Staff Survey

 

Any business which means it a business to deliver the best product and top services should first pay attention to the most important factor of its business - its people, Staff survey is  a very powerful tool in improving employee attendance, customer relations, and company profitability. If the survey is carried out properly  management could accurately derive from it the information which would tell how the employees actually think and feel about the company. And basically, it tells whether they are satisfied and motivated, or if they are not. The primary intention of surveys is to determine the level of satisfaction among workers. This is due to that fact that dissatisfied employees yield low productivity.

It is an irony therefore in that while a lot of companies believe that their human resources are their greatest asset, in many instances, they do not exactly understand the attitudes of their staff and how they generally perceive the management. And whenever management fails in understanding them and their needs, this leads to discontentment on the part of the employees. Dissatisfied staff do not perform very well. And the worst scenario to this problem is losing them. Losing your greatest asset is not one to be desired.


WHAT AFFECTS JOB SATISFACTION


There are many factors that affect job satisfaction. Levels of employee satisfaction are affected by:

  • Working environment
  • Working methodology
  • Working ethos
  • Company ethics
  • Effective management

Staff surveys are meant to assist companies in understanding the attitudes and perceptions of their workforce in as far as these factors are concerned. This understanding plays a critical role in the performance of the staff. It naturally follows that only satisfied and committed employees give the maximum output. It is essential that surveys tackle these different areas and check where dissatisfaction lies. Again, whenever employees feel that they are heard, given importance, and cared for, they will reward the company with motivation, loyalty, and productivity. These are results of job satisfaction.


WHEN EMPLOYEES ARE DISSATISFIED

Among the many reasons for dissatisfaction in the workplace, much has to do with salaries and hours of work. What follows is a list of common barriers to achieve productivity. You will be surprised that they have nothing to do with the two factors just mentioned.

  • Inadequate training
  • Out of touch management
  • Outdated working methods
  • Lack of proper tools and equipment

It is essentially important to keep a harmonious, equally-beneficial relationship between employees and employers through efficient communication. Communication can be done through various means. Here are some:

  1. One-on-one meetings
  2. Regular management meetings with employees or their representative
  3. Suggestion boxes
  4. Newsletters
  5. Staff surveys particularly on satisfaction

A satisfaction survey represents a pro-active management initiative where the entire staff is consulted on various issues. Implementing a survey gives the employer the ability to tackle the problem head-on before it becomes a major issue. When problems are left unchecked they can create a negative atmosphere throughout the workplace.


WHY STAFF SURVEYS WORK

The present-day business scenario is one of stress and fast activity.  As competition rose to higher levels, companies needed to place more pressures on staff to keep up with the fierce competition. These pressures result to increased stresses in the workplace. This vicious cycle results in low morale and high staff turnover. It is extremely undesirable for any enterprise to have a disgruntled, unmotivated workforce. It is therefore important that surveys are conducted to determine levels of satisfaction among the staff as this will likewise determine their level of motivation and consequently their productivity.


UNDERTAKING STAFF SURVEY

Whenever employers commission staff surveys, they are actually sending a positive signal to their staff that they care about them and that their welfare is their chief concern. And whatever the results would be, they have to be matched by a commitment to do something with the findings.


CHIEF REQUIREMENTS OF GOOD STAFF SURVEYS

In order to get maximum results, the most vital requirement to staff survey is having that element of strict confidentiality and complete anonymity. This requirement strongly suggests that staff surveys should be implemented by an independent party. It is highly advised that the questionnaires are thoroughly handled by such outside agency to ensure that the prime requirements are safeguarded. Only when respondents are completely assured of confidentiality that they can comfortably express full honesty with regards to their responses.


FORMULATING SURVEY QUESTIONS

The success of the survey is highly determined by asking the right questions. Each time questions are asked, they should be consistent with the end objective. The following are a few helpful tips to guide you as you formulate your survey questions:

  1. If it can be possibly done, do not ask questions answerable with a word response. These questions will limit the depth of the answers you may want.
  2. Keep the questions simple. Avoid questions that may confuse the respondent so that they may not know how to answer the question.
  3. Maintain a clear, unbiased tone. Do not leave a possibility that the question may be misinterpreted.
  4. Do not use leading questions which may point a respondent to an answer. These types of questions are counterproductive to your efforts for change.
  5. Be sensitive to hot issues. You must ask questions regarding controversial organization issues but make sure that you frame your questions appropriately as not to make employees defensive.

 

SURVEY CONTENTS

In principle, these should be included in the surveys:

  • Commitment – this commitment refers to staff development, continuous improvement, staff recognition, equality of opportunity
  • Planning
  • Action
  • Evaluation

As an important note, the commitment of an organization will ensure that:

  1. Staff development is consistent with those aims
  2. Staff understands their contribution to the organization
  3. Staffs are inducted; they learn and develop effectively
  4. Managers are effective in supporting staff development
  5. Staff development improves organizational performance
  6. Staff understands the impact of their development

 

 

PIFALLS IN STAFF SURVEYS

Two things are likely to happen when conducting staff surveys. Either it can help you improve your company or waste your time. You need to see to it that the surveys are implemented correctly and carefully to ensure that they produce the expected outcomes. A Staff survey, in order to be effective, has to stimulate the minds of the employees to think about the problematic areas in their line of work and also of ideas which could improve or give solutions to the problems at hand. When the survey has been inadequately designed and implemented, it can actually cause more harm than good. When improperly done the survey could create unrealistic expectations and could actually highlight the management’s inability to address the employees’ concerns.

These are the seven usual pitfalls you should watch for:

The Magic Wand Syndrome – it has been a common misconception that once the workers have aired their concerns and opinions, their dissatisfaction will go away. The truth is, if their concerns continued to be ignored and are not properly addressed, their morale will plunge further. Never do surveys with no intention of making resolutions or changes. The Magic Wand Syndrome is a myth. Acting on the issues is the key to solving any problems.

Passive Workers – Passive workers tend to think that all the effort should come from the management and they have nothing to do about it. These types of employees must be made to understand that team cooperation between them and the management will fix the problem. Employees should be willing to work with the management to improve their organization.  It is the management’s responsibility to constantly take input from staff and involve them in resolving problems.

Hazy Confidentialities – this happens when survey is said to be confidential yet respondents are asked for their contact information or other information that could reveal their identities. When this is done, the survey’s integrity is compromised and the workers tend to take the issue of confidentiality with skepticism.

Faulty Surveys – wrong questions asked in the survey will yield incomplete information or may not lead to a conclusion as to how the issues could be resolved. Focus on the objectives and construct questions that will provide the details you may need to address your survey goals.

Unrealistic Expectations – never raise issues that the management is unprepared to address. Say for instance you make a survey on compensation but you have no plans to make changes on wages, you will only create feelings of frustrations and disappointments.  Be completely honest with your staff. Tell them exactly how long before you can actually act on the results of the survey. Make them understand that some matters you can handle right away, others may need more time to be resolved, while there could be some you cannot possibly sort out.

One-Track Mind – do not concentrate too much on a singular issue. Have an equal focus on all aspects of your business.

Failure To Benchmark – it is highly recommended that you compare information with previous surveys as well as against the results of similar companies.  By comparing information, you will have a broader outlook of the general norms of the business.


HOW OFTEN SHOULD SURVEYS BE CONDUCTED


The most ideal time interval is to conduct the survey on more or less the same date every year. This will make it much easier to track the progress from one survey to the next. Regardless of the frequency of these surveys, it is vital that your process is evaluated appropriately. Make sure that the survey will yield information that you can use to improve your company. It also needs to give employee feedback about upcoming changes or ways on how they can improve the organization.


HOW TO MARKET THE SURVEYS


It is important to get a high response rate from your employees in order to get a more or less accurate, general result. To achieve  this, it is necessary that surveys are effectively marketed. The management needs to communicate through as many media channels as possible to achieve higher response rates. The following are some of these channels:

  • ·         Team briefings
  • ·         Pay-slip advertising
  • ·         Advertising through notice boards
  • ·         Company news sheets

 

THE RISKS IN IMPLEMENTING STAFF SURVEYS

·         Some managers may regard employee consultation as a sign of weakness.
·         Surveys are likely to reveal the unexpected and management should be prepared to confront issues they may not be ready to handle.
·         Raising expectations from employees will turn to cynicism when their concerns are not heeded right away.


HOW TO INTERPRET THE SURVEY RESULTS

These are some of the main points in interpreting the results in staff surveys:

  • Surveys should not be taken as isolated cases to base your judgments on regarding performance of individual departments. Results need to be set alongside other data on performance.
  • Several factors influence the results of staff surveys such as size and profile of workers among others. These should always be carefully taken into account.
  • ·Making meaningful comparisons is very difficult between individual department scores. Realize that even small differences in wording have a big effect of the way people respond.
  • When reporting results, it is advisable to consider the full range of responses to particular questions.


TIPS ON CONDUCTING STAFF SURVEYS


The pointers that follow could be helpful as you design and execute your survey:

  1. Use a mixed methodology (online and traditional approaches). These two methods will make sure that even those who cannot access the internet are reached and their responses and feed backs are taken into account.
  2. Market the survey through email notices, announcement boards, etc. Paying particular attention to promote the benefits of taking part in the survey.
  3. Appoint an internal project manager who will work closely with the management team.
  4. Protect and communicate the anonymity of responses to encourage honest feed backs. It is best to use a third party in conducting and implementing the staff survey.
  5. Communicate to your workforce the results of the survey – be they positive or negative.
  6. Act on the results right away.
  7. Do the survey on a regular (yearly) basis to gauge the difference in the satisfaction levels.

 

THE ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE SURVEYS


Online staff surveys had become more and more the medium of choice for conducting surveys. Obviously the advantages are many. In the current office set-up where almost everyone has access to computers, it has been highly recommended to use this methodology for the following reasons:

  • ·         Less wastage of resources
  • ·         Higher response rates
  • ·         Lower cost
  • ·         Proactive
  • ·         Quick to design
  • ·         Can be deployed directly to respondents
  • ·         Easy to accomplish
  • ·         Information and feedback are passed on consistently in its true form (accurate and undistorted)
  • ·         Instant results
  • ·         Instant analysis

Online survey represents a simple method of taking the pulse of the workforce. It establishes a two way communication channel between the employers and employees and its results are consistently accurate.