Five Rules For Employee Surveys that Sing

When a client is facing organizational change or an internal assessment, the best consultants look to employee satisfaction surveys to provide guidance and direction in their efforts.  By following the following five guidelines, these consultants can achieve the best results for their clients:

• Carefully define the objectives of the study, and what you want to learn from employees.  Sometimes consultants will approach these surveys with broad goals, which lead to results that are either impractical to act upon, or don’t yield information that can provide solid direction.  By working with staff to clearly define the purpose and what actions might be implemented, you improve your chances that the survey results will be meaningful and that any indicated actions will help the organization to achieve its bottom line goals.

• Make sure that leadership staff supports the goals of the study and communicates them to employees.  Employees take notice when they receive a personalized email from organizational leaders letting them know that a survey is coming their way.  They are more likely to respond to a survey when they know it has “teeth” behind it, and you’ll get a broader base of responses rather than hearing from those who are very happy (or unhappy). The responses you get will often be more thoughtful, allowing you to make recommendations that will have a greater impact.

• Limit the survey so that it takes no more than 10 minutes to complete.  While employees want to provide their feedback, longer surveys create fatigue among respondents, and diminish the quality of the data. By keeping the purposes of the study in mind when designing the survey, it will make it easier for you to achieve the study’s goal.

• Work with organizational leadership on a plan to communicate the results. By letting employees know that they have a voice and that their voice was heard, you add value to the survey, and enable them to feel that they are part of the process.

• Most importantly, the survey must be anonymous.  Completely.  No employee should know who else responded or didn’t respond, let alone the specific feedback that was provided.  Assuring employees that any and all responses will be kept confidential will assure you of getting the best data that reflects true employee opinion. This is why many consultants use a different research consultant for the survey – it provides employees with greater confidence that their opinions will be respected and that personal information will not be divulged.

Follow these guidelines, and not only will employees provide great feedback and insight, but your client will be singing your praises about the value-add that you provide.