Employee Surveys

Consulting Services - Employee Surveys

A survey will provide feedback on a range of core organisational attitudes. Depending on the organisation, these may include communication, staff development, management and supervisory skills, general job satisfaction, OH&S and customer focus. Of course each organisation will be different and may need to design a questionnaire to suit their own needs.

The results of the survey will provide an understanding as to how employees perceive their organisation and work area.

How is a survey conducted?

1. The first question to be asked is why the survey is being conducted? Will it be part of an ongoing benchmarking process or perhaps, it will be strategically used as a catalyst to generate a feeling and need for change.
   
   
2. The survey must be designed to suit the organisational needs and context. Care will need to be taken to ensure that questions are clear and unambiguous. Normally a small test group would be used to validate the survey before it is released.
   
   
3. The distribution and collection of the survey needs to be sensibly planned to maximise the return rate and minimise work disruption. A reasonable return rate would be in the vicinity of 40% to 50%, this of course could be higher but would generally come at a productivity cost. Very importantly, employees must feel assured that their contribution to the survey is confidential.
   
   
4. The compilation of data is often the most time consuming part of the process with information required to be presented in a variety of formats to enhance its analytical worth.
   
   
5. Analysis of the data is best done jointly with the consultant and management. Often significant issues are readily identifiable whilst at other times there needs to be more careful consideration of the information gathered.
   
   
6. The conclusions drawn from the survey should be tested, this can be done a number of ways but often the most positive is to engage with employees directly and discuss the results with them.

Why not do a survey?

Simply by initiating a survey you’ll raise an expectation of change, if your organisation is not in a position to feedback results to employees and initiate a response strategy a survey may not be appropriate for your organisation at this time.