Surveys are a great way to start a dialogue with employees. When creating your survey, consider asking these questions:
- Why are we taking the survey in the first place? Have a specific goal in mind. Is it to get ideas? Improve the employee experience? Improve customer service? What?
- Who will take the survey? All employees? A representative group? Begin by having a handful of employees take the final draft of the survey and then give you feedback on the questions. After making adjustments, these people can become spokespersons for the completed version.
- What type of survey will you construct? Will it be anonymous? (We’re usually against this approach.) Will it be numerically based (1 = poor, 5 = excellent)? Or will it be open-ended?
- What will you do with the results? Make sure employees know that, although you can’t act on each and every suggestion, you’ll consider and rank all input and provide feedback on which initiatives you will follow.
- Who’s involved in solutions? Will you form separate committees? Will it be a top-down effort? Will you hire consultants?
- How will you test, obtain feedback, and improve? What have you learned from this experience and what can you do better or differently next time? After these insights or strategies have been implemented, what will you ask about in your next survey?
