Surveying your employees is a good way to get your finger on the pulse of what they are feeling. Too often you might have a sense or gut feeling that employees are dissatisfied at work but cannot quantify the condition in any tangible terms. The attitude survey is one way to measure employee satisfaction. Done well, it can increase employee morale and involvement and can be used as a communication tool. Done poorly, it can worsen any issues that were present and destroy employee morale, leading to low productivity and low employee retention.
Developing an attitude survey
consists of these steps:
1. Design the survey
2. Administer the survey
3. Compile the results of the survey
4. Report on the results of the survey
5. Follow up and monitor progress (repeat process periodically to ensure levels
of satisfaction are maintained)
Step 1:
Design the Survey
A good attitude survey will provide a confidential forum for employees to provide
candid comments on critical management issues. Employers should attempt to answer
the following questions when surveying employees:
An attitude survey should ask questions in the area of concern. You can do a general survey about working conditions, benefits, and management issues; you can hone in on specific departments, work groups, or divisions; or you can focus on key issues (for example, a compensation survey). The idea is to measure satisfaction as a benchmark, and then continue to measure it over time to see if anything has changed after a program is implemented, a change is made in management, or some other variable is introduced.
Some points to keep in mind:
Number of questions: You want to limit the questions to between 20 and 40 to ensure that the survey is not a burden to complete. Your goal is to maximize the number of surveys you receive. Low survey submission, like low voter turnout, is indicative of other issues. Perhaps employees feel that it is a waste of their time to fill out the survey because they perceive that management doesn’t really care about them or what they have to say. You can position the reason for doing the survey and hope that you can promote the need for candid remarks.
Types of questions: Ask quantitative and qualitative questions. First start with about 20 standard questions that the employee needs to answer by rating it on a scale of one to four. One to ten is probably too many options; one to five provides the option of going to “3,” which is dead center and does not provide value. After the rating questions, ask open-ended questions about certain issues of concern.
Confidentiality: Employees need to know that the information will not be used against them. A confidential email or fax number is useful, and making names optional can help protect confidentiality and promote confidence in the security of the information.
Step 2:
Administer the Survey
Some organizations send the survey to people’s homes with a prestamped,
return envelope. If you have remote sites, that might be appropriate, but generally
the survey should be easy enough to complete while on a regular shift without
disrupting operations. Stress the assurance of confidentiality, the need for
candid remarks, and the process you will follow for compiling results and reporting
back to employees, etc.
Provide a specific deadline: Two weeks should be more than ample time to return completed surveys. Time stamp the surveys as a point of reference. You might get the more negative ones in more quickly or vice versa.
Management involvement: Make certain that you have informed all managers and supervisors about the survey so that they can promote it with their staff. You will get a better return rate if managers and supervisors allow employees to complete the survey on the time clock.
Step 3:
Compile the Results
Respond quickly: A cardinal sin in attitude surveys is not getting
back to employees in an appropriate period of time. A month or less is preferable.
Any longer than that and employees will discuss the issues and will jump to
conclusions.
Do not filter the information: Report on all the information. If an employee does not see his or her comments included, that will indicate that management is ignoring key complaints and refuses to face issues presented by employees. This will increase skepticism now and in the future if another survey is done.
Translate the information using graphs and charts: Do not just provide a spreadsheet of raw data and leave employees to figure out on their own what the data means.
State the good and the bad: Congratulate the organization on good scores, and be honest and candid about shortcomings. Employees will trust that you had the right idea in mind.
Step 4:
Report on the Results of the Survey
Communicate the results in face-to-face meetings with employees: This
will allow employees to ask questions and receive feedback. While you can publish
a summary of the results by posting it on bulletin boards, putting it in the
newsletter, or sending it to employees at home, face-to-face meetings are the
best way to promote two-way communication and allow employees to voice additional
concerns.
Develop an action plan: Make certain that each issue that arises in the attitude survey is addressed. If you choose not to address an issue, state why that decision was made. Employees that have negative comments that are not addressed will not participate in the next attitude survey due to disenchantment and distrust. Furthermore, your lack of response will add more fuel to the fire of disgruntled employees.
Step 5:
Follow Up and Monitor Progress
Follow up with key departments that have more negative comments. You might consider
intervening in a group meeting. The survey can also identify training and development
needs and other issues that should be addressed in the department. So use it
as a tool to identify and respond to issues.
Surveys should be conducted annually (or more frequently) to keep a pulse on the organization. Your participation rates will go up if employees see the benefit of providing feedback to management. If the survey was done poorly or employees are skeptical of the reasons for doing the survey, your participation rates will decrease.
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