8 Steps To Effective Employee Surveys

by Kylee Stone Jan 8,2022
Engagedly
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Employee surveys can be used as an effective employee performance management tool when utilized appropriately. The results of surveys can be used to build new strategies for organizational development.

Employee surveys should be designed in such a way that they drive employees to engage more and have a positive impact on them. Once you know how your employees feel, it will be easier to figure out how to better engage them and obtain employee engagement ideas.

Nowadays, organizations conduct different types of employee surveys, such as engagement surveys, to understand the level of engagement among employees and develop strategies to increase it.

Why a Survey Tool Is Essential for Collecting Employee FeedbackSource: TenSpot

In this article, we will answer questions like, “how to conduct an employee engagement survey?” and “why are employee surveys important?“. Stay tuned to understand the intricacies of employee surveys.

Here are eight steps to embrace when you conduct employee surveys.

1. Determine The Survey Objective

Determining the objective is the most important aspect of conducting a survey. Clarify the purpose of the survey by asking yourself, why it is important to the organization and what you aim to achieve through it. A clear objective gives your survey a direction and motivates your employees to take it more enthusiastically.

For instance, you can carry out a survey to gain insights into your employees’ perceptions of their work or to increase employee engagement. Similarly, you can also conduct an engagement survey to understand how engaged the workforce is. The point is that you need to have an absolutely clear objective before you give your employees a survey.

A survey without an objective is pointless and has high chance of failure as you will get responses that you will not be able to do much with.

2. Select Survey Methodology

It is important that you select the appropriate survey method. As there are different types of surveys, there are also different methodologies for conducting the surveys. The survey methodology depends on a few factors, like the number of participants in the survey, the ease of distributing the questionnaire, the ease of receiving the responses, etc. Online questionnaires are widely used now tools such as engagedly you can design and implement a survey rapidly. You can choose one of the two methodologies to conduct an employee survey.

Also Read: What Is A Performance Management System?

3. Design Questionnaire

Depending on the survey objective and the target audience, make a list of important topics to be included in the questionnaire. Make sure that any question doesn’t have a negative impact on the relationship of your work staff. 

Try to formulate positive questions and avoid typical social norm questions which encourage criticism of their coworkers. You may want to have some questions that can bring out employee engagement ideas you may not have thought about. You might need to make multiple questionnaires and validate them before you can release the final version.

4. Communicate The Importance

Once you’ve figured out the objective of the survey, the next thing you need to do is make sure that your employees realize this survey is important. And that their participation is necessary. A lot of surveys tend to fail because the people taking them do not take them seriously.

In order for your survey to work, you need accurate and honest feedback. You can also use a third-party provider to administer the survey, to assure your employees of anonymity and fairness. Using a third-party provider increases the response rate and provides you with an unbiased end report.

5. Promote The Survey

Now that the questionnaire is ready, all you have to do is, get your employees to take the internal employee survey. To get responses across the board, you might have to promote the survey aggressively. Promote the survey within the organization by pinning a notice on the company’s bulletin board or sending an e-mail notification to everyone about the survey. If employees can know why they are doing the survey and how they will benefit from it, they will then be more amenable to doing the survey!

6. Communicate The Results

After the survey is conducted, make sure that you communicate the results to your employees. Don’t suppress the results. In fact, your employees deserve to know what the survey says and what the general consensus is. You can probably have a short presentation about the results of the survey and then discuss the results with your employees.

7. Act-On The Results

After presenting the survey results, make sure that you act on them as discussed with your employees during the presentation. Create a plan of action and a set of goals to be achieved through a staff survey. Also, involve your employees in the plan and assign them responsibilities so that they solve the issues themselves and feel empowered.

Also Read: 7 Reasons Why Goal Setting Is Important

8. Make It Regular

Carry out employee surveys at regular intervals. Any survey is of no use if it is conducted once a year or once every two years. You will only know how your employees feel if you make a habit of asking them.

Internal employee surveys are a prominent tool used across industries for various purposes, such as employee experience, engagement, and even issues related to the work environment. It is essential to create a strategy to get the best results out of this method. The discussed steps will help you carry out the survey efficiently.

Have you carried out surveys in your organization? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below!


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Kylee Stone

Kylee Stone supports the professional services team as a CX intern and psychology SME. She leverages her innate creativity with extensive background in psychology to support client experience and organizational functions. Kylee is completing her master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational psychology at the University of Missouri Science and Technology emphasizing in Applied workplace psychology and Statistical Methods.

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