Employee Satisfaction Surveys - Step by Step Guide

Posted by Sarah on Nov 12, 2009 in Lots of Articles |

The benefit of deploying an employee survey on an annual basis has for a long time been widely accepted but many organizations are reluctant to conduct them due to the amount of effort that is required.

Many organizations who have conducted their own internal employee satisfaction surveys use word-processors to design and compile a survey, then go through the effort of printing and distributing the survey and invest time chasing and collecting the completed surveys and then more buy propecia fda approved time transferring the survey response information into a meaningful management report.

Fortunately with the introduction of the Internet and hosted survey websites what was once a time consuming, resource hungry, long winded and cumbersome process is now slick, quick and easy.

Document here is a step by step guide to help implement a survey that will bring considerable benefits to any organization.

Step 1 - Identifying the Need

The reasons an organization might need a survey cytotec side effects are numerous. Listed below are a few of the common reason why organizations conduct employee satisfaction surveys.

Event Driven

If your organization is about to embark, or is going through, a process reengineering program a series of employee surveys can assist in managing the change program, measure the effectiveness of the change, help to deliver a ‘message’ and gather valuable feedback throughout the change cycle.

Where an organization is experiencing a period of rapid growth employee surveys can make sure that the employees are aware of their reporting and management responsibilities.
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If an organization is suffering from poor moral stemming from either internal or external influences an employee survey can be used to identify buy cialis cheap what the specific concerns of employees are so that those concerns can be properly addressed.

An employee survey can help an organization identify the underlying cause of employee unrest that may results in an increase of staff turnover and through the survey findings help find solutions.

Periodically

As part of a periodic assessment, surveys will assist an organization in regularly reviewing their employees and monitoring an individual’s job satisfaction, training and career development.

Employee surveys will allow the senior management team the opportunity to look at what makes their organisation tick and confirm, or not, that their ‘top down’ view matches the reality and ‘bottom up’ perspective of their employees.

Employee surveys will help an organization establish good employee/employer communication that will in turn bring direct and indirect benefits.

Step 2 - Management Support

It is always desirable and sometimes essential to have management support for a survey but where a management team might have grown complacent and detached from their employees the survey results may be all that is required to get them to positively reengage with the business and employees.

Some senior management teams will recognize and drive the need for employee surveys, while other management teams may need to be convinced of the direct and indirect benefits an employee survey will bring.

The level of management commitment to an employee survey will have some bearing on the nature of the survey and to some extent will help determine what questions are to be asked and the manner they are asked.

A management that is supportive of the initiative may have specific areas of concern that they require feedback on or they may give the go ahead simply because they have no reason to think that the level of employee satisfaction throughout the organization is anything other than high.

Step 3 - Designing The Survey

Compiling an effective survey can take some time and effort but by applying the basics of good survey design and focusing on ‘need to know’ questions and removing the ‘nice to know’ a survey will rapidly take shape.

Determining the exact questions that should be asked will be entirely dependent on the individual organization, its structure and the previously identified primary need and objectives of the employee survey.

While considering what questions to ask give consideration to how the results are to be analyzed. For example there may be a desire to ask for individual comments but these types of answer formats can be very time consuming and cumbersome to analyze and should therefore be avoided or used sparingly.

With online surveys it is generally better to do a few smaller surveys than one very long survey as the longer the survey the higher the drop out rate will be.

Step 4 - Checking And Testing

Grammar, Spelling And Clarity

Before the survey is published carefully check that there are no spelling and typing mistakes or incorrect grammar. It is recommended that you always have a colleague who has not been involved in the survey design to proof read the survey with clean eyes before the survey goes live, if no colleague is available try to take a break before checking through the survey again.

Say What You Mean And Mean What You Say

When checking the survey you need to consider the survey from the viewpoint of the respondent, you may know what you mean by each question but will the questions be clear to the employee?

Allow the Respondent to Answer Truthfully

For closed questions where the employee will be required to choose from a number of available responses have you allowed the employee to answer accurately? Make use of responses like ‘Don’t know’, ‘No comment’ or ‘Not Applicable’ where you have made the question mandatory but the employee may not be able to answer.

Consider allowing the employee to include an ‘Other’ answer but also appreciate that ‘Other’ answers will add to the complexity when analyzing the survey results.

Don’t Insist on a Response to Questions that may not have one

Check that for questions that have been made mandatory that you definitely do require an answer, for example open questions that ask for additional comments should not be mandatory unless you really do require the respondent to write a comment.

Check You Will Be Able To Analyze The Data

Make another check of the survey but this time examine how the results of the survey will be analyzed. Give consideration as to how you will want to analyze the survey data, have you asked the right questions to be able to perform the detailed analysis that you desire? For example if you wanted to view the detailed response data from the perspective of the different genders, or maybe departments, check you have asked the employee to indicate their own gender and/or department.

Don’t Ask Anymore Questions Than You Need To

Consider all the questions in the survey and ensure that they are all ‘need to know’ questions.

Test the Link and Try Completing the Survey

Publish the survey and then send the survey’s link to colleagues who will be able to help you test the survey. By completing the survey yourself you will get a feel for the survey from a respondent’s point of view. From your own and the feedback of your colleagues stop and fine tune the survey as required.

Continue to repeat this process until you are happy with the survey.

Check The Data

Take time to view the online summary Buy Levitra results of the test data and confirm that the data is being collected in a manner that can be properly analyzed and that will give meaningful results.

Step 5 - Promoting And Deploying The Survey

Where all or the majority of employees have access to the Internet or company intranet deploying the online survey is as easy as falling off a log, either via email or by establishing a link to the survey from your own website or the Intranet.

Where there are some or many employees that do not have direct access to the internet there are a number of alternatives that can be used from issuing the survey in printed form, providing a shared terminal or giving them an incentive to complete the survey at home.

Step 6 - Monitoring

While the survey is in progress you will be able to view the summary results online and also monitor in real-time the number of surveys that have been both started and completed.

If after a few days the number of completed surveys falls short of the expected target it is advisable to send periodic reminders to employees asking them to complete the survey.

Step 7 - Analyzing the Results

When it comes to analyzing the results data there are no hard and fast rules. Much depends on the individual survey, the questions asked and the number of responses.

When first analyzing survey data often a number of ‘headline’ results will immediately stand out that will provide you with a general overview and, providing the right questions have been asked, give you an instant assessment buy cheap amoxil online of the mood throughout the organization as a whole.

Where the results give areas of concern a more detailed analysis may be advisable. For example if employees were asked if they felt the organization provided equal opportunities to both genders and 25% gave a negative response it would be useful to know the gender split of the organization and also to look at what the gender split was of the 25% that answered negatively. Was any negative view shared by employees of both genders, consistent throughout the organization, or was it restricted to a particular gender and/or a particular department?

Step 8 - Post Survey Action

The most important step is probably the last. An employee survey will either confirm that the perfect organization exists or it will highlight areas that are less than perfect by identifying individual and common concerns.

It may be that further more detailed surveys are required that target amoxicillin buy specific areas. For example the results of a survey may reveal that employees working in a particular department are unhappy, but the reasons for their dissatisfaction may not be clear. A specifically targeted follow-up survey may help reveal the root causes.

When employee surveys are periodically run an organization that has taken steps to address issues will see their efforts reflected in subsequent survey responses. Almost all organizations have problems and it helps an buy cialis online organization’s moral cheap kamagra to see that a channel exists that will identify problems that can then be addressed and resolved.

Summary

These guidelines are intended to help an organization conduct successful employee satisfaction surveys, they are however, only a guide.

By utilizing existing technology and conducting surveys online you are now able to monitor the heart beat of an organization, quickly, easily and at minimal cost.

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