AN INTRODUCTION TO EMPLOYEE RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
Employee Satisfaction Surveys
It is worthwhile examining employee satisfaction surveys in more detail given that they are the most popular type of employee research undertaken in the U.S.
Using our experience at Insightlink Communications and having been exposed to best and worst practices of various organizations, we will guide you through the process and offer you some useful tips and advice in planning an employee survey.
Census or Sample
Having defined your survey objectives, the next thing to consider is whether there is a need to survey all employees ("census") or just a subset of them (sample").
Evidence overwhelmingly suggests that a census survey is most appropriate for employee satisfaction surveys. This is mainly due to the need to drive through improvement action planning at local levels which requires frontline managers to be provided with their own reports. By undertaking a sample survey, there may either be not enough responses to provide a report or the number of responses may represent too small a proportion of the whole employee population to be considered statistically robust.
Communication
Employee buy-in is critical to the success of the survey. If they believe that improvements will result from the survey, they are more likely to participate by completing it and will become actively involved in the follow-up improvement action planning process.
Communication is critical to getting this employee buy-in, particularly at the outset of the program and we recommend developing a communications plan that covers the following stages:
- Pre Survey
- During the Survey
- Post Survey
- Between Surveys
When developing this plan, there is a need to consider the different messages that you want to give to the different audiences and what are the most appropriate communication channels for reaching those audiences. For example, it is important for frontline managers and immediate supervisors to be positive role models for the survey so that when they interact with their staff, they demonstrate active encouragement of the survey, a commitment to administer it properly and to act on the results. This is vital because employees are normally heavily influenced by their immediate supervisors or managers. If they do not think that their manager/supervisor believes in the survey, then neither will they.
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