HR Solutions, Inc.
Taking the Pulse: Engaging Staff with
April 12 2007
Employee Opinion Surveys
April 12, 2007 Presented by Kevin Sheridan, CEO
Presentation Outline
Presentation Outline
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Greatest Benefits of an Employee Opinion Survey
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The Greatest Mistakes Made by Organizations with Employee Opinion Surveys
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Making Sense of Survey Options
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Effectively Scheduling and Managing Your Survey For Success
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Driving Positive Change
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The Importance of Developing an Effective Survey Follow-up and Action Plan
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Outcomes-Examples
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Greatest Benefits of an Employee
Opinion Survey
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Learn about Organizational Strengths
• Identify Key Retention Factors (The #1 issue among HR Exec’s)
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Discover Opportunities for Improvement
• Improve Morale = Reduce Turnover ($5,000,000,000 Annual Cost) • Enhance Productivity/Efficiency
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A Tool for Positive Change
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A Tool for Positive Change
• Value Employees’ Opinions• Utilize Employees' Recommendations and Solutions
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Measure the Effectiveness of Organization’s Programs
Measure the Effectiveness of Organization s Programs
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St li C i ti
Greatest Benefits of an Employee
Opinion Survey
• Streamline Communication
• No employee ever complained about too much communication from their manager or
their company
• Increase Credibility of Management
• Perception of Different Management Styles
• Strengthen Supervision
• Identify Cost-Saving Opportunities (win-wins)
• Identify Cost-Saving Opportunities (win-wins)
• Benchmarks
• National Employee Satisfaction Normative Database
• Internal Benchmarking
• Assess Training Needs
• Curb Absenteeism
• There is evidence of a direct correlation between engaged employees and the degree
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Report Card on the Perception of
Employee Opinion Surveys
Not a pretty picture:
“This survey will result in change for this
organization.”
National Normative Data
33% Favorable
National Normative Data – 33% Favorable
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The Greatest Mistakes Made by Organizations
with Employee Opinion Surveys
1.
Lack of commitment from client’s Executive Management
to the survey process
Key preventative measures to put in place to ensure this
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Key preventative measures to put in place to ensure this
mistake does not occur
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Prepare Senior Management to communicate changes which
result from survey
result from survey
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Consider creating a Survey Committee to instill broad buy-in,
excitement and commitment
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The Greatest Mistakes Made by Organizations
with Employee Opinion Surveys
2.
No Qualitative Feedback, over-reliance on less valuable,
negative, write-in comments
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Purpose of Feedback/Focus Group:
5 Key Objectives
1.
Capture the qualitative reasons from associates as to why
the quantitative results showed up as they did (root-cause
identification)
2.
Become alerted to any organizational/departmental
eco e a e ted to a y o ga
at o a /depa t e ta
changes since the survey was administered
3.
Include associates and all managers in the
conclusion-making and action-planning processes
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Determine the level of significance of specific items
4.
Determine the level of significance of specific items
mentioned in the survey
Making Sense of Survey Options
Making Sense of Survey Options
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Comprehensive and abbreviated instruments
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What is the difference?
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What do opinion surveys typically measure?
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What do opinion surveys typically measure?
• Employee Opinion Survey – gauge employees’ views,attitudes, and perceptions of the organization in which they work
• Employee Engagement Survey – measures
commitment, motivation, sense of purpose, and passion
• Employee Culture Survey - measures the shared
i d b li f h ld b i i
assumptions and beliefs held by an organization or department by assessing the existing culture from the employees’ point-of-view
To read more about this topic go to http://tinyurl.com/2ug9wr
Making Sense of Survey Options
Making Sense of Survey Options
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How to choose a survey partner? Ask yourself:
• How do I ensure that my managers are being trained appropriately on development, execution and monitoring of action plans?
• Can I leverage a comprehensive knowledge database of best-practices to g p g p adopt and adapt to my organization?
• Do I have access to normative data to compare my survey scores with those of my peer group and other industries?
• Is there a communication toolkit I can use to inform both managers and employees of survey results, action plans and management’s ongoing commitment?
• Does a Partner’s engagement philosophy align with our desire to bring oes a a e s e gage e p osop y a g ou des e o b g about lasting positive change?
• Do they take “their own medicine”? Do they regularly survey their clients/employees and make positive changes based on the feedback received?
Making Sense of Survey Options
Making Sense of Survey Options
Wh
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Why not do it in-house?
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Disadvantages for organizations conducting Employee Opinion
Survey in-house:
• Reliability and statistical validity of the survey instrument itself
• Time consuming
• Perceived lack of confidentiality by employees
• Lower participation rateLower participation rate
• Risk of insufficient communication about the survey process
• No external benchmarking available
• Risk of inaccurate data processing
• Risk of improper analysis of the results
Ri k f d ti i t f db k
Core competencies of Employee
Opinion/Engagement Survey Specialist
• Risk of conducting improper post-survey feedback
• Risk of conducting inadequate and ineffective survey follow-up and action-planning
• Risk of improper statistical results dissemination
Making Sense of Survey Options
Making Sense of Survey Options
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Most common mistakes in survey content creation.
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Huge implications on data results:
1
The survey items are not placed randomly throughout the
1.
The survey items are not placed randomly throughout the
survey (i.e. not organized by dimension or category)
2.
There are no “personalized” survey items
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I am accountable for achieving my goals and objectives
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I am accountable for achieving my goals and objectives.
3.
There are “double barreled” items
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I am satisfied with the quality and timeliness of my last
performance review.
Making Sense of Survey Options
Making Sense of Survey Options
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Most common mistakes in survey content creation (cont’d)
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Huge implications on data results:
4.
Alternative communication channels
• Employees rely on the grapevine for information.
5.
There are vague items (one that uses catch-phrases, is open for
interpretation, or will lead to results that are not actionable).
interpretation, or will lead to results that are not actionable).
6.
The survey items are not void of variability words
• There are usually enough employees in my department to complete the tasks.
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• Let the scale speak for itself
Making Sense of Survey Options
Making Sense of Survey Options
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When is it a good time to survey?
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There is no good time to survey
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The most opportune time:
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Changes in the works
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New management
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New management
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How often do you survey your employees?
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Survey administration method? How to choose?
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Internet/Intranet, Paper/Pencil, Telephone, IVR
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How to sell an Employee Opinion Survey to your Management
Team or your boss?
Effectively Scheduling and
Managing Your Survey For Success
Effectively Scheduling and
Effectively Scheduling and
Managing Your Survey For Success
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Establish a timeline
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Tailor your survey instrument
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Pre-survey communication
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Incentives
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Track participation rate
Effectively Scheduling and
Effectively Scheduling and
Managing Your Survey For Success
• Enhance participation rate:p p
• Secure Management Commitment
• Timing and space
S h i
• Survey champions
• Incentives
• Global and/or by departments
• Have fun with it
• “Kiss the Pig”
• Branding
• On-going communication
• Survey Captain
• Role of supervisor
• Use of a “Participation” Tracking Control Report
Effectively Scheduling and
Managing Your Survey For Success
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Process data shortly after survey administration cut-off
• Insist upon a guaranteed turn-around time
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Data Analysis
Data Analysis
• Trending versus Normative Differential
• Analysis and presentation of survey results to Human Resources/Senior Managementg
• Identify highlights and opportunities for improvement
• List the work groups that scored significantly different from the rest of the organization to help prioritize both the feedback sessions as well as the action planning process
Effectively Scheduling and Managing
Effectively Scheduling and Managing
Your Survey For Success
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Capture the qualitative reasons from employees as to
why the quantitative results showed up as they did
(root-cause identification)
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Identify areas in need of improvement and prescribe
specific solutions to these issues, but as importantly,
it will highlight what your is doing right
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Compile actionable advice which initiates
organizational and work group change
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Driving Positive Change
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Treat it as more than research
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Emphasize the survey as you would a
marketing opportunity
marketing opportunity
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Not a one-time event – a journey or a process
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The critical importance of Post-Survey Action Planning and
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Communication
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What happens after the survey is just as important, if not more
so, than the survey itself
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Take advantage of technology (online reporting
The Importance of Developing An Effective
Survey Follow-up And Action Plan
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Importance
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Communication, communication, communication
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Employees will judge the value of the survey as well as
management’s commitment on continuous improvement
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Thank employees for participating and keep them
involved and updated
involved and updated
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Outcomes Examples
Turning Data into Action™
J h H ki M di i
• Johns Hopkins Medicine
• Scores went up almost 200% from first survey to second
• Walt Disney Imagineeringy g g
• Streamlined communication within the organization
• Elkhart General Hospital
• Developed a recruiting campaign, touting high engagement, decreased turnover
decreased turnover
• PR “If I were in need of medical care, where would I want to be treated?”
Linkage between Customer Satisfaction
• Linkage between Customer Satisfaction and Employee Opinion Surveys
