Happy Holidays from McBassi!
As 2007 comes to a close, we'd like to say "thank you" to all our readers. We wish each of you a very happy holiday season! |
Designing an Effective Employee Satisfaction Survey
In a recent presentation to a large audience of senior executives, we asked how many worked in organizations that use employee satisfaction/engagement surveys. Not surprisingly, nearly everyone raised their hand. Then we asked how many were satisfied with the value they got from those surveys.
Not a single hand was raised.
We have learned that there are two essential elements to making sure that you get value from the investment that your organization makes in employee satisfaction/ engagement surveys.
First, ask good questions. There are six rules that we recommend following:
1. Ask people questions they can answer
2. Ask hypothesis-driven questions
3. Ask "fact-based" questions
4. Only ask questions if you are willing to act on the answers
5. Questions either need to produce actionable insight or serve as an "outcome" measure
6. Limit the number of questions that you ask
Second, undertake linkage analysis, using the survey results to identify the key "human drivers" of your business results. The typical failure to take this step is one major reason that employee surveys do not result in significant change. We've discussed the importance of this step previously; you can click here for our advice on how to remedy this key shortcoming. |
| Want to Know More?
For a more in-depth discussion of the six rules for good questions described above, you can download our one-page guide to Governing Principles for Effective Employee Surveys. |
