Nothing should be more important to a company than its employees. Without them a business, regardless of size, would simply not function. Employees need to know they are valued and that their opinion counts. Issues in the workplace must be resolved as early as possible and there should always be an avenue open for employee suggestions. Most companies now perform some sort of annual survey, although the effectiveness of these surveys varies dramatically. The following are the main reasons why staff surveys do not work:
HR surveys done superficially
If a survey is seen by senior management as an HR exercise it will most likely fail. It is most likely judged to be something that should be done to tick the right box on a good employer form. If senior management cannot commit to the survey, they will have no interest in doing anything with the results. This in turn means that the questionnaire is pointless as it will achieve nothing. It will be necessary to make senior management understand how a survey can assist in managing the company and even improving profits. If HR cannot recognize this, then it is best not to do a survey at all.
Low response rates
For an employee survey to really mean something, every employee should respond. If this does not happen you are likely to hear only from the negative ones, or the extremely positive ones. It will not provide an accurate picture. Low response rates also leave the door open to dismissing the data as not credible.
Complications
If the questionnaire is too complicated or confusing, it will lead to frustration by the employee filling it in. The same question worded different can inspire two different responses and mix the results. Surveys can become complicated when they are trying to address every department in a company or if negative statements are mixed with positive ones.
Data ownership - one of the most common flaws with surveys
Every employee gets all the data but none of the hard facts. In order to protect anonymity the questions are too general which results in no one taking responsibility for any issues. It is impossible for anyone to be accountable for the data which makes it very easy to apportion blame to someone else.
Inaccurate results
A survey is only useful if the employees understand the reason for it and the results of it. If the results are either not made known to the employees or take a long time to become known, the survey becomes ineffective. Put simply, if the employees don’t see any feedback or improvement after a survey, they will not put any effort or thought into the next one. This renders all surveys useless. It is far more likely that if the results are not known quickly the gossip around the company will assume it is bad. People generally find gossip works better if it’s bad news.
Follow-up
Even if the data makes its way back to the employees, this is futile if there’s no follow up. Employees take a survey hoping to improve their workplace. Should there be no one responsible for acting on the survey results, then employees will not be interested in future surveys. An attitude of why bother will quickly prevail.
Punishing staff
There is no quicker way to kill future surveys than to use the results to target certain members of staff, whether supervisors or general employees. The natural reaction of any member of staff will be not to complete the survey and risk getting into trouble, even if they have done nothing wrong. A successful survey will indicate areas where relationships and procedures can be improved; it will never look at punishing people.
All in all, it’s safe to say that most employee surveys fail because managers and leaders don’t put a lot of effort into creating adequate questionnaires. The questions must be simple and they should address company issues, not personal matters about an employee’s personal opinion about their boss. It’s equally important for these surveys to be anonymous; otherwise, employees won’t tell the truth because they wouldn’t want to get fired for being honest. Last but not least, surveys shouldn’t feature more than 1 page and about 15 questions. This will permit workers to do the survey fast without having to write down too much.
HR surveys done superficially
If a survey is seen by senior management as an HR exercise it will most likely fail. It is most likely judged to be something that should be done to tick the right box on a good employer form. If senior management cannot commit to the survey, they will have no interest in doing anything with the results. This in turn means that the questionnaire is pointless as it will achieve nothing. It will be necessary to make senior management understand how a survey can assist in managing the company and even improving profits. If HR cannot recognize this, then it is best not to do a survey at all.
Low response rates
For an employee survey to really mean something, every employee should respond. If this does not happen you are likely to hear only from the negative ones, or the extremely positive ones. It will not provide an accurate picture. Low response rates also leave the door open to dismissing the data as not credible.
Complications
If the questionnaire is too complicated or confusing, it will lead to frustration by the employee filling it in. The same question worded different can inspire two different responses and mix the results. Surveys can become complicated when they are trying to address every department in a company or if negative statements are mixed with positive ones.
Data ownership - one of the most common flaws with surveys
Every employee gets all the data but none of the hard facts. In order to protect anonymity the questions are too general which results in no one taking responsibility for any issues. It is impossible for anyone to be accountable for the data which makes it very easy to apportion blame to someone else.
Inaccurate results
A survey is only useful if the employees understand the reason for it and the results of it. If the results are either not made known to the employees or take a long time to become known, the survey becomes ineffective. Put simply, if the employees don’t see any feedback or improvement after a survey, they will not put any effort or thought into the next one. This renders all surveys useless. It is far more likely that if the results are not known quickly the gossip around the company will assume it is bad. People generally find gossip works better if it’s bad news.
Follow-up
Even if the data makes its way back to the employees, this is futile if there’s no follow up. Employees take a survey hoping to improve their workplace. Should there be no one responsible for acting on the survey results, then employees will not be interested in future surveys. An attitude of why bother will quickly prevail.
Punishing staff
There is no quicker way to kill future surveys than to use the results to target certain members of staff, whether supervisors or general employees. The natural reaction of any member of staff will be not to complete the survey and risk getting into trouble, even if they have done nothing wrong. A successful survey will indicate areas where relationships and procedures can be improved; it will never look at punishing people.
All in all, it’s safe to say that most employee surveys fail because managers and leaders don’t put a lot of effort into creating adequate questionnaires. The questions must be simple and they should address company issues, not personal matters about an employee’s personal opinion about their boss. It’s equally important for these surveys to be anonymous; otherwise, employees won’t tell the truth because they wouldn’t want to get fired for being honest. Last but not least, surveys shouldn’t feature more than 1 page and about 15 questions. This will permit workers to do the survey fast without having to write down too much.