The secret of good surveys in companies: 4 golden rules you should follow

Companies that regularly survey their employees can learn a lot about the strengths of their own organization and identify hidden weaknesses. But in order to design surveys with a high response rate and meaningful results, you should follow some basic rules, the four most important of which we have compiled for you in this blog post.

1. Make it anonymous

Let’s start with one of the most popular counter-arguments of survey critics: anonymity. According to the skeptics, the validity of an anonymous employee survey is limited because employees do not present their feedback to colleagues and superiors and must expect consequences. Thus, anonymous surveys lead to indifferent response behavior or even destructive feedback that has no relevance.

The opposite is true. Anonymous employee surveys are a form of dialog that give employees in particular, who tend to be more reserved in their day-to-day work, the opportunity to contribute ideas and suggestions. Time is short and in the end it is always employees and managers with the greatest sense of mission who claim the most speaking time for themselves. Shy colleagues, who often have enormous expertise and judgment, rarely get a chance to speak. In this way, the evaluation of a project is shaped in a one-sided manner. With anonymous surveys as a supplement to meetings, on the other hand, you get a neutral picture based on the honest feedback of all participants.

2. Be brief

Surveys in the company have no scientific claim. You want to gather impulses and not conduct market research. Keep the questionnaire short so that it can be answered in one or two minutes. As a rule of thumb, don’t ask more than ten questions and ask them in such a way that they can be answered in one or two clicks. Our project monitoring solution uses a smiley system that is not only quick, but also fun. Test out your questionnaire with a few people before going live with your survey. If the test subjects take longer than two minutes, keep tweaking your questions.

Keeping your questionnaire short is absolutely essential. You can only expect high and regular participation if the effort required from your employees is kept within reasonable limits. As a rule of thumb, the response rate should be in the range of 60 to 80 percent. A lower participation rate is a clear sign that your questionnaire is too long or the questions are not relevant. Then it’s time to get to work on the questionnaire and optimize it further.

3. Stay consistent

Consistency in surveys refers to two aspects: Your employees’ feedback only unfolds its full value for your company when you derive and implement optimization measures from it. To check whether the measures have led to the desired improvement, conduct another employee survey. The point is to establish a cycle, a two-way process of employee feedback and ongoing optimization.

The best way to firmly anchor this process in your organization is to survey your employees consistently and at regular intervals. Choose the rhythm depending on the time horizon of the issue. For urgent, short-term issues, a weekly rhythm is suitable, while monthly or even quarterly intervals are sufficient for long-term projects. After all, there must be enough time to derive and implement measures on the basis of the feedback and, in turn, to monitor their effectiveness. If you stick to the second rule mentioned above, the effort will be limited to less than two minutes per employee. Also, stay consistent in your choice of questions. At least 90 percent of the questions should always remain the same so that you can evaluate feedback and responses over time.

4. Show strength of action

Our customers like Scale Excellence use employee surveys to monitor complex projects. Especially in the course of digital transformation, organizations are facing major changes. Employee feedback is an important source of information for identifying risks and potential weaknesses. Always follow rule number one and protect the anonymity of your employees even if the criticism is drastic. Take the results of surveys seriously and show your organization that it is worth participating. Surveys should be followed by improvement measures as quickly as possible. Only if you show your organization that you are taking action can you expect a high level of participation in surveys and increase the motivation of your employees.

Our project monitoring solution automatically generates optimization measures based on employee feedback, which can be directly assigned to the responsible employees. In this way, surveys lead to concrete improvements and ultimately to a standardized process that becomes second nature to your organization.

Conclusion

Dialog with your organization is an important building block of modern corporate management. Give your employees the opportunity to contribute to your company with their own ideas and suggestions for improvement. Regular surveys are an efficient tool for gathering meaningful feedback. Keep your questionnaire short, stay consistent and actively work with the feedback. HeyForm can be option for creating survey questionnaires for you and they will be happy to help you formulate your questions. Contacts them or try HeyForm for free!