The Situation
Employee surveys.
They’re easy to develop. Easy to
distribute. Easy to use.
They’re a useful tool for businesses.
Sure they are.
Tools such as SurveyMonkey and Google Forms make it relatively easy
and straightforward to create an employee survey. Once done, you then deploy it
online and forward the URL to your employees to complete.
Simple, right?
But are they really useful?
The Problem
Because of the ease with which a
survey can now quickly be created and distributed, businesses large and small use
them to gather feedback and information from their employees on topics ranging
from employee engagement and morale, to how the employees think the company is
doing and how effective their management is, to what processes or procedures
work/don’t work. Employee surveys can be used to provide insight on difficulties
with existing processes (such as onboarding or training), as well as providing
advance warning about potential problem areas. Departments such as sales and marketing
can also use employee surveys to collect information on topics such as customer
satisfaction, products and features, or how the company is perceived in the marketplace.
In short, employee surveys can be
used by all departments to gather feedback and information in a relatively quick and easy way
about any number of issues that may affect their business or operations.
However, while the intent of
employee surveys is admirable, the execution of them is typically not. When a
survey is sent out to employees, there are two primary problems that can occur:
- Surveys are mandatory
- Employees are told that their survey responses aren't tracked, when that is not true
Let’s take
a look at each of these problems.
1) Making a survey
mandatory, especially when you’re trying to gather anonymous feedback or input
from your employees, tells them that whether they want to participate in the
survey or not they have no choice. By taking this approach with your employees,
you’ve now proven to them that you really do not want to hear what they have to
say, you just want them to complete the survey.
While there may be many reasons for taking this approach, the
reality is that any information and feedback that you gather through a
mandatory survey is compromised. Employees feel that they don’t have a choice
as to whether they participate or not, so their responses may be unrealistic or
even false. If they have to complete the survey, it’s quicker for them to just
randomly check boxes on the survey than to take the time needed to give a
thoughtful, useful response to each question.
2) Telling your
employees that the surveys are anonymous, but then requiring them to email the
survey back from their work email, or provide some form of personally
identifying information (PII) such as their name, their work ID number, or
their email address at the end of the survey is both deceitful and dishonest. Employees
are often told this is done so that if management needs to get more details
about a specific response they know whom to contact. While that may be true, if
the surveys can be traced back to a specific individual, the survey responses
are obviously not anonymous at all. All this really does is prove to your employees
that you’re lying to them.
If you’re gathering PII as part of the survey process, you have
to ask yourself if the responses are really valid or useful if the employees know
you can trace their responses back to them. While the employees may still
complete the survey, the answers are often guarded or will only reflect what
they think you want to hear. They won’t be truthful or honest. Or useful.
In addition to the problems
outlined above, both of these problems lead to wasted time – yours and your
employees.
The Solution
The solution to both of these
problems is very simple – don’t make survey participation mandatory, trust your
employees and do what you say.
Employee surveys by design should
allow employees to choose whether they participate or not. They should not be
mandatory. This ensures that the employees who do respond have chosen to
provide their answers. Doing so also helps ensure the answers and responses
they provide are truthful, so that their responses are an accurate reflection
of how they feel.
If you want a truly anonymous
employee survey, don’t collect PII or require employees to use their work email
to respond. To help alleviate employee concerns about the potential lack of
privacy, you may want to state that fact at the beginning of the survey. And if
you do want to be able to trace survey responses back to specific individuals, then
clearly state that the survey is not anonymous.
By being up front and honest with
your employees about whether you can/cannot trace survey responses, they will
know the parameters under which the survey is being issued, so they can choose
whether or not to participate. If they do, the responses they provide will be
much more useful to your business.
Summary
If used correctly, employee
surveys are very useful tools to gather input, feedback and information that
can be very helpful to your business. Remember, when developing a new survey, in
addition to focusing on the survey questions and topics, be sure to consider
your employees and how they will perceive the survey.
By implementing these simple
steps, when you distribute a survey to your employees you’ll ensure that you
receive more accurate and useful responses. But remember, if you don’t take the time to do it
right, then you’re just wasting your and your employees’ time.
© 2019 – Richard Hatheway, Catalyst Strategic Marketing
All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment