assurance that their honesty and efforts have been acknowledged and understood. They seek validation that their time hasn’t been squandered and that their opinions and concerns hold value.
How you opt to communicate is at your discretion. You might opt for a presentation to relay the findings and ensuing adjustments. Alternatively, in cases where feedback prompts minimal changes, an email may suffice. Whatever your choice, remember that transparency and clear communication are paramount.
Following all these steps, there’s one crucial element you mustn’t overlook: implementing these changes.
While it may seem obvious, the demands of a busy week or month can sometimes hinder even the best intentions.
Failing to take action could result in a loss of trust and engagement from your team.
Once you’ve completed this process successfully once, it’s worth considering making it a regular practice.
You might even opt to trial changes for a period, say six months, and then reissue the same survey to gauge how responses evolve.
This not only allows you to assess the effectiveness of any changes but also serves as a strong reminder to your employees that you genuinely value their feedback and are committed to making meaningful improvements.
That covers everything you need to initiate employee surveys. Give it a try and observe the positive impacts it can have on your business. And remember, if you require further assistance or guidance, don’t hesitate to reach out.
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