Employee Surveys

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Tips & Advice to help you make your decision on Employee Surveys

While every company has to have its finger on the pulse of what its clientele needs, it should also pay close attention to what is going on with its employees. In order to most effectively serve your business associates or the general public, it is essential to have a staff ready and willing to go the extra mile. All too often business owners and managers lose sight of what is going on within their own walls. This is where the use of employee surveys can be incredibly helpful. Regardless of what information you wish to learn, there are survey options that can ensure higher management is aware of the specific needs and thoughts of the staff.

One of the first things to determine when selecting employee surveys is to decide what type of information you wish to know. You can choose to use these surveys before employee review and ask questions pertaining to how the employee feels about their position, daily tasks, and how management is supporting them in their job. You may also choose to seek information from those on the front lines, so to speak, about their feelings on the company's performance as a whole for your clients, and if they feel there is room for improvement.

Business.com offers a list of resources for your convenience.

Making the Most of Employee Surveys

Employee surveys provide feedback to management as to how employees feel the organization is operating. Survey results indicate employee attitudes, level of motivation, opinions/suggestions regarding areas of improvement and their level of satisfaction.

Employees typically complete surveys in one of two ways: on paper or online. However, informal meetings between management and staff can also be an effective tool in gaining insight into employee concerns and attitudes if there is a level of comfort and trust between the two groups.

Making the most of employee surveys requires companies to:

1. Ensure the survey is manageable and can be completed in a relatively short time.

2. Give employees a limited amount of time to complete surveys. If the deadline for completing a survey is two or more weeks, completing the survey may slip their mind.

3. Develop surveys that require true/false, yes/no or priority ranking responses. These types of responses provide management a more accurate reading of employees’ morale and satisfaction versus questionnaires uses range/ratings responses.

Utilize the resources of online employee survey providers to administer effective surveys

Employee feedback forms must be short and to the point, yet contain enough questions for management to get a read on employees' morale, opinions and satisfaction. If surveys are overwhelming in terms of in-depth questions or overall length, employees will lose interest and fail to complete the employee questionnaires.
Try: SurveyZ.com offers a library of free employee surveys online that companies can administer directly or modify to suit their needs. Grapevine Surveys also has online survey templates that you can utilize free of charge for a limited number of responses. If your organization requires a larger amount of responses, they offer several pricing plans based on survey needs.

Use exit interviews as a measure of employee satisfaction

Exit interviews can be an invaluable resource in gaining insight into employee satisfaction. Ask your employees why they are leaving. Are they leaving to earn more money, receive better health benefits or is management to fault? Exiting employees can inform you of concerns remaining employees may have and offer suggestions as to how the organization can make improvements.
Try: Innovative HR Solutions and ExitInterviews.com are two employee survey firms that provide a list of commonly asked questions that organizations can tailor for their exit interview questionnaires.

Take action on the results of employee information surveys

It is important for management to discuss survey results with employees. Action (or strategic) plans allow organizations to prioritize issues identified in company surveys and develop a plan that will address and resolve the issues.
Try: Creative Metrics and Human Capital Institute provides guides for organizations to utilize in the development and implementation of action plans.

Administer employee satisfaction surveys periodically to gauge an organization's progress in addressing employee concerns identified in previous surveys. This type of corporate communications survey can not only monitor the organization's progress in resolving existing issues and concerns, but also identify any new concerns that may have developed.