Learn About the Types of Employee Surveys and Tips for Administration
When designed and administered correctly, employee surveys can be used by any business or organization to solicit invaluable, constructive feedback, and can function as an effective employee performance management tool. Organizations can use employee feedback – such as comments, opinions, behaviors, and suggestions – to create important strategies to help improve employee retention, increase productivity, create a cohesive work environment, as well as provide a benchmark to measure continued improvement.
Types of Employee Surveys
Employee Satisfaction Surveys data is used to increase productivity, job satisfaction, and loyalty. Employee satisfaction surveys identify the root causes of employee satisfaction and target those areas.
Employee Attitude Surveys identify the root causes of workplace attitudes, providing a way to improve employee productivity and commitment to work.
Employee Opinion Surveys can act as morale-boosting for those employees who may not have many other opportunities to express their views in confidence.
Employee Engagement Surveys measure employees’ degree of enthusiasm for their work and dedication to their coworkers and the company.
Organizational Assessment Surveys offer accurate identification and measurement of the key forces of the company’s financial performance.
360-Degree Surveys are designed to capture feedback from associates of an employee’s immediate work group, such as subordinates, peers, managers, and supervisors, as well as providing a self-evaluation.
Employee Exit Interviews are used to acquire helpful feedback from employees who are exiting the company. The survey data collected is used to reduce turnover.
8 Tips for Administering Employee Surveys
- Conduct employee surveys using a mixed methodology of online surveys and standard paper-based surveys. Online surveys save money and responses are collected quickly. Paper surveys, however, are essential in meeting hard-to-reach groups who don’t have immediate access to the Internet (e.g. warehouse workers, delivery personnel).
- Promote the survey internally with an email notification, a notice on communal bulletin boards, or on the company Intranet. Market the benefits of participating in the employee survey to help increase response rates.
- Make sure you have full support of the survey from senior managers and that they take full ownership of the survey results. Assign an internal project manager who will coordinate and communicate closely with your management team.
- Communicate the importance of data anonymity. If employees are confident that their responses will be kept confidential, they are more likely to provide honest and accurate feedback. One method of assuring employees of confidentiality is to use a third party provider to administer the survey and manage the data.
- There are several benefits to employing a third party provider to conduct your employee survey:
- Increase response rates by increasing employee confidence in anonymity
- Will be more objective when writing the report (unbiased perspective)
- Expertise in questionnaire design
- Access to dedicated resources when required
- Whether positive or negative, it is important to communicate the results of the survey to all employees. Inform all employees quickly to show the organization is dedicated to the well-being of employees and express that employee feedback is important to the organization.
- It’s not enough to just conduct employee surveys. The management team needs to ensure they act on the survey results and communicate their intended actions to their employees. A positive plan of action needs to be created and executed to address the key issues.
- Lastly, run an employee satisfaction survey at the same time each year to measure the difference in satisfaction levels and highlight any problem areas. You can benchmark results against previous years’ data.
Learn more about creating employee surveys with Snap Survey Software. Click here
