Before You Conduct an In-House Survey of Your Employees

 Before You Conduct an In-House Survey of Your Employees

I have extensive experience working in the business world for a number of years. Human Resources and Information Technology departments were quite large in these companies. It was inevitable that they would make use of these extensive resources while conducting a staff survey. Employee surveys usually had a response rate of under 25%. No one paid much notice because these response rates were thought to be normal, and there were a few comments that complained about how low it was.

I find myself on the opposing side of the fence today. Over the last nine years, I've provided a variety of staff surveys to business clients. Several companies' human resources departments gave me the chance to chat with them recently. Companies like these were gathering questions for their own employee survey by browsing the web. After compiling these questions, their intention was to conduct their own poll internally.

This seems like a reasonable strategy at first. But I did request that the HR department think about this.

Protecting Personal Information

When it comes to employee surveys, privacy and confidentiality are two of the biggest concerns, according to workers. Based on our observations, the majority of employees feel uneasy about the prospect of their survey answers being stored on the company's computers. Even while a corporation takes every precaution to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing survey data, the reality is that corporate employees are the ones actually handling the data and running the analyses. There has been a violation of confidentiality. Many potential for abuse exist under these conditions.

A few years back, Entec encountered a situation where the company president expressed his readiness to proceed with an employee survey. However, as he was footing the bill, he insisted on having access to both the database and the report that would be created from the survey. We were forced to abandon this project. The employees' privacy and confidentiality could not be guaranteed with absolute certainty.

Notifying workers that an outside entity would handle the entire survey procedure will greatly alleviate these worries. Entec informs employees about the firewall between the organization and Entec Corporation in the pre-survey emails, for instance. Our computers are off-limits to any employee. Nobody in our organization will be able to view or access our database. We categorically refuse to comply with any special demands made by upper-level management or anybody else inside the organization to view the data. I should mention that this has occurred twice in the last nine years. There can be no compromise on the importance of privacy and secrecy. Staff surveys have their advantages and disadvantages. Employees are always happy to hear their thoughts and opinions, on the one hand. Conversely, if people even have a nagging suspicion that their privacy is at risk, they will either not engage or give dishonest responses.

Amounts of Replies
The results' statistical validity will be enhanced with a high response rate. A big database is the result of a high response rate. With a big database, you may do data cuts that go deep into the company and provide useful insights. In order to conduct a thorough study that can identify concrete areas for improvement, a tiny database is inadequate. So, getting a lot of people to fill out an employee survey is crucial. For instance, response rates ranging from 82% to 95% have been achieved with the Entec survey procedure. Because of this, in-depth analysis is possible, which is above average. According to the data, the response rate for staff surveys conducted by the organization is usually 30% or below.

Build a Survey

Creating an employee survey entails three distinct steps: formulating the questions, establishing a scoring methodology, and organizing the questions. Here at Entec, we operate on the premise that the efficiency of the analysis phase is directly correlated to the way questions are structured. Accordingly, we needed to structure the questions such that they represent the conclusion we were aiming for if we wanted the analyzes phase to clearly lead to guidelines for subsequent implementation. Employee engagement modeling, the initial stage in survey design, was driven by this line of thinking and was carried out by Entec. Following the completion of the model, the survey questions were inserted into the corresponding sections of the model. You can find a more detailed description of this method in the section on Reliability and Validity that follows. There is, in fact, a specific sequence to the inquiries. We are able to offer specific recommendations for further actions since this ordering guides the study.

Analyzing Survey Results

Not only are the questions themselves crucial, but so are the analyses derived from them. Providing percentages is just one part of the survey analysis. An explanation of the data's significance should be included in the study. Consider this scenario: what is the relationship between the results of one set of questions and those of another? When it comes to concerns about employee motivation and performance, some are significantly more relevant than others.

For instance, the following leadership comments were statistically associated with the statement "There is little to no office politics and gossip" in one company: "Deal with underachievers as needed," "Resolves conflicts in a fair and appropriate manner," and "Sets a good example through actions and words" are all part of the job description. Through this kind of research, additional leadership characteristics that surfaced repeatedly were shown to be crucial to the culture of this specific firm. The investigation resulted in the identification of top-level leadership actions that significantly affected best practices. Consequently, the HR team had a clear list of behaviors that required coaching in a particular order of importance. A comprehensive assessment of the company's supervisors' performance against these behaviors was also included in the survey report.

Not every company will associate these similar statements with the same actions. Depending on the culture of the firm, they can differ slightly. Using office politics as an example, studies have demonstrated that a poisonous work environment is characterized by rampant gossip. Here, the results of this sort of analysis reassure the business that it is taking the correct steps to reduce rumors and boost productivity.

Validity and Reliability

Gathering questions and constructing a survey is something everyone can do. Nevertheless, this begs the question. When using these questions, how will you ensure their validity and reliability? What this means is that when an organization makes its own survey, it should ask itself if it has the in-house expertise and resources to assess the survey's reliability and validity to make sure it will yield meaningful data.

Entec Corporation dedicated an entire year nine years ago to creating a set of questionnaires. Multiple steps were involved in the procedure. Step one was to put together a diverse team of experts with backgrounds in areas such as strategic management, organizational development, leadership, psychiatry, and behavioral psychology. Based on these models, this group produced questions. Before being pilot tested, they were put to the test with a large number of focus groups across a variety of industries. Analysis of reliability was carried out. Analysis using principal component methods was carried out. The surveys were revised after extensive analysis and pilot testing. To guarantee that clients receive surveys that will yield the best potential results, this iterative approach persisted and is still in use today.

Final thoughts

There are two options available to someone who is unwell, in discomfort, and running a temperature. They have two options: either take a fever or see a doctor. Taking a temperature does not provide them with nearly enough information to make an informed decision about how to intervene to improve their health. They can get helpful information and a plan for intervention from their doctor if they visit and undertake a battery of tests.

It is also the same way to conduct a survey of your staff. Companies are intricate webs of people. The results will be comparable to taking a temperature if you use an unproven employee survey method, an unproven survey procedure, and basic analysis. Taking a temperature more than once makes it harder to zero down on concrete steps to boost performance. This, in turn, de-motivates the individual. When workers fill out surveys, their expectations are boosted. Employee cynicism and decreased productivity occur when the post-survey process does not demonstrate any significant improvement.

If you choose to carry out a survey, a thorough diagnostic will provide results that indicate where to focus your follow-up efforts. All the necessary data will be sent to the group so it can proceed and accomplish its goals. To get useful results from an employee survey, you need to pay attention to the questions, the structure, the methodology, and the analysis and interpretation of the survey. An organization's capacity to successfully implement all the essential procedures for conducting an employee survey is hindered by the intricate nature of employees' views and expectations.

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