Choosing the Best Format for Your Employee Satisfaction Survey

If you’re considering an Employee Satisfaction Survey or Employee Opinion Survey for your organization, you’ve probably noticed the myriad complex factors that can impact the success of a survey campaign. Along with survey length and the kinds of questions to ask, people often solicit our advice on the best way to deliver, or administer, the surveys to their employees. In most cases, our initial response is that the best survey format depends upon the specific needs of the organization.

So how do you determine what format fits your needs? To start, here are five tips for choosing between online, paper, and telephone formats for your Employee Opinion Survey:

1. Fit the survey to your employees’ working environment. As a general best practice, employees should be encouraged to complete the survey during work hours, and thus they must have access at work to any resources needed to do so. Many organizations in healthcare, hospitality, and casinos/gaming, for example, have large numbers of employees without dedicated access to computers. These organizations often opt for paper surveys or set up convenient kiosks where employees can take the survey.
2. Different survey formats may not resonate equally among your employees. In fact, employee demographics often play into how a workforce responds to a given survey format. It isn’t uncommon, for example, for some populations to feel uncomfortable using computers, or conversely for employees to vastly prefer an electronic format over telephone or hardcopy. Selecting a format that suits the tastes of your general employee population can help to support strong survey participation.
3. It’s no surprise that survey format usually has some level of impact on cost, but what surprises many is that the most cost-effective survey formats are often those that generate the best outcomes. Online surveys, for example, are often priced below telephone format, generally produce higher participation rates, and are less prone to response bias. (Response bias occurs when a survey respondent answers questions in the way they think the interviewer would like them to answer.) A recommended approach to planning your Employee Opinion Survey includes consulting with an expert to understand how factors like these play out in the relationship between cost and value.
4. If a single survey format does not meet your needs, consider a two-pronged approach. It is not uncommon for organizations to opt for two survey formats in order to develop a survey campaign that accommodates their employees and the project budget. If, for example, hundreds of your employees work on the shop floor without access to computers, but some departments have dedicated workstations, the use of both online and paper formats may be the best option. Good survey providers offer this level of flexibility and will be willing to consult with you to design a program that meets your specific needs.
5. Environmental responsibility has increasingly become a formal value among organizations that understand it is in their long-term best interest to help preserve the health of our planet. If this sounds like your organization, opting for a green approach like telephone or online may align most fittingly with your company playbook. Organizations that go this route can incorporate “green” imagery into their survey promotions to help employees make the connection between the survey and their company values.

Keeping these tips in mind as you select a format for your Employee Satisfaction Survey can help you to identify the option best-suited for your organization. And when questions arise, consult with an expert. Survey providers like Avatar Solutions want you to succeed and will work closely with you to design a survey campaign that will help you do just that. To learn more about our employee surveys, please visit http://www.avatarsolutions.com/solutions/surveys/employee-engagement-survey.cfm.

#1 Fan!

The chill in the air, the packed streets and highways, and the influx of people wearing logoed t-shirts and sweatshirts make it obvious: football season has arrived.  Whether you’re a hardcore enthusiast or simply enjoy the overall atmosphere, most everyone is affected in one way or another by the football games (even if it’s just your favorite Monday-night primetime television show being delayed due to overtime).

While seemingly unrelated to the workplace, football can actually teach a valuable lesson about employees’ relationships with their jobs.  Managers should encourage their employees to act as number one fans for their organization.      

Every football team has a fan base of some sort.  The most committed supporters show up to every game because they want to provide support.  I’ve even known some devotees who think that if they miss a game, they will jinx the players and cause them to lose.  While it is likely not the case that fans directly affect the outcome of a game (at least not in a cause and effect way), these individuals are so supportive of their players that they do everything in their power to attend each weekend. 

Like these loyal fans, engaged individuals come to work ready and willing to “cheer” their workplace on to success.  They put forth the effort needed to succeed by often coming in early and staying late in order to get their necessary tasks accomplished.  They have lower absentee rates than disengaged workers, because they recognize that missing work will ultimately be harmful to their coworkers and business.     

True football addicts also tend to take ownership of their teams.  In a way, they accept responsibility for the wins and losses, with phrases such as “we won,” “we lost,” or “we’ll do better next year.”   Many followers even internalize the team as part of their identity (“I’m a Packer’s fan,” “I’m a Wolverine,” etc.).  Similarly, engaged employees take ownership of their projects, mistakes, and personal engagement.  They operate as a group, taking joint responsibility for successes and failures.  They treat every organizational win as a personal accomplishment, and work hard to achieve victory.    

Finally, loyal fans also tend to gush about the players, coaches, stadium, etc.   Even when the squad is doing poorly, supporters will attempt to put a positive spin on the losses (“Well, this week wasn’t so good, but we’re going to practice hard and next weekend our opponent will see what we’re really made of!”).  Followers will try to convert others to join their cause by showcasing the positive traits of their team compared to others.  Fans are true brand advocates for their teams.    

Likewise, engaged employees spread the word, providing positive reviews to their peers and speaking positively about the organization in general.  These are the people who believe their place of business is a great place to work, and this belief is reflected in their actions.  Their recommendations and attitude toward customers attract new customers, leading to more business success.

Some of the most fruitful football teams in history are known for their large fan bases, indicating that supporters truly do make a difference when it comes to winning and losing.  The same can be said in the workplace.  When employees are engaged and loyal enthusiasts, business will boom.  Encourage your workers to be dedicated devotees for your organization, and you will win the business game.

Speaking of winning, I really need to figure out tickets for next weekend’s game.  Otherwise, my team might lose!

Improving Engagement Through Feedback

Last Monday, my co-workers and I gathered around the windows, asking “Is that them?”  We could see people in red shirts entering downtown Chicago from all directions, headed for Daley Plaza outside of City Hall.  They were teachers from the Chicago Teacher’s Union, striking for the first time in 25 years.

Source: cnn.com

Despite not having any connection to the Chicago Public Schools, I had been following the potential conflict for weeks, wondering if a strike would actually occur.  The teachers had laid out their issues, and both sides had been working for months to come up with solutions.  However, the Chicago Teacher’s Union and the Chicago Public Schools couldn’t reach middle ground, and the strike began on September 10^th.

Now, I’m not trying to take a stand on whether or not the strike was the right thing to do.  As unionized employees, Chicago’s teachers had every right to walk off of the job, whether or not I agree with them.  However, I can’t help but notice that the teachers are actually just doing what we recommend here at Avatar HR Solutions every day: providing feedback on what’s holding them back from being fully engaged in the workplace.  Though a strike may be an extreme way of doing so, it is important for employees to stand up and tell someone when there is a problem in the workplace.

The necessity of employees letting their managers know when something needs to change in the workplace is twofold.  First, if an employee is bothered by something, unless he or she lets someone know, it’s unlikely the problem will ever be solved.  Second, if management does notice that employees are becoming disengaged, they will have to guess at the cause of the problem, and are unlikely to devise a proper solution.

An organization can prompt these discussions, either by conducting an employee survey with feedback sessions, or by asking managers to ask employees what’s holding them back from being fully engaged.  Employees can also take the lead, and schedule a meeting to talk about what is bothering them.  No matter which route leads to this discussion, the employee must be forthcoming and truthful and the employer must take feedback seriously to see any sort of progress.

Once the issues are out on the table, the final step is for both sides to come up with a solution to improve the situation, just as the Chicago Teacher’s Union and Chicago Public Schools were doing last week.  If everyone has been honest about what’s bothering them and why, both sides should be able to reach an agreement.  However, if you end up in one of these discussions and things aren’t going in the direction you would like, if you aren’t a unionized employee, don’t try to call a strike and walk off the job.  I’m pretty sure that’s just viewed as quitting.

Turning Disabilities into a Workplace Advantage

For 18 glorious days, the Olympics took over my life.  Cycling, fencing, handball, gymnastics, I watched it all.  Now that the Olympics are done I’m not exactly sure what to do with myself besides wait for the Paralympics, which start next week.  If you were following the Olympics even half as closely as I was, you’ve probably heard about Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee South African runner.  Pistorius was allowed to compete against able-bodied runners in the Olympic Games for the first time this year, after running in the Paralympic Games since 2004.

I was inspired by Pistorius and his views on being disabled.  He was raised by a mother who treated him the same as his able-bodied brother, and he personally believes that disabilities should not be seen as shortcomings.  In fact, he is regularly quoted for saying, “being disabled doesn’t mean you have to be at a disadvantage.”  Personally, I believe this is a view that should be carried over into the workplace.

Did you know that the unemployment rate for the disabled, at 15 percent in 2011, is almost double the unemployment rate for the general population?[1]  Employers just aren’t looking to the disabled population to fill open positions, even though according to the U.S. Department of Education, disabled employees tend to rate at or above average in performance, quality and quantity of work, and flexibility.  When you couple in the fact that disabled employees also tend to have lower absenteeism and lower turnover rates, it turns out that hiring disabled workers may actually prove advantageous over able-bodied employees.

Just as Pistorius needs special prosthetics for racing, some disabled employees just need simple accommodations to be productive in the workplace.  For example, a visually-impaired employee may need better lighting or magnification in order to complete job tasks.  Organizations may see these accommodations as barriers to hiring disabled employees.  However, according to the Job Accommodation Network, over half (56 percent) of necessary accommodations cost nothing to implement.  For the rest of accommodations, the average price tag is just $600.  In exchange, employees who receive these accommodations tend to be more loyal to the organization, and 72 percent of employers report an increase in employees’ productivity who received workplace accommodations.[2]

The bottom line is that disabilities should not be seen as a disadvantage in the workplace, and disabled employees can even offer distinct advantages to employers.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to start gathering supplies for the Paralympic Games.  I’m going to be spending quite a bit of time on the couch cheering on Pistorius and the other athletes.

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[1] Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics Summary, Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 6, 2011, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/disabl.nr0.htm (accessed August 15, 2011).

[2] Phone interview with Anne E. Hirsh, MS, and Lou Orslene, 4/29/11.

What “Tomkat” Can Teach Us about Workplace Culture

When a giddy Tom Cruise surprised millions by jumping on a couch on the set of the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005, few daytime TV viewers predicted his relationship with Hollywood ingénue Katie Holmes would last very long.

Yet Cruise and Holmes—or “Tomkat,” as the celebrity tabloids nauseously nicknamed the couple—bore on full speed ahead, as though completely oblivious to any of the signs that their relationship was doomed from the start.  After only two months of dating, they announced their engagement.

Five years later, they’re now back in the spotlight, this time announcing their split.

Photo by Jay Tamboli. Published under Creative Commons license.

Familiar as this kind of story is to pop culturists, seasoned managers and HR leaders may be reminded of a similar lesson gleaned in the offices and conference rooms of the workplace.  This is the story of the hotshot new hire—the one with the perfect resume and all the right skills—who after just a few months on the job surprises everyone by seeming unable or unwilling to meet the high expectations placed on them.  Or, just as likely, who unceremoniously decamps to another company.

Both Tomkat and the superstar new hire teach us about the importance of hiring for cultural fit.  If Holmes, who has reportedly expressed concerns over Cruise’s strong ties with Scientology, had taken a sober inventory of her budding relationship with Cruise and his faith, she may have saved herself a headache in the process.  So too can managers make informed hiring decisions by taking cultural fit into consideration.  Here are just a few ways to do so:

Understand Your Workplace Culture

For a starlet in the Hollywood dating scene, understanding one’s unique personal culture is the first step to attracting a partner who will mesh well with one’s goals and values.  The same can be said for the HR leader searching for candidates who will fit their organization’s culture.  However, as an amorphous, multifaceted concept encompassing the shared values of many, culture can be difficult to define and understand.  Employee engagement surveys help leaders in this regard by pinpointing the areas where employees strongly identify with the organizational culture, and areas where there may be some room for improvement.  Surveys essentially allow you to see the culture through the employee’s eyes.  Once senior leadership has used your survey to action plan toward a culture reflective of your values, you are in an excellent position to define your culture, understand its facets, and hire employees who will thrive in its midst. 

Communicate Your Workplace Culture

In our hyper-connected world, it is important not only to understand yourself and your own special culture, but also to be mindful of how you communicate your culture to the world.  Never is this truer than when searching for a partner, as through communication we provide others with a means to identify in ourselves what may or may not align with different personal cultures.  The clothes we wear, the way we talk, the topics we choose to discuss, our spiritual professions, or our behavior on a nationally syndicated daytime talk show enjoyed by millions—all these things can help others understand our culture.  In the workplace, developing an internal brand and communication strategy serves this end beautifully.  Once you have defined the values that underpin your organizational culture, develop communications that reflect those values, such as a newsletter with articles highlighting positive employee behaviors.  Through such a publication, your team not only rewards employees who exhibit behaviors aligning with your corporate culture, but you also reinforce those behaviors in your employee population at large.   During your hiring cycle, leverage this style of branding in your communications with candidates, in whose best interest it is to begin to understand your culture as soon as they make first contact.  Even your job advertisements can clue them in.

Expose Interviewees to Your Workplace Culture

In the case of Tomkat, greater pre-marriage exposure to each other would likely have done much to prevent the fallout Holmes and Cruise are now suffering as a result of their cultural clash.  In fact, Holmes has described having nursed a youthful crush on the older Cruise prior to meeting him, and had she spent more time with him before rushing down the aisle, she might have realized they didn’t truly “click” as a couple.  Likewise is it important to expose job candidates to your organizational culture.  With a deep understanding of your workplace culture and a framework in place for sustaining it through communication and expert management, the hiring process becomes, in part, a practice in identifying whether a skilled candidate will fit with your culture.  As such, a favorite best practice of many hiring managers is to facilitate interaction between the candidate and their potential coworkers, allowing each party to gain a sense of whether there is a cultural match.  Since employees are the true standard bearers of your culture, they should be encouraged to provide their honest feedback on whether they feel the candidate is right for the team—and why or why not.  This practice provides a more complete sense of the cultural fit and, when the right candidate is identified, allows employee engagement to be achieved before the new hire’s first day of work has even begun.

Whatever the methods chosen for making cultural fit a part of the hiring process, the main takeaway should be that cultural compatibility is absolutely essential to any relationship—whether in the workplace or in a marriage.  So the next time your job candidate starts jumping up and down on the couch a la Tom Cruise, think about whether their behavior evinces a cultural match with your organization.  If you’re a carnival impresario hiring for an acrobat, you may just have found your new star employee.

Preventing the Spread of the “Summertime Grumps”

For many of us, summer carries pleasant associations.  When we think of the “dog days,” we conjure up images of barbecues, swimming pools, and just generally enjoying nature’s splendor.  But the dog days also have bite.  You may know this if you’ve ever lived in a fourth-floor walk-up or summarily fallen asleep on the beach before applying sunscreen.  (Guilty of both counts, I’m afraid!)

Innocuous though these examples seem, sociologists and journlists also tell us of direr summertime scourges, such as elevated rates of violent crime and domestic upheaval.  Perhaps less injurious, but equally concerning for your work team, is the spread of the “summertime grumps,” a formal clinical term I’ve coined to describe the state of mind that pervades office buildings across the nation when air conditioning systems falter and the view from one’s cubical pales beside the vivid blues and greens outside the office windows.

Luckily, experts say the summertime grumps can be kept at bay.  The following are three proven tips for maintaining a congenial, fun, and productive office environment through the hot summer months.

Keep Your Cool

Even in the newest office buildings, central air conditioning systems are often challenged during the hot summer months, especially at the beginning of the season, when quick changes in temperature are especially difficult to predict and climate control, having gone untested for up to a year, is particularly unreliable.  When employees begin asking “Is it hot in here?” look to policies that will allow your staff to stay cool.  Letting employees work virtually through the summer months or wear cooler clothing like shorts and flip flops can prevent the grumps from taking hold in what could otherwise become a hot, cranky environment.

Turn Lemons into Lemonade

Your engaging office culture notwithstanding, there will be gorgeous days this summer when slogging to work on the crowded train or sitting in traffic is not what your employees really want to do with their morning.  This is human and to be expected, and it doesn’t mean the office can’t remain a productive, fun place to spend the day.  In fact, summer is the perfect time to take lemons and turn them into lemonade.  Sweeten the office environment by offering employees low-cost, healthy summertime pick-me-ups like fresh lemonade or frozen bars made with real fruit.  For your more caffeinated coworkers, brew a pot of coffee at the end of the day and leave it to chill in the refrigerator overnight.  Sure, the traffic may be thick as molasses, the heat sweltering, but now your employees have a refreshing glass of iced coffee to look forward to enjoying as they browse their morning emails.

Bite Back!

In order for employees to stay engaged in their work, they need regular opportunities to socialize with their supervisors and coworkers.  What better way, then, to ameliorate the dog days’ bite than to socialize with colleagues in a relaxed, air conditioned environment?  Even if your organization doesn’t have a companywide summer barbecue or picnic planned, management can encourage socialization by spearheading informal, voluntary weekly lunch outings.  Each week, send around a signup sheet inviting the team to join their coworkers at a local restaurant.  Let employees vote on a location for the lunch and suggest the team walk there together, if the weather and distance permit.  Informal lunches afford workers an opportunity to enjoy the weather during the workday, socialize, and learn more about their coworkers from other departments, who they might not normally have the chance to interact with.

Supporting employee engagement is a perennial endeavor requiring insight, creativity, and the flexibility to adapt to the changing conditions and needs of your workers.  The tips provided above are inspired by and intended for summertime, but with a little tweaking they can spark initiatives for your employees to enjoy year round.  For more best practices for engaging your employees, visit http://www.hrsolutionsinc.com/best_practices/.

Are Forced Rankings Forcing Turnover?

While navigating the holiday party circuit a couple of months ago, I ran into a friend complaining with her coworkers about their recent performance evaluations.  Their company used a forced ranking system, so despite the fact that all of them had excellent performance records, only one of them could receive the highest ranking.  My friend was upset not because only one of them could be on top (a natural way of life in the business world), but because when she asked what she could do to improve, her confused manager sputtered for a few minutes but was unable to articulate an answer.  Finally, the manager admitted that my friend had met all of the metrics for an excellent ranking, she just was unable to receive that score because of the forced ranking system.

That friend started a new job yesterday.  Many of her coworkers are either already in new positions or are currently on the hunt.

Forced ranking became popularized at many Fortune 500 organizations throughout the 1980’s, favored because employees were ranked based on their performance rather than personality, popularity, or other extraneous factors.  Forced rankings also let employees know exactly where they stand, and show organizations who should be promoted and who should be the first to go during layoffs.

Forced rankings simply aren’t the best option when it comes to creating an engaged workforce.  Instead of celebrating employees’ hard work, forced performance ranking systems cause managers to look for a reason to cut employees down in order to fit the correct percentage of employees into each ranking.  The problem is magnified in small departments, where the manager is only allowed to put one or two employees into the top category.  A manager may have three star players on his team, yet still have to mark one of them as only meeting expectations rather than exceeding.  The employee who “gets the shaft” will end up feeling undervalued and is much more likely to become disengaged, bringing negativity to his work group and the organization as a whole.  The negativity caused by forced ranking systems can create a toxic work environment where employees are more likely to backstab and complain about favoritism, ultimately leading to a less productive and less engaged workforce.

Instead of forced rankings, organizations should rely on absolute rankings, where any number of employees can fall into each ranking category, i.e., exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or does not meet expectations.  This practice doesn’t just prevent star players from being forced into a lower ranking category.  It also stops managers from having to put employees who may only be mediocre performers into higher ranking categories, causing these employees to believe they do not need to improve.

In the case of my friend, perhaps if an absolute ranking system had been used within her organization and all of their star players were recognized accordingly, her manager would still have a full team rather than many open slots to fill.  Seeing a real-life example of how employee dissatisfaction in the workplace can affect retention should be a wake-up call.  For any organizations still using forced ranking systems, now is the time to reconsider.