Points to Think about Prior to Conducting an In-House Employee Survey (1)

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Points to Think about Prior to Conducting an
In-House Employee Survey
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• I worked in huge organizations. These
  associations had substantial Human Resource and
  Information Technology departments. It was just
  natural that they should use these resources when
  it came to conducting an employee
  survey.Typically response rates to worker surveys
  were less than 25. These response rates were
  thought of as the norm and besides a few comments
  lamenting the low response rate, no one paid much
  attention.

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• I am on the side of the fence, today. I have
  worked with corporate clients for the past nine
  years providing a variety of sorts of employee
  surveys. Recently, I had the chance of talking
  from organizations with HR staff. These
  associations were scouring the net so that they
  could create their own employee survey to collect
  questions. They were planning on conducting
  their own survey procedure once these questions
  were assembled by them. At first blush this does
  not sound like an unreasonable approach. I asked
  the HR team to consider the following.

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• Privacy and Confidentiality
• One of the most significant issues from a
  worker8217 sperspective regarding employee
  surveys is privacy and confidentiality. It has
  been our experience that most workers have a
  comfort level knowing that their answers to a
  survey are contained in their firm computers.
  Despite a company8217s efforts to ensure that
  unauthorized access to the survey data is
  protected, the simple fact remains that it's
  company staff that are working with the
  information and conducting the investigations.
  Confidentiality has been breached. There are
  opportunities for abuses.

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• Several years back Enter was confronted with a
  situation where the company president stated that
  he was prepared to move with an employee survey
  but since he was paying for the survey we went to
  prepare. We had no option but to walk away from
  this endeavor. We could not provide the workers
  with unequivocal assurances that their privacy
  and confidentiality could be secure.

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• When workers are advised that the survey process
  will be run by a third party, these concerns can
  be minimized. In the communications that are
  pre-survey, for example, Enter advises employees
  that there's a firewall between Enter Corporation
  and the company. Our computers can not be
  accessed by any worker. No worker or company
  official will see or have access to our database.
  Any requests by managers or anyone at the
  company is flatly rejected. This has happened a
  couple times over the last nine decades. Privacy
  and confidentiality are issues that are serious
  and they can't be compromised. Employee surveys
  are a two edged sword. On the one hand workers
  welcome a chance to provide feedback. They won't
  participate or they won't provide honest answers
  if they feel in the slightest that their privacy
  can be compromised.

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• Response Rates
• A high response will raise the validity of the
  results. A database is generated by A response
  rate. A large database can be used to prepare
  information cuts which drill deep into the
  organization providing results. A database can
  only be used to prepare a superficial analysis
  which won't be able to point to improvements
  which have to take place. Therefore obtaining a
  high response rate is critically important in any
  worker survey. For example, the survey process
  that was Enter has resulted in response rates
  between 82 percent-95. This is above average and
  it allows for detailed investigation. Data shows
  that employee surveys typically garner a response
  rate of 30 percent or lower.

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• Survey Construct
• Coordinating the questions and creating the
  scoring algorithm, the questions are all parts of
  creating an employee questionnaire. At Enter we
  followed the principle that question organization
  drives the effectiveness of the analyses phase.
  Therefore if we wanted the investigations phase
  to lead clearly to recommendations for follow up
  implementation, the questions had to be organized
  in a way that reflects the results we were
  seeking. This thinking was responsible for the
  worker engagement modeling that Enter conducted
  in the questionnaire design process as a first
  step. The survey questions were put inside the
  appropriate parts of the model after the modeling
  was completed. The section on Validity and
  Reliability below describes this process in more
  detail. The simple fact remains that there's a
  particular. This ordering drives the analysis
  which then allows us to provide clear
  recommendations for follow up implementation.

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• Survey Analysis
• The survey analyses' nature is as important. The
  survey analysis is the supply of percentages.
  The analysis must provide an interpretation of
  the data. For example, how do the answers from
  one question or set of questions relate to the
  answers of another question or set of questions?
  Some questions are more important as they relate
  to performance and employee motivation.
• For example, in one company, the announcement
  8220There is little to no office politics and
  gossip8221 statistically linked with the next
  leadership statements 8220Takes appropriate
  action with individuals who under perform8221,
  8220Resolves conflicts fairly and
  appropriately8221 and 8220Leads by example
  and action8221. Direction behaviors that
  appeared over and over again as being behaviors
  which were important to the culture of this
  particular organization were identified by this
  type of analysis. The analysis led to
  identifying priority leadership behaviors that
  had the best impact on practices. Therefore the
  HR department had a set. The survey report also
  provided an evaluation of how well all those from
  the company with supervisory responsibility rated
  against these behaviors.

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• These statements do not link with the behaviors
  in all organizations. They vary somewhat
  depending on the company8217s culture.
  Considering the case of office politics, research
  has shown that a high level of office gossip is
  related to a workplace. In this case, this type
  of analysis gives the company comfort and the
  knowledge they're pursuing the right actions to
  minimize gossip and improve performance.

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• Reliability and Validity
• Questions can be gathered by anyone and create a
  survey. This raises a question. How can you
  know that the questions are valid and reliable?
  In other words, if an organization creates its
  own poll, do they have the internal skills and
  are they prepared to conduct validity testing and
  the reliability to ensure the survey will produce
  meaning benefits.
• Enter Corporation spent one creating a series of
  surveys. The process involved a number of steps.
  The first step was assembling an eclectic group
  of professionals comprising expertise in
  strategic management, organizational leadership,
  development, psychiatry and behavioural
  psychology. This group developed versions and
  questions based on these versions. These were
  analyzed with focus groups in many business
  sectors and then pilot tested. Reliability
  analyses were conducted. Principle component
  analyses have been conducted. The surveys were
  pilot analyzed and tested and the surveys
  amended. This process continues to this day to
  be able to ensure the customers receive surveys
  that will produce the best results and continued.

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• Conclusions
• If a person feels ill, are in pain and are
  running a fever they can do one of two things.
  They can either take their temperature or they
  can visit the doctor. If they take their
  temperature their intervention options for
  regaining health are severely limited because
  they don't have sufficient information. Should
  they undergo a battery of tests and go to the
  doctor they will receive an intervention strategy
  and information .
• Conducting an employee survey is the same.
  Organizations are complex systems. With an
  untested employee survey, simple analysis and
  untested survey process will produce results
  which are like taking the temperature. Taking
  the temperature severally limits your ability to
  identify actions that are specific for
  performance improvement. This then acts as a
  de-motivator. Employee surveys raise employee
  expectations. Employee cynicism sets in when the
  process fails to demonstrate any meaningful
  movement and productivity drops.

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• Results which will follow up implementation will
  be rendered by comprehensive diagnostic if you
  choose to conduct a survey run. The organization
  will obtain the information it needs to achieve
  its own objectives and to proceed. The survey
  arrangement the survey questions, the survey
  process, and the survey analyses and
  interpretation are key factors in generating
  results. The character of workers8217
  perceptions and expectations limit an
  organization8217s ability to employ All the
  steps in order to conduct a successful employee
  survey, they must follow