The different activities that happen before, during and after the survey are outlined in the diagram below.
Preparing and testing the survey
To run a successful survey campaign, it is important that the survey be properly prepared:
- To facilitate the contextual interpretation of survey results and appropriately targeted recommendations, the survey should be broken down into a number of departments and/or survey groupings of minimum 8 participants each. Smaller departments (with less than 8 employees) should where possible be grouped together with other small departments into survey groups for the survey. The survey data from the different departments and/or survey groups will be consolidated and made available to management via an online analytics dashboard. Please note that to ensure the respondents’ anonymity, the survey analytics dashboard will not show survey results of business units or teams with fewer than 4 responses. See Organizational Structures for more on this.
- Demographic information (e.g. age, tenure at organization, qualifications) that will be collected as part of the survey should be carefully considered. Including demographic questions will enable survey results to be interrogated and compared according to demographic parameters, which will help with the analysis of survey results. Demographic categories should, however, be designed in such a way that the anonymity of respondents will not be compromised. See Demographic Data for more on this.
- Online surveys should as a rule always be tested at the client environment before the survey to make sure that everyone can access the survey and that there are no Internet access or firewall restrictions.
Announcing the survey
The survey should be preceded by communication activities at least a week before the start of the actual survey. The purposes of these communications are to:
- Announce the fact that a survey is going to be conducted;
- Discuss the issues that will be addressed by the survey;
- Explain how the information from the survey will be used;
- If possible, outline how previous surveys have shaped decisions.
A nice catchy name should be considered for the survey – something that will be easy to remember and that will stick, e.g. the ‘[CompanyName] Voice!’ survey. A suggested announcement by the CEO of the organization is covered in the following section – please edit and change as required to suit the specific circumstances.
| CEO Announcement of the First Survey |
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Subject: [CompanyName] Voice! Q3 Employee Engagement Survey I am happy to announce that we will be conducting an employee survey amongst all our employees over the next few weeks. The survey, which will be known as the [CompanyName] Voice! survey, will kick off on [Date], and forms part of a management initiative to create a better and more productive work environment where everyone will enjoy coming to work. Voluntary survey open to all employees The survey is open for all employees to participate, but it will be done on a voluntary basis, so you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to. We would however love to get 100% participation to ensure that each and every employee’s voice is heard. Why you should participate in the survey The survey will provide you with an opportunity to give us your anonymous and honest feedback and to tell us exactly how you feel about management, the company, your work environment and your job. Your feedback will help us to make the organization a better place to work and will have a positive impact on your work environment. More about the survey The survey involves a questionnaire with a number of multiple-choice questions and some optional comment-type questions. The survey is designed to record your personal views and opinions, so there will be no right or wrong answers. More details of how the survey will be conducted will be provided in due course. It is important to note, however, that the survey is 100% confidential; it will not be possible to trace your responses back to you. To ensure confidentially, we are partnering with an external consulting company, Mindset Management, who will be administering the survey. Say your say! Your opinion is extremely important to us and could make a real difference to the workplace, so please make use of the opportunity to give us your honest feedback. Thank you in advance for your participation and support. |
A suggested briefing by management is covered in the following section – please edit and change as required to suit your specific circumstances.
| Management Briefing to Employees |
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Subject: [CompanyName] Voice! Q3 Employee Engagement Survey We will be conducting a survey amongst the organization’s employees over the next few days. The survey forms part of a management initiative to create a better and more productive work environment where everyone will enjoy coming to work. What type of survey is it? The survey is designed to record your personal views and opinions of your job and how you experience your work environment on a daily basis, so there are no right or wrong answers. The survey will provide you with the ideal opportunity to give us your anonymous and honest feedback and to tell us exactly how you feel about management, the company, your work environment and your job. Can my responses be traced back to me? It is important to note that the survey will be 100% anonymous, i.e. you will not be required at any time to provide your name or company number, so it will not be possible to link your responses back to you. Also please note that no results will be made available in cases where fewer than 8 respondents in a particular department or survey group have completed the survey. Why is the survey important? The survey will provide management with reliable information about issues that need to be addressed, as well as highlight things that are done well so others can learn from them. Your feedback will help us to make our organization a better place to work and will have a positive impact on your work environment. How will the survey responses be used? The survey data will be combined on organizational and departmental level and analysed to identify overall trends of things that might be an issue or that are done well. The results of the survey will be provided to management for actioning. You will also receive feedback of the survey results and any subsequent planned actions. How is the survey going to work? The survey comprises of 42 multiple-choice and a few optional comment-type questions that should take each of you ±30 minutes to complete. To answer a multiple-choice question, you simply have to select one of the options relating to the question. The survey will be completed online (or on paper or via facilitated work sessions), and should be done in privacy and without discussing your responses with your colleagues. Do I need special knowledge to complete the survey? The purpose of the survey is to get your opinions and views of your work environment and you job, so there are no right or wrong answers. You don’t have to prepare for the survey, and you don’t need any special knowledge or experience to complete the survey. Is the survey compulsory? The survey will be conducted on a strictly voluntary basis – no-one can force you to participate in the survey. However, the more people that participate in the survey, the more accurate and useful it will be, so please do participate in the survey and please encourage your colleagues to participate in the survey. Who will be conducting the survey? The survey will be conducted by [name of survey provider], a neutral, external management consulting company that specialises in surveys. They will be responsible for collecting the survey responses and for analysing and interpreting the data at organizational and business unit level. Make a difference – say your say! The survey could make a real difference to the workplace, so please make use of the opportunity to give us your honest feedback and tell us what you think and how you feel about our organization and your work environment. And remember, the survey will be 100% anonymous – no-one will be able to track your responses back to you. |
The details of how the survey will be conducted should be discussed by the different managers with their direct reports.
Emailing the survey link
The survey link should be mailed out to all employees that have access to PCs at the start of the survey, and/or installed on communal PCs that will be shared by multiple respondents. The actual URL (link) to the survey should be included at the end of the email.
Note: The example email below contains some text regarding Mindset’s Personal Engagement Report. This report is only available with the Engaged@Way-of-Work engagement survey.
| Emailing the Survey URL (link) |
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Subject: Start of the [CompanyName] Voice! Q3 Survey The [CompanyName] Voice! Q3 Employee Engagement Survey has started, and will be running for a limited period! Please click on the link at the bottom of the email and complete the survey at your earliest convenience. About the survey The survey comprises of 42 multiple-choice questions and some optional comment-type questions and should take you ±30 minutes to complete. Confidential & voluntary The survey will be administered by [name of survey provider], an external service provider, so you can rest assured that your responses will be 100% anonymous and confidential. And just to remind you, the survey is voluntary – you don’t have to participate if you don’t feel like doing so. However, since the objective of the survey is to make our organization an even better place to work, we urge you to take part in the survey – the more responses we get, the more representative and useful the survey results will be. Personal engagement reports Once you have completed the survey, you will be given the option to view your own personal engagement report. This report will give you a good indication of how engaged you are at work and what you can do to experience a higher level of work satisfaction, productivity and well-being at work. Please click on the link to complete the survey Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the survey; your feedback is extremely important to us and could make a real difference to the workplace. Please click on this link [URL link] to complete the survey. |
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