Best Practice Tips

Pragmatic tips on survey implementation for the practitioner, based on our (and our clients') years of experience...

An employee survey should be a process, not an event.  An event has a beginning and an end.  A process implies something that is on-going and integrated into an organization.  Integration comes about as a result of the critical survey follow-up stage.  The follow-up phase – what happens in an organization after the data are in – is where most programs fall apart.  When you ask people for their opinions, they assume – they expect – their input will be used.  Not following up on the survey results will damage the organization’s (and management's) credibility.  Why do so many survey follow-up efforts fail?  Here are ten sure-fire ways to de-rail your employee survey process.

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The issue of whether or not to use incentives to boost participation in employee surveys comes up regularly.  Inevitably, somebody suggests encouraging managers to tell their employees that there will be a company-provided celebration (probably the most common is a pizza party or other type of lunch) for any department that can boast 100% participation in the survey.  Other organizations set up “contests” where departments vie to see which can achieve the highest participation – again, with some sort of company-sponsored prize going to the winner(s).  A few have attempted to enter individual participants into drawings, often with multiple prizes.  So, do incentives work?

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One of the primary reasons for lower participation in an employee survey is employees’ fear that their responses are not really anonymous – that whatever they say can come back to hurt them.  If employees do not trust the survey process, you will have a difficult time fostering enthusiasm or securing participation.  Here are some best practices to help reassure employees.

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Many organizations are concerned about getting a high response rate to their employee survey.  After all, getting a poor response makes it harder to generalize the results and make informed decisions.  It causes management to question the data and often de-rails any action planning activity that might benefit the organization.  So why did your survey response drop?  Check out these common mistakes.

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A successful survey program requires the willing participation of key groups and individuals in the organization.  People participate because they feel ownership in the process, understand the benefits of a survey effort, and trust that their input will be considered.  Communication before, during, and after the survey administration is an integral part of maintaining employee commitment to the process and reinforcing management's credibility.  There are three over-arching guidelines for a successful communications strategy.

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Surveys provide us with data – lots of data.  Reports full of different numbers.  Percentages.  Frequencies.  N-counts.  Mean scores (with or without standard deviations).  And you have to make sense of it all.  Just knowing what the numbers say is not enough; you have to figure out what the numbers mean in order to use survey results.  When survey reports are distributed, one question is on everyone’s mind:  Is this result good or bad?  The answer is almost always “That depends.”  There are several ways to interpret survey data, and all of them involve context.  It turns out that meaning – to co-opt an old saying – is in the eye of the beholder. 

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Not that long ago, all surveys were paper-based.  The dissemination, collection, and processing of hundreds (if not thousands) of paper surveys, and the subsequent distribution of paper reports, was time-consuming and expensive, especially for large, geographically dispersed organizations.  To ease the strain on their resources, most organizations opted for surveying their employees every other year.  Today the advent of technology has made administration of annual (or even more frequent) surveys a feasible option.  And this has given rise to the perennial question:  “How often should I conduct an employee survey?”

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We live in a changing world, and the organizations in which we work are not exempt.  Mergers.  Acquisitions.  Downsizing.  Turnover and transition, reorganization and right-sizing.  So the question often arises: Should an organization proceed with an employee survey in the midst of significant events that may significantly affect the work environment?  Many feel that during a period of dramatic change, you should not be putting more pressure on an organization by expending time and resources on a survey.  Others believe organizations should consider most significant organizational events as unique opportunities to use their survey as a tool for change.  So, which approach works best? 

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