Employee Opinion Surveys

A well-designed employee survey is probably the best way for your organization to hear what your employees really think and how they see your organization and their own role. Inviting all employees and encouraging the highest possible response rate is really important because it means you can take action on accurate information, rather than relying on the "squeaky wheels" or on hearsay evidence.

Employee focus groups also have a role to play in understanding trends and attitudes but they should be used in conjunction with your employee survey findings. Focus groups are a great way to get more in-depth information on issues and concerns that come from your survey findings.

What makes a great employee opinion survey? We believe that there are 5 key characteristics :

1. It needs to have enough content to give you a thorough understanding of your organization but not be so long as to frustrate your employees when they are filling it out. As long as you take action based on survey findings, it's not unrealistic to ask your employees to spend 15 or 20 minutes filling out a survey every year or so.



2. It needs to be an interesting survey for your employees to take. A good mix of questions not only means that you are more likely to get the information you really need, it also makes the experience more enjoyable for your employees. We do not believe in asking employees to fill out pages and pages of agreement ratings.



3. It needs to have a single summary measure of your performance that you can track over time - this measure will tell you "how" you are doing and will give you simple way to see if you are succeeding in your efforts to create an engaged and committed workforce. In our 4Cs survey, we use overall job satisfaction as this summary measure.



4. It needs to identify both the strengths and the weaknesses within your organization -once you know "how" you are doing, these questions will help you decide "what" you should do. We see little value in using very short employee surveys that do not have any diagnostic measures. How are you supposed to know what action you should take?



5. It should include a good balance of rating questions and open-ended text questions . Your employees know your organization better than anyone and great surveys make the best use of this fact. Having employees answer ratings scales means that you know how strongly or how poorly they feel about things at your organization. Just as important, getting them to explain their ratings in their own words or asking them for recommendations on topics that are important to them can also be invaluable in determining what action you need to take.

An employee opinion survey should never be an end in itself - it should always be part of a larger goal of maximizing employee satisfaction and engagement. A well-designed survey that gets you the information you need to know will go a long way to helping you meet that goal.

Are you ready to find out how our comprehensive approach to employee opinion surveys can help in your organization? Find out what hundreds of other companies have discovered: That the small investment required to achieve measurable improvement is not just a benefit to employees, but to you and your entire organization as a whole.

Click here to request a no-hassle, no obligation quote for your organization now.