What is Employee Survey?

In today’s context of highly competitive environment, Organizations are always in the mode of adopting various practices for high employee satisfaction and retention. Organizations tend to collect feedback from employees in many forms like town halls, direct feedback from employees and mostly commonly adopted ways is “Employee Survey”.

What is an employee survey?

It is a method of obtaining candid opinions of employees by giving them an opportunity to anonymously answer queries raised in a questionnaire. In some organizations, it is also known as “Employee Satisfaction Survey”.

Why employee survey?

The purpose of an employee survey is to obtain an understanding of your employees’ needs and how to improve your response to those needs. It also portrays that you are interested in and open to employee feedback.

Employee Survey:

• Provides an avenue for the organization to gather information concerning what the employee thinks of his/her job, team or work group, the organization, and other specific issues, such as organizational culture or turnover problems.
• Can aid in understanding or anticipating employee needs as they relate to your organization’s bigger picture.
• Provides a basis for an action plan to build on strengths and improve deficiencies.
• Can play a huge role in determining if your workers are connected to their jobs and are truly happy and fulfilled.

How should be an employee survey?

Employee surveys cannot simply be put together hastily without any thought. Questions need to be developed and laid out in a manner to obtain unbiased, honest and actionable feedback. The survey should be short and allow for flexibility when distributing, collecting, or analyzing.

Below are the things to keep in mind when developing and administering your annual employee satisfaction survey: 

1. There is no one right way to put together this survey:  The questions you format and add will depend on the information you are trying to gather.  The first step is to determine the goal of the survey and based on the same, the topics to be included in the survey. Many surveys deal with the actual job, the employee’s direct management, employee development, peers within the company, compensation, company leadership, etc.  
2. Seek the help of a professional: These surveys should be designed by professionals who understand how to ask questions that gather unbiased information. This is preferably someone who has a market research background.    
3. Allow all employees to participate in the survey:  Employees should never self-select to participate in an employee survey. When this is allowed, those employees who are either very satisfied or very unsatisfied will volunteer.  In addition, very communicative employees will step up.  This leaves an entire segment of your work population unrepresented.  To guarantee accurate results that can be analyzed and compared year after year, every employee should be included in the survey process.  
4. A commitment to share the results and making the changes: In addition to sharing the results, you must communicate openly and honestly about the changes, their impact and the reasons behind them. This helps in building trust among employees and helps them become involved in the changes.   

An Approach to Conducting Employee Surveys

By taking a well-planned approach, you can gain many insights from conducting employee surveys. Below is the step to conducting employee surveys, which is simple and reaps valuable benefits for your organization.

Identify the Survey’s Purpose

For a survey to be successful, it is important that it serves a specific purpose. Surveys designed without a clear direction will only return with poor results.

Identify the reason you are conducting the employee survey: What do you want to know? What has prompted the need for a survey? What areas of the organization need improvement or change? What information would help you to make better decisions?

By identifying what you want to know, it will be easier to determine the design, content, and tone of your employee survey.

Determine Who Will Conduct the Survey

Who will manage the survey? Who will determine content? Do you have the in-house expertise to conduct the survey or will the survey process involve the services of an external expert?

There are some advantages to conducting employee surveys independently. In-house surveys are less formal, more economical, and can be better suited to certain situations.

For broader scale and more sensitive issues, you may hire an external firm to guide you through designing and conducting your employee survey. These firms can also be very helpful in designing the questions, summarizing responses, and segmenting the survey results based on the location or type of respondents. The main advantage of having employee surveys conducted by a third-party is the ability to ensure employees that responses are confidential and interpreted without internal bias. If assured of confidentiality, employees will often be more likely to participate and be more candid in their responses.

Survey Design

Design of your survey and the questions you ask can make all the difference in the quality of the responses you gather. Consider these factors when designing the survey:

• Question Types – You may include forced choice, scale ratings, or open-ended questions that allow employees to comment. Most surveys will include a combination of various question types.
• Survey Language – Don’t use acronyms or terminology that all respondents may not be familiar with.
• Demographic Information – You may choose to gather demographic data such as years with the company, functional area, or job classification. This can be helpful when assessing the survey responses.
• Mode of Survey – Surveys can be paper-based, interviews (in-person or by telephone), or electronic either by email or online.
• Participation – You will want to determine whether you require full participation or if you will be able to gather sufficient information from a random sample. Other considerations include whether you will require employees to complete a mandatory survey or if the survey will be voluntary.
• Timing – Will employees complete the survey during work hours or on their own time? Be aware that this might influence participation rates.

Once you have completed the survey design, consider running a pre-test with a small control group of employees. Ask for their feedback on the question clarity, the survey length, and any other issues that might arise.

Communicate the Process

Communication is a common concern that arises when conducting employee surveys. Often employers conduct surveys without adequately explaining the purpose of the survey, what will happen with the results and what actions the company might take based on the information gathered.

You can boost participation and increase the quality of the survey responses by being clear about why you are asking the questions. We recommend that clients send an invitation to employees outlining the reasons and goals for the survey along with instructions and timelines for completion. Be sure to include information about the confidentiality of results and how the information will be shared.

Conduct the Survey

Consider the time that the survey will be conducted relative to your organizational needs. Avoid conducting the survey during peak business periods and allow adequate time for all participants to respond.

Compile Survey Results

Tabulate the responses for rated and forced choice questions and calculate response percentages.

Open-ended and comment questions can often provide valuable information. Look for recurring themes and highlight any specific responses that reflect an important idea.

If you have included demographic questions or have set up response collectors by groups, you will also be able to compile responses by these factors.

Present the Results and Follow Through

An important step in the survey process is presenting the results to the survey participants and other stakeholders. Decide how you will present the results: Will you provide information on specific question results? You will also have to decide how to present the results (presentation or written report).

If you develop plans or initiatives based on the information gathered, provide employees with progress updates, linking these projects to the survey results. This is vital to the success of future surveys. Your employees will feel their input was valued, strengthening their trust and commitment to the organization, and will be more willing to participate in the future.