By Leah Fennema Hall, MS, BCBA
Lux Consulting, Ltd.
The employee survey can be a great starting point and monitoring tool for organizational change. However, the time and effort required to design the survey, administer the survey, analyze data, and action resulting tasks can be extensive. For this reason, it is wise to survey with purpose and planning. Here are some tips to ensure your survey experience is enlightening and productive.
Before the Survey
- Consider communication: Employees will be influenced by the way the survey is introduced, so it can be helpful to develop a bit of a script to create consistency among those encouraging people to respond. Ensure the shared script is phrased positively, explains that management intends to use the data to improve the work environment, and expresses gratitude for employee contribution to the improvements they will see as a result of the
- Survey at the right time: When will you send out the survey? If surveys are only given out when you notice an undesirable trend or behaviour, the survey will feel more like punishment than an honest attempt to understand the organizational issues.
Designing the Survey
- Survey with purpose: While designing the survey, be clear in terms of what you are trying to achieve with the survey and how you will use the resulting data. Limit questions to those which gather information on whatever it is you want to know about.
- Choose your questions wisely: Questions should be simple, unambiguous, and phrased in a way that is easy to understand by the group responsible for responding to the survey. Open-ended questions are difficult to track and quantify, so use them very sparingly. Instead, use questions with straightforward answer types such as yes/no, scale (i.e. 1-5), or frequency (never/sometimes/always). Such questions produce data that is easy to graph and track, are easy for respondents to answer, and are better for collating and spotting trends. Finally, be mindful of the length of your survey. Shorter is better from the perspective of the
- Plan to use the survey again: Phrase questions in a way that will be relevant year after year. Once you have collected survey results over multiple years using the same questions, you will have an opportunity to identify
During the Survey
- Surveys shouldn’t create more work for respondents: Be sure to put away sufficient time for employees to complete the survey during their normal working hours. Where necessary, remove other tasks or responsibilities to ensure the survey is not an inconvenience and does not increase employee
- Surveys should be a positive experience: If possible, create a welcoming, quiet space to fill out surveys. Bonus points if you offer snacks!
After the Survey
- Say thank you: Always remember to thank staff for completing the survey once it’s closed and remind them of the next
- Do something: Useful survey feedback should be actioned as quickly and visibly as possible. Pick something quick, simple, and important that you can fix as a result of the findings from the survey. Then publicize the fact that the fix is the result of employee contribution. Make sure ongoing changes attributed to the survey have a positive impact on
- Consider running focus groups: Quantitative survey data leaves something to be desired in terms of the “full story.” If you really want to clarify why your staff perceive things the way they do, you will need to gather qualitative data, either by asking open-ended questions as part of your survey or, better, by running focus groups. Staff sometimes feel more comfortable talking about their perceptions, feelings, and experiences to a neutral party, particularly if the way they are being managed is part of the issue. They are also likely to have a lot of the answers and solutions to organizational issues if you are willing to
And Repeat
- Next time: When running the survey again, go through the same process but remind employees of all the things that have changed for the better as a result of them completing the survey last time. This way they will be more inclined to believe it is worth completing again. If nothing has changed as a result of completing the survey the first time, employees will likely be reluctant to complete it a second
Leah Fennema Hall, MS, BCBA
Director, Lux Consulting, Ltd.
Leah is a Board Certified Analyst (BCBA) with 10 years’ experience of motivating people to engage in behaviors needed to meet their personal goals as well as those of their organization. She has practiced applied behavior analysis (ABA) in multiple capacities including: 1:1 coaching, training, mentoring, and organizational behavior management consulting. Leah has a Bachelor of Science degree in Behavior Analysis, and a Master of Science degree in Psychology with a focus on Behavior Analysis. Leah began her work providing assessment, therapy and consultative services to individuals in home, community and school
settings. More recently, she has practiced organizational behavior management consulting, a subfield of ABA. Organizational behavior management helps individuals find solutions to frustrating workplace issues, builds a foundation of positive reinforcement within the workplace, and improves critical business results. Areas of application include systems analysis, management consulting to support individual and organizational outcomes, training and performance improvement.