AN INTRODUCTION TO EMPLOYEE RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
Different Types of Employee Research Programs
Annual climate and employee satisfaction surveys are by far the most popular kind of employee research activity. However, the following types of research programs are also emerging:
- Combining employee and customer satisfaction studies.
- Procedure/policy evaluation.
- Alignment of employees behind new product development.
- Alignment of employees behind organizational rebranding and repositioning efforts.
- Managing employees through organizational change programs (e.g. merger, acquisition/downsizing, etc.).
- Internal customer service evaluations.
- Internal communications evaluations.
- Evaluation and design of different benefits schemes.
Defining Employee Research Objectives
Before embarking on an employee survey program, it is vital to define a set of objectives for the research. Without these objectives, the research program will lack focus and it will be difficult to raise enthusiasm for the survey among your key influencers and decision-makers.
All employee research programs need to be seen as a company-wide initiative that is driven by managers and employees from across the whole organization and not something that is solely initiated and managed just within HR.
It is therefore vital that any defined objectives for a research program are business related. In this way, improvements resulting from the employee research program can ultimately be seen as improving customer service and overall business performance.
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