surveys – Workforce

August 21, 2023February 16, 2024

10 Best Practices for Employee Surveys

Painting of a hand filling out a survey on a tablet

Summary:

Employee surveys are useful for judging general sentiment across a workforce.
Positive responses should not always be taken at face value – conducting follow-up discussions can provide valuable context.
Follow through with specific action plans using an employee engagement platform.

Job satisfaction is currently at its highest. A survey from The Conference Board found that competitive pay plays a part in it, but employee retention is also attributed to experience and culture. While such results are notable and perceived to be primarily positive, it isn’t easy to generalize that the findings apply to every organization.

For instance, survey findings show that a hybrid workforce is more satisfied than fully remote or on-site employees. But if you run an hourly workforce for a retail store, hotel chain, or healthcare facility, offering remote work is obviously out of the question. Does this mean that you’re doomed to have an unsatisfied team? Definitely not. The key here is optimizing employee experience by making their jobs easier and more fulfilling. Conducting surveys helps you get this done.

Employee surveys shed light on employee satisfaction, pain points, and performance issues. Here are 10 best practices to get valuable insights from your employee surveys.

1. Take time to build the groundwork.

If you want to make the most of employee surveys, you need to take time to plan them out.

First, you need to determine why you’re doing one. Doing one annually “just because” is not a good enough reason. If you’re conducting a survey just for the sake of it, you’re wasting resources, getting unreliable or skewed answers, and potentially risking low participation rates.

Before you roll out an employee survey program, here are things you need to plan for:

The reason for doing the survey. There are several reasons why organizations do employee surveys. Commonly, it’s a way to assess developments from the last poll, measure employee engagement, and investigate what’s causing productivity dips. Whatever the reason, you need to be clear about what you’re trying to measure, as it will set the direction for the entire process and the correct type of survey.
The timeline for the survey. When do you plan to conduct the survey, and what is the timeframe for which you will gather and validate the responses?
The participants of the survey. Who needs to answer the survey? Will it be conducted across the board, or will only selected staff members need to respond? Again, the reason for the survey will help determine this. If it’s an employee engagement survey, you should probably distribute it across your entire organization. But if it’s to gauge interest in something specific, let’s say a new tip pooling policy, it might make sene to only ask frontline team members to participate and not managers.
The set of questions to use. Questions should align with what you’re trying to measure. If you’re assessing progress from the previous survey results, using the same set of questions might make sense. However, it’s important to still look at that questionnaire and weed out any unnecessary items or add more to help with your evaluation.

Implementation of findings. Who will implement programs or changes as warranted by the survey results? Follow-through is crucial for every type of employee survey. Yes, human resources has a huge role to play in this, but managers are at the forefront of making sure that initiatives are implemented. It’s vital that results are turned into initiatives and programs that improves business outcomes and workplace culture.

2. Time it well.

The best time to conduct an employee survey depends on several factors. But as a general rule of thumb, it should be avoided during public holidays or busy seasons.

If you’re trying to benchmark or see progress, you can schedule employee surveys at regular intervals, say once per quarter. For instance, if the survey aims to improve employee engagement levels, regular check-ins following the initial study will be good for tracking progress and changing current programs to improve results.

It may also be a good idea to conduct surveys at significant employment milestones, such as while onboarding, during performance reviews, before and after a promotion, or during offboarding.

If a company is about to undergo a significant change, consider conducting surveys before and after this restructuring as well; this will help you gauge how perceptions and sentiments change during a major shift.

3. Formulate the right questions.

If you want your employee surveys to uncover the true state of what you’re trying to measure, you must ask the right questions. While it seems obvious, many organizations tend to stumble at this part because wording survey questions can be trickier than it looks.

Remember that each person or respondent has some form of bias. Survey questions must be carefully worded to get as specific and objective answers as possible.

Here are some tips:

Use neutral wording. Experts at HBR advise using neutral terms instead of words that can have strong associations. So, for instance, terms like strong or taking long strides may have associations with male leaders, which can result in higher rankings of male leaders compared to female leaders.

Suppose you want to measure how your managers tackle complicated issues at work. In that case, it may be best to phrase the question “Does your manager discuss complex issues with precision and clarity?” instead of “Does your manager have a strong grasp of complex problems?”. Both may have the same meaning, but the former sounds more specific and neutral.

Keep questions focused on a single item. While it’s easy to clump related items together, it’s best to keep things separate so that it’s easier for respondents. For instance, you wanted to measure how employees perceive their salary and benefits. While both are part of your compensation package, it’s best to create two separate questions for them because employees may have different perspectives on the two. Employees may be satisfied with their pay but may not be too happy with their leave benefits.
Use rating scales and multiple-choice questions. These types of questions are good at getting specific answers and engaging respondents. Ensure that each question flows from one to the next and doesn’t jump from one topic to another. For instance, you want to ensure that questions about work responsibilities and tasks are grouped together while questions about leadership are also categorized differently.
Use some open-ended questions. Context is important when processing survey results, and open-ended questions can help. Such questions allow respondents to provide answers in their own words, enabling them to explain their thoughts and responses better. Two open-ended questions per 15 ranking or scale-type survey questions is a common practice for employee surveys.

Keep it short. If you want a high response rate, keep your surveys concise. Respondents are likelier to engage with the questions if they are direct and varied.

Also read: A complete guide to employee engagement for shift-based work

4. Develop a communication plan

Proper communication is critical if you intend to achieve high response rates for your employee surveys. Think of it like a marketing plan, but this time, your employees are your target audience. You need to get their buy-in and make them see what’s in it for them. Communicate the goal of the survey in a way that highlights how the end result will benefit them.

Aside from discussing goals and objectives, you also need to inform them of the survey process—when the survey will take place and how it will be conducted.

Realize that communication is not just a one-off email announcement. A best practice is to communicate the survey through different channels, such as a series of well-scheduled email messages, face-to-face announcements by team leads, and push notifications via an employee app if you have it. Equip managers to also answer questions regarding the survey, if needed.

5. Use data to identify critical issues

Maximize your data and use it to identify gaps and spot low-lying opportunities.

For instance, does your time and attendance data indicate an increase in no-shows or tardiness? Using this indicator, you can frame your surveys to identify what’s causing the issue. Is this a logistical hitch, or is an underlying management problem causing it? You can find possible answers from your data, such as employee schedules being sent out frequently late. You can use your survey to confirm if that’s the case or uncover any other reason.

Webinar: Tackling Critical Workplace Issues with SHRM

Numbers don’t lie. Your data can give you insights into current issues, and you can tailor your surveys to get to the bottom of these hiccups. On the other hand, data can also tell you what your organization is doing right, and the survey can help you identify different ways to reinforce that.

6. Involve employees in survey design

Invite a small group of employees to do a test run of the survey. They can provide feedback on the questions and how it was conducted. This way, you can spot vague questions, improve unclear areas or statements, and remove or add more questions necessary. This extra step ensures that your survey will yield valuable results.

7. Address confidentiality concerns

People tend to give honest feedback when they know that responses are confidential, especially on questions about critical matters. Disclose how the answers are collected and clarify if the survey is fully confidential or if they have the option to disclose their identity or not.

8. Validate your findings.

Employee survey results should not be taken at face value. After collecting feedback, it’s best to validate your findings. Correlate answers with other relevant information you have, such as sales metrics and attrition rates.

Sometimes survey data might seem optimistic, but there are cases where it’s indicative of another issue. For instance, while a team may rate their manager highly, this could be because the manager does not hold staff accountable for productivity or workplace professionalism.

If anything is unclear, don’t stop until you get to the bottom of it. If answers are inconclusive, you can conduct a follow-up study. A focused discussion among a small group of employees can provide a clearer picture of what’s happening.

9. Follow-through.

The point of conducting surveys is to improve your operations by understanding employee sentiment. What sets successful organizations apart is how they utilize survey results to optimize their workforce management and improve their work environment.

Make sure to communicate survey results to the respondents. You can share high-level findings with everyone and be open to clarifications should some employees want to learn more. If necessary, develop action plans for specific employees, or outline a company-wide strategic initiative for all your managers. Doing either or both of these things promotes transparency, makes employees feel heard, and ensures appropriate action is taken.

10. Use the right survey tools

An employee engagement platform is sometimes necessary to distribute surveys and organize responses across your workforce.

The right platform helps in two ways. For one, you need to have an efficient way to distribute surveys and record responses in a single system that houses all of these so you can analyze them later on.

The other important aspect is accessibility. Make it convenient for employees to access surveys and respond. It’s advisable to allow employees to answer surveys via their mobile devices as this gives them flexibility on when to answer the survey.

It’s good to consider what avenues are actually accessible for your staff. Do they really have the time or desire to download a new app to complete surveys? This might be more work for them. Think about how to incorporate surveys into their day-to-day tools – perhaps via a time clock app or a self-service app that houses things they routinely access, such as their schedule, time off balances, and paystubs.

Distributing surveys through regularly accessed channels is critical for a good survey response rate. This also keeps things as unintrusive as possible. Employees are busy getting things done; they don’t have time to answer survey questions on a clunky, one-use platform.

Make your surveys a part of a comprehensive feedback system.

Feedback should go beyond annual employee surveys. There are issues you can address more spontaneously if you gather feedback more quickly and frequently.

An excellent example of this is allowing your employees to rate their shifts in real-time, right after their shift, directly from a time clock. This method helps you quickly identify top-of-mind problems for your staff.

The key here is a sound feedback system that integrates short- and long-term feedback processes. Workforce.com, for instance, has an employee engagement system that allows you to collect regular data from shift feedback and irregular data from one-off pulse surveys. A system like this helps you navigate through responses and turn them into action plans for maintaining employee happiness, improving company culture, and increasing profitability.

See it in action and book a call today.

Interested in more ways to engage your employees but tired of reading? Check out our webinar below featuring Laura Timbrook, an NBC-HWC, CHC, and AADP certified coach and podcaster, where she covers actionable solutions for managing things like absenteeism and turnover.

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement for Hourly Workers

March 9, 2023November 3, 2023

7 employee engagement ideas for a more productive workplace

Summary

Only 21% of the global workforce is engaged at work, costing the global economy $7.8 trillion.
Engaged workers are motivated and productive, have better mental health, and are more aligned with their organization’s core values.
There are a number of actionable employee engagement activities that HR professionals can do to help improve engagement within their organization.

Arguably, one of the most challenging endeavors of any human resources professional is improving employee engagement. Engaged employees are those who are enthusiastic and dedicated to their job and the organization they work for.

An engaged employee is motivated, productive, and aligned with the company’s values, mission, and goals. They work well with their fellow team members and mentors, have high levels of job satisfaction, and are less likely to leave the company in search of a new job.

In 2009, only 12% of employees surveyed were considered to be engaged at work, according to research by Gallup. Over the next decade, that percentage grew to 22%, dipped slightly during the height of the pandemic, and is now at 21%

The high level of disengaged employees is even more worrying, considering that disengagement at work also costs the global economy $7.8 trillion, accounting for 11% of the GDP.

If you’re looking for ways to boost your employee engagement strategy and obtain a more engaged workforce, here are seven practical ideas that you should definitely consider.

1. Design a stickier onboarding process

Set the tone of the employee experience from day one. The first touchpoints and experiences new employees have at your company and how you operate will influence how engaged they’ll be going forward.

A good onboarding process will:

Make new recruits feel welcome.
Obtain information and grant access to resources in the most straightforward way possible.
Communicate the organization’s vision, mission, and values clearly and explain how the new employee fits into them.
Outlines expectations and company rules.
Introduces new hires to their team members and kickstarts team building.

With hybrid and remote work becoming increasingly popular, employee onboarding has also had to adapt. Onboarding activities for remote employees have to take place over platforms like Slack.

Workforce management tools offer paperless employee onboarding solutions that simplify and optimize the process for both employer and employee.

2. Conduct frequent employee surveys

Surveys are a great way to collect employee feedback and insights from your employees in an empirical manner. They give you firsthand information on how your workforce is experiencing their work environment, from the tasks they do to the overall company culture.

You can utilize these insights to improve engagement, employee retention, and productivity and to reduce burnout. There are three main types of surveys that are commonly used by HR professionals:

Employee engagement surveys. These gather metrics on an employee’s commitment, motivation, and passion for their work and the company they work for. Such metrics include Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) and retention rate.

Employee opinion and satisfaction surveys. These gather information on your team’s attitudes and perceptions of the organization. They could be done using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Employee culture survey. These give you insights into an employee’s point of view and how that compares to the day-to-day realities of your organization.

There are many types of questions you can ask and metrics you can gather, so it is important to first decide what information matters the most to you. If you’re looking to understand employee engagement, focus on asking questions that will gather information on things like team dynamics, your company culture, and professional development.

3. Gather shift feedback

A lot can happen in one shift. Making a habit of gathering information after each workday is a great way to quickly identify and fix issues and reinforce things that worked.

Shift feedback is a two-way process where managers give feedback on employee performance, and employees give feedback on management and on their experience with that particular shift.

Shift feedback tools that are embedded in your company’s tech stack facilitate the feedback process, particularly for remote workers. They allow for a standardized and efficient way to provide and receive feedback at all levels.

This two-way feedback process is important for employee engagement as it shows employees that their feedback and their experience matter. Receiving feedback on a shift-by-shift basis will also help employees learn more about how they can perform better. It is also a great opportunity to show employee recognition in cases of a job well done.

4. Use a performance-values matrix

The performance-values matrix is a great way to evaluate employee performance and how their behavior aligns with the overall company values.

The matrix x-axis shows the company values, while the y-axis represents employee performance.

Performance is measured as the work an employee carries out for the company. Values are then measured as an aggregate of how well employee is aligned with organizational standards.

To measure individual value alignment, most companies use a matrix specifically designed just for value assessment. A system like this allows you to score employees in things like honesty and accountability so you can identify where people meet company standards and where they fall short.

You can then apply these ratings to the performance-values matrix.

Each employee is placed along the matrix, helping you understand which ones are producing good work and which are contributing to company culture. Employees who exemplify both are found in the top right-hand quadrant – this is ideally where you want all your employees to fit.

Employees in the lower-left quadrant are low performers and have low-scoring behavioral attributes. These employees are probably not a great fit for your company.

The other two quadrants consist of employees who are high performers but have low values match (top, left) and those who have great behavior but aren’t performing very well (bottom, right). These are the employees who you might want to invest some time in to help them move into that high-performance, high-values match position.

5. Offer more flexibility with shifts

More workers are seeking greater flexibility at work. Research shows that flexible work arrangements lead to higher productivity and more connectedness to workplace culture and reduce employee absenteeism. It helps workers balance their work responsibilities with their personal lives.

For frontline and shift-based employees, flexibility can be achieved through shift bids or shift swap systems. In shift bid situations, managers publish available shifts, allowing employees to bid for the ones they want. Shift swapping is when employees can request to exchange shifts with their co-workers, subject to managerial approval.

Employee scheduling software streamlines shift flexibility in what would otherwise be a chaotic undertaking for HR professionals and managers.

6. Maximize employee self-service

Giving employees the autonomy to carry out HR-related tasks without needing intervention from HR cuts out admin time and improves efficiency at all levels. Mobile tools for employees do things like request time off, swap shifts, clock in, review timesheets, and update their personal information all in one place.

Using employee self-service tools also takes significant pressure off of your HR team, allowing them to focus more on developing strategies to reduce turnover and increase engagement rather than having to fix errors and update information constantly.

7. Prioritize and facilitate employee professional development

Employees who feel stagnant in their career paths are more likely to feel disengaged at work. Having milestones to reach and goals to attain, on the other hand, gives employees a sense of purpose and accomplishment, leading to higher engagement.

There are a number of employee engagement activities related to professional development that an employer can consider. At a basic level, management should work with employees to develop career goals and milestones to be included in their regular performance evaluations.

There are also a number of initiatives and perks that employers can offer their employees:

Training and development activities
Mentorship programs
Attendance to conferences
Paid course tuition

If your organization is a place where your employees feel they can grow, they are more likely to be engaged at work and stick around longer.

Check out our webinar on How to Drive Engagement for Hourly Employees

If you’d like to find out more about how to increase engagement among your workforce, check out our webinar below:

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement

Laura Timbrook, NBC-HWC, CHC, AADP certified coach and podcaster, takes us through some quick, actionable solutions to combat issues surrounding high absenteeism and high turnover rates.

Interested in more than a webinar? I wouldn’t blame you. Hop on a call with us today to find out what tools you should be using to boost your employee engagement.

June 27, 2016June 29, 2023

Misled in a Job Interview? You’re Not Alone

Entering the workforce, whether it be as an intern, part-time worker or full-time employee, is both an exciting and daunting challenge. It requires countless hours being devoted to researching job openings, creating résumés and cover letters, preparing for interviews and, hopefully, receiving and deciding between job offers.

Once a job seeker accepts a job offer, one of two fates is likely to unfold:

The first, a positive experience full of one-of-a-kind learning opportunities that are both fun and educational and take place alongside intelligent, friendly and supportive co-workers who will serve as possible connections and resources throughout the newbie’s future career.

Moritz Bio Picture — Moritz Kothe, kununu

The second, an utter disaster full of boring tasks and surprise responsibilities, resulting from poorly skilled employers, negative work environments, and misleading HR professionals who misrepresented the company during the interview process.

This second fate is what Moritz Kothe, CEO of kununu, an employee rating site new to the U.S. market via a partnership with Monster, describes as the “Oh my God, what have I done?” feeling that job seekers experience all too often after accepting a job offer.

In a kununu survey, which sampled 1,019 employed Americans 18 and older, it found that 23 percent of participants reported having been misled during a job interview, which is almost the same amount of people who reported having been misled on a first date. Furthermore, 3 out of 10 job seekers felt it is often difficult to receive accurate, honest information about the day-to-day experience of a specific job during the interview process.

Based on these findings, it is no wonder that many Americans regret a job after accepting an offer. Fortunately, this does not have to be the case for everyone. The solution here is research. And lots of it.

Job seeking Americans are curious about many aspects of their potential future employer. For example, Kothe says, “some might be interested in what opportunity advancement is like, and some might be interested in what the culture’s like.” Kununu and other employment rating platforms allow inquiring job seekers to access the answers to these questions as told by real employees who have shared their thoughts, experiences and ratings. This allows interested candidates to receive accurate job and company descriptions from people who have actually experienced it firsthand.

Besides using such platforms as kununu or Glassdoor, job seekers should do as much background research on a company as possible by thoroughly examining the company’s websites, press releases, mentions in the media, etc. They should also seek out any possible connections they might have to a current or past employee of a company, because a job seeker can never have too much information when it comes to choosing which company is the right fit for them.

Whether it be through employee review platforms, internet research, or speaking to personal connections, conducting thorough research about a potential employer is vital. This is the key to finding an internship, part-time job, or career that makes a person happy and helps prepare them for success in future aspirations.

AnnMarie Kuzel is a Workforce editorial intern. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

The Career Hackers is a new blog devoted to helping people start their careers and achieve their goals. Learn more about The Career Hackers on Tumblr.