Employee engagement surveys are a very useful
tool in an HR professionals toolkit. If
used properly it can be an excellent source of information, enhance employee
engagement and improve the support for the vision and mission of the
organization. As business partners,
Human Resources professionals play an important role by facilitating a
successful employee survey by following this six step process.
1. Establish
the goals of your survey project through interviews with the leadership team.
2. Create
your employee survey by identifying the issues you wish to survey.
3. Determine
your sample (all employees, or selected demographics)
4. Promote
the survey through a coordinated communication plan.
5. Analyze
and evaluate the survey data.
6. Create
four to six action items and share the survey results and action plans with the
employees.
This article discusses these six areas of survey
design which can have a positive impact on the organization and are as follows:
Establish
the Goals of the Project
Knowing what your leadership team wants in an
employee survey is a key factor to the surveys success. As a result, the first step in any survey is deciding
what you want to learn. The goals of the
project must be clear, measurable and actionable. If your goals are unclear, the results will
lack clarity and the project will not be as successful.
Create
the Survey
Identifying key areas to obtain data will
assist the organization in taking the necessary changes to identify challenges
and successes. The survey statements
should be concise, targeted and phrased in a positive format. This will assist in creating a consistent
methodology and process to the survey tool
It is important to only survey those areas where management is willing
to act. If the company is not in a
position to change its benefit plans or increase compensation, then the survey statements
should not focus on these areas.
Employee surveys can create an expectation that if the question is asked
management will act. Human Resources
should only survey those areas where the leadership team is supportive and
where action can be taken.
Who is
Going to be Surveyed
There are two main decisions that need to be made
in determining who you will survey. The
first is deciding how many employees do you want to survey. Researchers will often call this group the
target population. The next decision is
to determine if you will survey all employees or a statistical sample. Researches will often call this the sample
size. Most employers will decide to
survey all eligible employees; however, some company’s due to their size may
want to survey a smaller sample of the total employee population. Organizations today will often decide how
many employees to survey based upon their budget and the necessary degree of
precision. If a statistical sample is
utilized Human Resources will need to make every effort to avoid a biased
sample.
Promote
the Survey
A successful surveys starts with communicating the
reason behind the initiative, the process and the timing of the survey. Human Resources should also let employees
know if an incentive to participate will be as part of the process. Survey participation is very important to
secure employee buy-in for the tool and support for the outcomes following the
closure of the survey. Failure to
promote the survey will impact participation and the credibility of the survey
results.
Analyze
the Survey Results
Successful change starts with data analysis and
providing the leadership team with reports that are meaningful and provide a
path to process improvements. Human
Resources plays a very important role by determining what reports are generated
and the interpretation of the data.
Sharing the facts with the leadership team will empower them to be more
effective leaders.
Share the
Results
Successfully identifying the challenges and
successes following an employee survey is very important to the process and the
continued engagement of the employees. It is important for HR to share the results in
a consistent, factual and non-biased approach.
Key to the sharing of the survey results is the commitment of the
leadership team to follow-thru on commitments made to the staff.