Tips on Surveying EmployeesJohn E. Jones and William L. Bearley
The
following tips are from Surveying Employees
by John E. Jones, Ph.D. and William L. Bearley,
Ed.D. Drs. Jones and Bearley are experienced
professors and consultants who have done substantial
work in the field of employee surveys and 360° feedback
with numerous public and private organizations.
Things To Do
Establish a clear purpose. Make sure that the people who receive
the questionnaire can understand why completing it candidly is important.
Establish a theme for the intervention. One year it may
be values, another it may be communication, etc.
Set measurable objectives. Establish a method of determining
the extent to which the survey-feedback intervention worked.
Involve representative people in the planning. Develop a
task force under the direction of senior management and accountable to it.
Determine the conditions under which the data will be gathered. Attempt
to create conditions that promote honest responses and minimize fear of exposure.
Establish benchmarks for longitudinal comparisons. Include
in the survey some items that will be repeated later in order to study effects
of planned changes in organizational functioning.
Customize every survey questionnaire. Make
each instrument fit the local situation, and avoid the temptation to buy
one "off the shelf."
Things To Avoid
Measuring everything that looks interesting. Including items
on survey instruments should be dictated by the purpose of the survey, not by
curiosity.
"Sitting on" the results. There should be no conditions
or results that would bring about the decision not to feed back the statistics
to the people who provided it.
Exceeding the reading level of respondents. Test the instrument
with a carefully selected sample before administering it to everyone.
Interpreting data for the client. Facilitate the process
of interpretation, stay out of the content of the discussion.
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