Employee surveys continue to grow in popularity as a way of diagnosing organizational ills and opportunities. Employers can increase their chances for a productive survey by following four guidelines, according to Paul M. Connolly, an industrial psychologist with more than 20 years of organizational assessments experience.
Connolly recommends the following tips:
1. Be realistic about what an employee survey can and can’t do for you.
“Many employers start a survey process hoping to increase employee morale or commitment,” says Connolly. “But employee surveys can’t really do that. They excel at identifying barriers to high level performance in a systematic way. They’re great for illustrating the relative depth and consequences of these barriers. But by themselves, they only raise employees’ expectations.” If you can’t share the outcome or take action on the results, says Connolly, don’t do a survey.
2. Create an atmosphere in which people feel safe giving honest answers.
Connolly says this is accomplished in several ways. “Let them know whether their answers will be anonymous or confidential. There is a difference,” says Connolly. “Respondent anonymity means that no one in your organization will be identified with his or her responses. Confidentiality means that their identity may be known, for instance, to the survey analysts, but that identities will be revealed only to that small group and no one else.” Respondents must feel confident that no one will be punished for bad survey results when they are first revealed. “Remember that one purpose of the survey is to clarify the gap between management’s perceptions and employees’ perceptions,” he notes. “Save the sanctions for later, if the suggested and expected improvements are not made within a reasonable time.”
3. Be aware of broader patterns that affect all workplaces.
Employers can over- or underestimate the importance of a survey result unless they have comparative norms. Connolly offers the example of communications. “Over twenty years we’ve found that it is normal for all employers to score low on questions about communications,” he says. “Likewise, training, compensation and benefits rarely get the highest marks on employee surveys.” Take low communications scores seriously, he says, but be aware that your organization is struggling with an ever-present challenge. Connolly recommends the development of internal norms over a period of years through repetition of the same questionnaire. Alternatively, organizations can seek outside norms from survey vendors.
4. Be realistic about the difficulty of creating your own questionnaire.
“Be prepared to put in the time with pretesting,” says Connolly, “or look for a predesigned set of questions.” Though employee survey questions may look simple, survey construction is complex. “The average employee has to be able to understand the intent of the question – and find it credible,” says Connolly. “Above all, the overall tone of the questionnaire must communicate insight, respect, and understanding.”