A Guide to Conducting Employee Surveys

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AN INTRODUCTION TO EMPLOYEE RESEARCH TECHNIQUES

Survey Completion

Online surveys can generally be completed in a 1-2 week timeframe, although participation should be monitored in real time so as to decide when to send reminders and thereby maximize employee participation.

A two to three week period should be allowed for survey paper-based completion, with an additional week set aside (but not advertised internally) for the inevitable late returns. This will allow time for employees who are on holiday or away from the office for another reason to participate in the survey.

Consideration should also be given to whether employees on maternity leave, sick absence and contract/agency staff should be invited to participate in the survey.

If a paper-based survey is being administered, then the distribution method needs to be carefully considered so that the maximum possible response rate is achieved. There is no right or wrong answer or blanket method that must be used and the most suitable method will depend on the organization, its structure and culture.

The following table sets out the possible survey distribution methods and the potential pros and cons of each:

Method	Pros	Cons
Internal Mailing Directly to Office Address	Stops managers from having the opportunity to unfairly try and influence or coerce their people Discourages employees from getting into little groups to complete their surveys rather than giving their own individual feedback	Poor internal systems can mean that the office addresses are not always correct, which can make it difficult to get surveys to employees and can lead to lots of additional surveys floating around the system Harder to control and monitor survey distribution and completion More labor intensive on HR Prevents managers from being able to brief their employees and encourage commitment to the survey and answer questions they may have
Hand Distribution by Immediate Managers	Easier to control and monitor distribution Less labor intensive on HR Ensures questionnaires actually get to people Gives managers the opportunity to brief their people, encourage commitment to the survey and answer questions they may have	Timing of survey needs to tie in with managers’ schedules Gives managers the opportunity to unfairly try to influence or coerce their people Permits people to get into little groups to complete their surveys rather than giving their own individual feedback
Organized Completion Sessions at Set Venues	Easier to control and monitor distribution Ensures questionnaires actually get to employees Prevents managers from having the opportunity to unfairly try to influence or coerce their people Ensures all employees are completing their survey in the same environment	Logistically both difficult and resource-intensive to organize May make employees feel that their anonymity/confidentiality is being compromised Prevents managers from being able to brief their people, encourage commitment to the survey and answer questions they may have
External Mailing to Home Address	Ensures questionnaires actually get to people Emphasizes the anonymity of the study Prevents managers from having the opportunity to unfairly try and influence or coerce their people Discourages employees from getting into little groups to complete their surveys rather than giving their own individual feedback	Can be seen as an intrusion into the home lives of employees Undermines the importance of the survey by giving the impression that it is not important enough to be distributed at the workplace Harder to control and monitor survey distribution and completion More labor intensive on HR More costly because of external postage Prevents managers from being able to brief their people and encourage commitment to the survey and answer questions they may have

Employees must not be expected to complete the survey on their own time (unless they specifically want and choose to, of course) as this would undermine the value and importance of the survey. Therefore, it is important to allocate them 20-30 minutes of work time for survey completion and to clearly communicate to them that they can take this time at work to fill out the survey.

The subject of offering incentives for survey completion is an interesting one. Our experience suggests that personal incentives such as entry into a prize draw do not really boost response rates. One incentive that does make some difference is making a donation to a company-sponsored charity based on the response rate (i.e. the greater the response rate, the greater the amount of the donation).

In contrast to the weak influence of incentives, Insightlink Communications has found that employees are more likely to participate in an employee survey if they believe that the results will be acted upon. The golden rule of this type of research is that, if you do not intend to act on the results, then do not conduct the survey in the first place.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Research Benefits

Types of Employee Research

Deciding on Methodology

Satisfaction Surveys

Planning for Employee Surveys

Web vs. Paper Surveys

Questionnaire Design

Survey Completion

Analysis and Reporting

Action Planning

Prioritizing Actions

Formalizing Action Plans

Reviewing Action Plans

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