Surveying Employees: What’s Gained from the “Inner-view”

November 29, 2011

Whether you’re trying to get feedback on a new employee benefit, employee morale, or about company management, employee surveys are typically the best way to gather voluntary data and opinions from your workforce. The problem is how to get the employees to actually participate so you can get their inner-view. According to PPI, a workplace assessment company, employees ask themselves this question before participating: “Is this survey safe to answer, and is it worth my time?” Some feel that their anonymity will be compromised, others fear retaliation from management for their comments, and many simply think the process is an exercise in futility, with HR gathering the information, but doing nothing with it.

A survey that is part of a well-publicized corporate initiative almost always does better than one that is offered simply as a survey. Incentives can also have a huge impact on the response rate. I actually got to see first-hand how even a small incentive can really motivate employees to give their feedback by comparing the survey response rate of two companies that recently offered an online financial wellness assessment as part of a workplace financial education initiative. Company A offered a $20 gift card to all employees who took both the assessment and the follow up survey. Company B had a drawing for an incentive for those employees that took the online financial wellness assessment, but did not offer any incentive to encourage employees to return the follow up survey. I was not at all surprised to see that the survey response rate for Company B was very low, and in fact, only 11% of the employees actually returned the survey. Since there was no reward, apparently the majority of employees felt it was not worth their time to provide feedback on the new financial wellness initiative. On the other hand, Company A had over an 81% response rate to the exact same survey – the only difference being that employees of Company A each got a $20 gift card for taking the time to complete the survey. This comparison proves that even a small carrot can be a motivating factor of a successful survey of your workforce.

To make your next survey a success, follow these 5 tips suggested by the National Business Research Institute:

Include everyone – Leave no one out, not even a group of employees that you think aren’t affected by a particular issue or aspect of the company. If you do, you risk overlooking a potentially fertile source of information, and you never know where good ideas will come from.
Include everything – Nothing should be off limits. The deeper and broader, the better.
Survey smart – Time and timing are both critical to a successful survey. Figure out a good time to send out the survey and give employees time to fill out the survey thoughtfully.
Analyze the information – The first thing you’re looking for when examining data from the employee surveys is a theme. Map out what has been reported by the greatest number of people, and identify the groups most affected.
Show asking counts – Once you’ve collected data, compile it and release it to every employee. People will be interested in what their colleagues have said. If employees don’t hear from you relatively quickly, they are going to assume that the survey didn’t matter. Employees appreciate being heard. They want to work for a company that cares about how they’re faring. Surveying sets a tone of openness and receptivity.