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Executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith wrote, “Feedback is a gift that only other can give.”  What makes it so difficult for so many of us to give and receive feedback if that is the case?
Much of the difficulty people have with feedback is actually about power. If we give feedback to someone, our motive may actually be to control them. Our resistance to receiving feedback is possibly a resistance to change. 

It can be very useful to clarify the reason for giving feedback before doling it out.  Below are the five most common types of feedback and suggestions for giving each type. 

Evaluation Feedback: This type of feedback is probably the most common in the world of work.Unfortunately, it is also the kind that is the least helpful. Evaluation feedback comes at the end. At the end of a year your performance is evaluated. At the end of a class that took a week. The end of a project.  True, we all need to be willing to rate ourselves, and the evaluation feedback will improve our performance next time.  But why not give and get feedback when we can learn from it real time?

Real-Time Performance Feedback: Real-time performance feedback usually comes from a superior or someone else who is not successful unless you are.  While it may be couched as an observation or something for you to think about, when someone shares performance feedback, they intend for you to change your behavior.

It is helpful to get clarifying information when you think that you are receiving performance feedback.  Try asking, “what exactly would you like me to stop or start doing?” Once you get the feedback, make the change!

Fine-Tuning: Fine-tuning feedback generally comes from people who are satisfied with the overall job you are doing, but see some areas you could tweak to get even better. One of the best examples of fine-tuning feedback I can give came from a course participant of mine.  She asked me if she could share some feedback after she told me how much she had enjoyed the course.  She then went on to explain that when I nodded my head while she and others were talking she felt rushed.  WOW!  I was blown away because I had no idea that this behavior had a negative effect on my audience.

The key to giving fine-tuning feedback is to share the impact a behavior has on you or others.  The person giving the feedback is not necessarily interested in controlling you, or even changing you. By sharing how your behavior is impacting them - they give the receiver the opportunity to change or not.

Feed-Forward: Goldsmith came up with this one years ago. It means giving someone suggestions in advance about how to behave rather than waiting for them to fail and beating them up afterward. Years ago my husband was about to present to his company’s executive leadership team for the first time.  Before the presentation, his boss coached him on how much detail to include in his presentation, what he shoud wear, when he was expected to speak and more.

Slap Upside the Head: Two years ago, a colleague who is also a great friend sat me down and said, “You are making yourself and others miserable.  What’s going on?”

This is the kind of feedback that only great friends can give.  It involves personal feedback that people share out of concern and caring. In his book, Who’s Got Your Back, Keith Ferrazzi gives some great examples of this feedback along with the assertion that we all desperately need people in our lives who care enough to give it.

Slap upside the head feedback is not given with the intent of controlling or even changing for the sake of the person giving the feedback. They speak up because they know where you want to be and see that you are getting in your own way.
Summary
Feedback Givers: Before you give feedback, think through your intention and the type of feedback that fits best.Remember that if you are not in a position of authority, evaluation feedback is not appropriate.  You can lead a horse to water . . .

Those on the receiving end of feedback:  remember that we are all unaware of how we come across at times, and feedback is the way we learn about these areas and have the opportunity to correct them.   View the feedback as a gift, even if you decide you don’t agree with it. If it’s evaluation or performance feedback, you have a chance to change in order to do better in the eyes of others.  If it’s fine-tuning or slap upside the head feedback, you have the choice to change or not.

Wendy Mack is a consultant, speaker, and change catalyst who specializes in helping leaders mobilize energy for change, For more articles and resources on leading and communicating change visit: www.WendyMack.com.

Technorati Tags: evaluation, feedback, self improvement, workplace communication

Executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith wrote, “Feedback is a gift that only other can give.”  What makes it so difficult for so many of us to give and receive feedback if that is the case?
Much of the difficulty people have with feedback is actually about power. If we give feedback to someone, our motive may actually be to control them. Our resistance to receiving feedback is possibly a resistance to change. 

It can be very useful to clarify the reason for giving feedback before doling it out.  Below are the five most common types of feedback and suggestions for giving each type. 

Evaluation Feedback: This type of feedback is probably the most common in the world of work.Unfortunately, it is also the kind that is the least helpful. Evaluation feedback comes at the end. At the end of a year your performance is evaluated. At the end of a class that took a week. The end of a project.  True, we all need to be willing to rate ourselves, and the evaluation feedback will improve our performance next time.  But why not give and get feedback when we can learn from it real time?

Real-Time Performance Feedback: Real-time performance feedback usually comes from a superior or someone else who is not successful unless you are.  While it may be couched as an observation or something for you to think about, when someone shares performance feedback, they intend for you to change your behavior.

It is helpful to get clarifying information when you think that you are receiving performance feedback.  Try asking, “what exactly would you like me to stop or start doing?” Once you get the feedback, make the change!

Fine-Tuning: Fine-tuning feedback generally comes from people who are satisfied with the overall job you are doing, but see some areas you could tweak to get even better. One of the best examples of fine-tuning feedback I can give came from a course participant of mine.  She asked me if she could share some feedback after she told me how much she had enjoyed the course.  She then went on to explain that when I nodded my head while she and others were talking she felt rushed.  WOW!  I was blown away because I had no idea that this behavior had a negative effect on my audience.

The key to giving fine-tuning feedback is to share the impact a behavior has on you or others.  The person giving the feedback is not necessarily interested in controlling you, or even changing you. By sharing how your behavior is impacting them - they give the receiver the opportunity to change or not.

Feed-Forward: Goldsmith came up with this one years ago. It means giving someone suggestions in advance about how to behave rather than waiting for them to fail and beating them up afterward. Years ago my husband was about to present to his company’s executive leadership team for the first time.  Before the presentation, his boss coached him on how much detail to include in his presentation, what he shoud wear, when he was expected to speak and more.

Slap Upside the Head: Two years ago, a colleague who is also a great friend sat me down and said, “You are making yourself and others miserable.  What’s going on?”

This is the kind of feedback that only great friends can give.  It involves personal feedback that people share out of concern and caring. In his book, Who’s Got Your Back, Keith Ferrazzi gives some great examples of this feedback along with the assertion that we all desperately need people in our lives who care enough to give it.

Slap upside the head feedback is not given with the intent of controlling or even changing for the sake of the person giving the feedback. They speak up because they know where you want to be and see that you are getting in your own way.
Summary
Feedback Givers: Before you give feedback, think through your intention and the type of feedback that fits best.Remember that if you are not in a position of authority, evaluation feedback is not appropriate.  You can lead a horse to water . . .

Those on the receiving end of feedback:  remember that we are all unaware of how we come across at times, and feedback is the way we learn about these areas and have the opportunity to correct them.   View the feedback as a gift, even if you decide you don’t agree with it. If it’s evaluation or performance feedback, you have a chance to change in order to do better in the eyes of others.  If it’s fine-tuning or slap upside the head feedback, you have the choice to change or not.

Wendy Mack is a consultant, speaker, and change catalyst who specializes in helping leaders mobilize energy for change, For more articles and resources on leading and communicating change visit: www.WendyMack.com.

Technorati Tags: evaluation, feedback, self improvement, workplace communication

Employee evaluations are an important part of any business. The process of giving feedback concerning employees’ work performance and behavior is instrumental for both employers and employees in creating a successful working environment. Often times, employee evaluations involve the employer filing out a form containing a list of questions about the employee along a variety of evaluative criteria. This linear listing of criteria is not the most intuitive way to present information, for either the employer or employee. A more intuitive and creative way to complete this evaluation process is to use Idea Mapping. In contrast to the traditional form, an Idea Map allows the employer to summarize the employee’s strengths, weaknesses, and core competencies in one, visually stimulating, and creative document. Thus, the employer has the ability to “map out” his or her feedback regarding employees in a way that is easier for both parties to understand.

What is Idea Mapping?

Idea Mapping is a means of organizing information using an Idea Map, which is a “colorful, single-page visual that captures [a person’s] thinking in key words and images.” Idea Mapping is widely believed to be a much more effective means of conceptualizing information than traditional outlining, because it uses a spatial, rather than linear, approach to help define the information. When using an Idea Map, both hemispheres of the brain are engaged, allowing the brain to process information in a manner consistent with its natural functioning. The result is the ability to “plan, organize, communicate, remember, innovate, and learn” information quickly and efficiently.¹

Using an Idea Map in Employee Evaluations

An employer has been asked to perform employee evaluations for each member of his work team. He wants to use Idea Mapping to organize each evaluation, so that his employees can view his feedback in a constructive way that is easy for them to process and understand. He begins each Idea Map by representing the employee’s evaluation with a central graphic located in the center of the map. He then divides the map into four sections, “Strengths”, “Weaknesses”, “Core Competencies”, and “Areas Needing Improvement”, by listing each of the sections on “branches” attached to the central topic. Next, he lists any specific feedback he has for the employee concerning each section on “child branches” attached to the “branches”. Lastly, he fills in the Idea Map using colors, key images, and pictures to make the map more associative. The attached Map diagram is an example of what an employee evaluation might look like if constructed in the manner described.

Advantages of Idea Mapping for Increasing Employee Performance

The attached described Idea Map has a couple of distinct advantages over traditional employee evaluations for increasing employee performance. Firstly, the map is laid out in a creative and intuitive manner, making it easier for the employee to internalize the employer’s feedback. The employee can clearly see how well he or she is doing in each area of evaluation in one graphic snapshot, rather than having to skim through a page or pages of words describing his or her performance. Secondly, the Idea Map provides employees with several points of visual association, making the evaluation incredibly easy to internalize and recall. The employee can, thus, refer back to the map during his or her workday as a way of judging how well he or she is performing the job. Both the clarity with which the evaluation is presented, and the inherent facilitation of easy recall contained in the map, lets employees know what is needed to perform effectively within the company. Idea Mapping, therefore, gives both employer and employees the tools to give and receive constructive feedback, and increase employee functioning within the organization.

Technorati Tags: business, employee, employer, evaluation, feedback, mind map

Although there are distinct advantages to conducting regular employee satisfaction surveys online to measuring employee satisfaction - there can also be risks.

Listed here are some of the main advantages, considerations and the possible risks to conducting employee satisfaction surveys online.

Advantages

Identify Problems - Surveys are can be very effective in identify problems areas before they become serious, especially those that are hidden from senior management.

Working Environment - From something small like a broken chair to the more serious problem of sick building syndrome that can result in personnel experiencing headaches; eye, nose, and throat irritation; a dry cough; dry or itchy skin; dizziness and nausea; and difficulty in concentrating. Surveys allow environmental problems to be identified in a measured and controlled manner.

Remuneration & Benefits - Measure and monitor how satisfied personnel are with their remuneration and benefits.

Mood and Moral - Provides a simple but effective method to measure and monitor the mood and moral of an organization.

Benchmark - In the same way that an organization will consider their financial position by comparison with previous years, so the regular use of online surveys will allow an organization to monitor and measure their progress and development in non-financial terms.

Processes & Procedures - As businesses evolve some of the traditional processes and procedures can become antiquated, personnel are often the first to know and the last to be asked. New technology is often a driver that will cause a business to evolve and the business processes need to be constantly challenged to ensure that they are properly aligned with the technology.

Training - Lack of proper training is a common cause of dissatisfaction among employees and can lead to more serious problems such as stress.

Communication - For an organization to run efficiently good internal and external communications are essential, surveys can provide a method to help organizations to monitor and measure how well an organization communicates.

Goals and Objectives - Surveys can measure and monitor the extent that the personnel are aligned with the senior management’s business goals and objectives.

Cost Effective - Using survey questionnaire software surveys are quick and easy to create, simple to deploy and will provide real-time results.

Compliance - To properly comply with an ever increasing array of regulations the modern organization needs to be able to disseminate information throughout the organization and ensure, through records, that the information has been received, and importantly, understood. Online surveys provide organization with a cost effective method to meet many of their obligations.

Keeping the Initiative - It is always better for management to ask than be told. By conducting regular employee surveys management are able to keep the initiative in trying to identify problems that may otherwise manifest into demands.

Considerations

Management Backing - A survey that is both sanctioned and has the support of senior management will go some way in ensuring that any action required, based on the survey findings, will be implemented.

Ask the right questions - Consider careful the questions being asked. If the survey is perceived by employees of just trying to tick the right boxes the survey could result in more negative attitudes.

An annual survey should ask questions that will provide senior management with an overall health check of the organization.

Avoid questions that are specific to individual departments or personnel. If some areas of the organization require detailed investigation consider running separate one-off surveys that can be targeted at specific personnel.

Incentive - Most employees will feel that by being able to give their opinions that they are already stakeholders in the exercise and will be happy to participate in the survey as they will expect to benefit from the process.

However, some incentive may help improve the overall response rate or could be used to encourage early participation.

Smaller incentives could be handed out to all employees or all participating employees could be entered into a lottery to receive a more substantial prize.

Anonymous - The decision to allow respondents to remain anonymous or not needs careful consideration. Surveys that are conducted anonymously may encourage employees to be more honest, however, the anonymity may also encourage some individuals to make wild accusations that can not be substantiated and cause unnecessary concern. It is often better to keep everything ‘on the record’ rather than ‘off the record’.

Where survey respondents are not anonymous there is the opportunity to encourage those that have not completed the survey to do so and also to allow issues that have been identified by the survey to be follow up directly with individual who raised them.

Comments - Keep free text comments to a minimum because they are difficult and time consuming to measure and analyze.

Limit the number of questions that allow for free text responses, usually a question at the end of the survey that asks for general comments is sufficient and very effective; consider conducting further surveys to follow-up where the earlier survey identifies areas where additional and more specific information is required.

Risks

Management - Some managers can regard any form of employee consultation as a sign of weakness and may have a tendency to dismiss out of hand any negative comment.

Warts and All - A survey is likely to reveal warts and all. Employee satisfaction surveys may expose that the senior management’s top down view differs noticeably from the employees’ bottom up view and that once problems have been exposed senior management could not claim ignorance and may be forced to act.

Non-Action - Many employees will invest time and effort in participating in a survey and their hopes and expectations will be raised. If post-survey nothing is done to address the issues that have been raised by the survey then it is likely to result in employees developing a cynical attitude and make them less likely to want to participate in any future initiatives to obtain employee feedback.

Management should be prepared to formally recognize and respond to any issue that is raised as a result of conducting a survey even if the demands of employees are not to be met. If the senior management team have previously advised the employees that some of the issues raised in previous surveys are to be addressed and resolved then that action should have at least started before any follow up surveys are conducted.

Can Cause Problems - Where surveys reveal, or bring problems, to the surface there could be a tendency for senior management to blame the messenger.

Summary

There are considerable benefits in conducting regular online employee satisfaction surveys, but for them to be effective important considerations need to be made upfront. Although the process of conducting a survey can be therapeutic in itself it is the post-survey analysis, response and action that will ultimately determine how useful and effective the process has been.

For a sample employee satisfaction survey: Employee Satisfaction Poll

Technorati Tags: appraisal, employee, employee satisfaction survey, employee survey, employer, feedback, human resources, management, Online survey, personnel, questionnaires

Although there are distinct advantages to conducting regular employee satisfaction surveys online to measuring employee satisfaction - there can also be risks.

Documented here are the main advantages, considerations and the possible risks to conducting employee satisfaction surveys online.

Advantages

Identify Problems - Surveys are can be very effective in identify problems areas before they become serious, especially those that are hidden from senior management.

Working Environment - From something small like a broken chair to the more serious problem of sick building syndrome that can result in personnel experiencing headaches; eye, nose, and throat irritation; a dry cough; dry or itchy skin; dizziness and nausea; and difficulty in concentrating. Surveys that focus on the environmental aspects of an organization will ensure that areas of concern are identified in a manner that can be properly measured and controlled.

Remuneration & Benefits - Measure and monitor how satisfied personnel are with their remuneration and benefits.

Mood and Moral - Provides a simple but effective method to measure and monitor the mood and moral of an organization.

Benchmark - In the same way that an organization will consider their financial position by comparison with previous years, so the regular use of online surveys will allow an organization to monitor and measure their progress and development in non-financial terms.

Processes & Procedures - As businesses evolve some of the traditional processes and procedures can become antiquated, personnel are often the first to know and the last to be asked. Businesses change and the business processes need to be checked regularly and if necessary re-aligned.

Training - Lack of proper training is a common cause of dissatisfaction among employees and can lead to more serious problems such as stress.

Communication - For an organization to run efficiently good internal and external communications are essential, surveys can provide a method to help organizations to monitor and measure how well an organization communicates.

Goals and Objectives - Surveys can measure and monitor the extent that the personnel are aligned with the senior management’s business goals and objectives.

Cost Effective - Using survey questionnaire software surveys are quick and easy to create, simple to deploy and will provide real-time results.

Compliance - To properly comply with an ever increasing array of regulations the modern organization needs to be able to disseminate information throughout the organization and ensure, through records, that the information has been received, and importantly, understood. Online surveys provide organization with a cost effective method to meet many of their obligations.

Keeping the Initiative - It is always better for management to ask than be told. By conducting regular employee surveys management are able to keep the initiative in trying to identify problems that may otherwise manifest into demands.

Considerations

Management Backing - A survey that is both sanctioned and has the support of senior management will go some way in ensuring that any action required, based on the survey findings, will be implemented.

Ask the right questions - Consider careful the questions being asked. If employees feel that the survey is a token effort and is unlikely to effect positive change the survey could backfire.

A survey that is to be conducted annually should try and ask questions that will provide senior management with an overall health check of the organization.

Ensure that the questions that are asked are relevant to all departments and personnel. Consider running separate one-off surveys that can be targeted at specific personnel if some areas of the organization require detailed investigation.

Incentive - Most employees will feel that by being able to give their opinions that they are already stakeholders in the exercise and will be happy to participate in the survey as they will expect to benefit from the process.

However, some incentive may help improve the overall response rate or could be used to encourage early participation.

Either all participating employees could be awarded a small incentive or entered into a prize draw for a much bigger prize.

Anonymous - The decision to allow respondents to remain anonymous or not needs careful consideration. Surveys that are conducted anonymously may encourage employees to be more honest, however, the anonymity may also encourage some individuals to make wild accusations that can not be substantiated and cause unnecessary concern. When in doubt it is often better to keep everything ‘on the record’ rather than ‘off’.

Where survey respondents are not anonymous there is the opportunity to encourage those that have not completed the survey to do so and also to allow issues that have been identified by the survey to be follow up directly with individual who raised them.

Comments - Keep free text comments to a minimum because they are difficult and time consuming to measure and analyze.

Limit the number of questions that allow for free text responses, usually one that asks for general comments at the end of the survey is sufficient and effective; where surveys are not anonymous, consider conducting further surveys to follow-up where the earlier survey identifies areas where additional and more specific information is required.

Risks

Management - Some managers can regard any form of employee consultation as a sign of weakness and may have a tendency to dismiss out of hand any negative comment.

Warts and All - A survey is likely to reveal warts and all. Senior management should be prepared for discovering that the top down view can differ from the bottom up view and that ignorance, of any identified problems, can no longer be used as an excuse.

Non-Action - Many employees will invest time and effort in participating in a survey and their hopes and expectations will be raised. If post-survey nothing is done to address the issues that have been raised by the survey then it is likely to result in employees developing a cynical attitude and make them less likely to want to participate in any future initiatives to obtain employee feedback.

Management should formally respond to the issues raised in surveys even if the demands of employees are not to be met. If the senior management team have previously advised the employees that some of the issues raised in previous surveys are to be addressed and resolved then that action should have at least started before any follow up surveys are conducted.

Can Cause Problems - Where surveys reveal, or bring problems, to the surface there could be a tendency for senior management to blame the messenger.

Summary

The benefits of conducting regular online employee surveys can be considerable, but for surveys to be effective important upfront considerations need to be made. Employees can find responding to surveys therapeutic but it is the post-survey analysis and the management’s response and action that will ultimately determine how useful and effective the process has been.

For a sample employee satisfaction survey: Employee Satisfaction Poll

Technorati Tags: employee, employee relations, employee satisfaction, employer, feedback, human resources, management, Online surveys, personnel, satisfaction surveys

I am not happy. My chair has just broken and the printer has still not been fixed. The problem with the company is that it is going to the dogs. The boss is okay but really doesn’t seem to have a clue as to what is really going on.

And so it goes on.

These are the sort of thoughts that start to go through the minds of individuals when an organization loses touch with their personnel; the chair that is broken, no feeling of appreciation, blaming ‘management’ and for some even questioning the futility of what they are doing. Minor problems fester and a cynical and negative mindset develops. Can you be sure that this isn’t the sort of thing that is going on right now in your organisation?

Social events outside the office become nothing more than a forum for complaints and negativity grows among people who feel powerless to effect change. Dissatisfaction will often synthesise into a demand for an increase in remuneration, as though like a cheap fix more money will momentarily lessen the pain.

If ignored by management the concerns of this employee will inevitable find empathy with their colleagues own individual concerns, where the only common demand might well be a demand for an increase in remuneration, more paid holidays and a reduction in working hours, all of which will not fix the broken chair, ensure that new personnel are in future properly introduced, trained and managed nor help management identify areas of inefficiency.

Organisations have a habit of pigeon holing people, physically through offices, cubicles or workstations and also in terms of responsibility. With strong and effective management to support this structure it can be productive, but as an organisation grows, weak or inappropriate management can infiltrate the management chain and it is only to then be expected that cracks will begin to appear.

Looking at an organization from the top down all the corporate garden can appear to be in full bloom as middle management either disguise or are just unaware of festering problems.

A very skewed view can be the result of relying on a limited number of indicators, just as a one eyed person finds judging distance difficult. Good management will therefore establish procedures that sample the mood throughout the organisation from different perspectives providing a rounded picture.

The benefits of establishing good, frequent and extensive communication channels are both direct and indirect.

A senior management team that is known to have their ear to the ground will command great respect and will keep middle managers from becoming complacent knowing that they can no longer dismiss the senior managers searching “How is everything going?” question with a non-committal “Fine”; It is my experience that if someone replies with “fine” you need to dig deeper and ask if they really know what is going on.

Most principals of organisation will not have the luxury of spending time walking the floor and discussing the issues of individuals but through online employee surveys they can achieve the same benefits.

Online surveys are the perfect mechanism for establishing effective communications between the employer and employee. Using a survey hosting service they can now be created and published with ease and speed.

Surveys can be deployed in seconds by utilising the Internet and intranet, they can be completed easily by employees and the results analyzed in real-time exposing the ‘problems’ and giving early warning towards common themes of dissatisfaction.

With their ability to get to the heart of an organization online employee satisfaction surveys can confirm that all is well in the engine room and that there is sufficient fuel to keep it running.

Online surveys provide many benefits, not only do they help identified concerns, but the employees voices are heard and their views, right or wrong, have a forum.

Although online surveys will not on their own resolve problems they do help identify the concerns of the employees and that in turn gives senior management the opportunity to fix the problems that need fixing, if people then do decide to leave the organisation they will hopefully be doing so for the right and not wrong reasons.

Although monetary concerns can often be cited as the main reason good people decide to leave a company dig a little deeper and it is often found that it is more to do with one or more of the following:-

• the working environment;
• a lack of accomplishment
• insufficient training and feedback;
• lack of career growth;
• over worked;
• lack of trust and respect with the senior management.

Good communication between the employer and employee can help identify the individual and common concerns of the employees and will give the senior management team the opportunity to address root problems and not just the symptoms of employee dissatisfaction, enabling them to demonstrate to their employees that they are valued as an important resource.

Each individual organisation needs to customised their own employee survey so that it is relevant for them. I invite you to put yourself in the place of an employee and complete the short sample employee satisfaction survey, then view the results of the satisfaction survey and just think of the benefits to management being able to measure so easily the heart beat of the organization.

Technorati Tags: employee, employee relations, employee satisfaction, employer, feedback, human resources, management, Online surveys, personnel, satisfaction surveys

The benefits of conducting an annual employee survey is widely accepted but many organizations have been put off by the amount of effort those annual surveys take to deploy.

Many organizations who have bit the bullet and conducted their own internal employee satisfaction surveys have often relied on word-processors to allow them to design and compile a survey, then gone through the effort of printing and distributing the survey and spent time chasing and collecting the completed surveys and then even more time transferring the survey response information into a meaningful management report.

Fortunately with the introduction of the Internet and hosted survey websites what was once a time consuming, resource hungry, long winded and cumbersome process is now slick, quick and easy.

Document here is a step by step guide to help implement a survey that will bring considerable benefits to any organization.

Step 1 - Identifying The Need

There are numerous reasons an organization might need a survey. Listed below are a few of the common reason why organizations conduct employee satisfaction surveys.

Event Driven Drivers

If your organization is about to embark, or is going through, a process reengineering program a series of employee surveys can assist in managing the change program, measure the effectiveness of the change, help to deliver a ‘message’ and gather valuable feedback throughout the change cycle.

For organizations that are experiencing rapid growth employee surveys can monitor internal communications and management structures to ensure that employees are aware of their reporting and management responsibilities.

If an organization is suffering from poor moral stemming from either internal or external influences an employee survey can be used to identify what the specific concerns of employees are so that those concerns can be properly addressed.

Where there is an increase in turnover of staff employee surveys can help an organization identify the underlying cause of employee unrest and through their findings help find solutions.

Periodically

As part of a periodic assessment, surveys will help an organization review their personnel and monitor on an individual level job satisfaction, training and career development.

Employee surveys will allow the senior management team the opportunity to look at what makes their organisation tick and confirm, or not, that their ‘top down’ view matches the reality and ‘bottom up’ perspective of their employees.

Employee surveys will help an organization establish good employee/employer communication that will in turn bring direct and indirect benefits.

Step 2 - Management Buy-In

It is always desirable and sometimes essential to have management support for a survey but where a management team might have grown complacent and detached from their employees the survey results may be all that is required to get them to positively reengage with the business and employees.

Some organization may be fortunate in that the senior management recognize and drive the need for employee surveys, while in others the management may need to first be convinced of the direct and indirect benefits an employee survey will bring.

The level of management commitment to an employee survey will have some bearing on the nature of the survey and to some extent will help determine what questions are to be asked and the manner they are asked.

A management that is supportive of the initiative may require feedback on specific areas of the business or they may give the go ahead because they feel confident that the results will only confirm that the level of employee satisfaction throughout the organization is high.

Ideally management will buy-in to the employee survey from the very start as they have the most to gain and they are in a position to effect any change that is later identified as being required.

Step 3 - Designing the Survey

Designing a good survey will take some time and effort but by following the basics of survey design and concentrating on the ‘need to know’ questions and removing the ‘nice to know’ a survey will rapidly take shape.

Determining the exact questions that should be asked will be entirely dependent on the individual organization, its structure and the previously identified primary need and objectives of the employee survey.

While considering what questions to ask give consideration to how the results are to be analyzed. For example there is nearly always a wish to ask for individual comments but these free text answers can be very time consuming and cumbersome to analyze and should therefore be used very sparingly.

Online surveys make it practical to conduct multiple smaller surveys than one very long survey and avoid the higher the drop out rate that are associate with longer surveys.

Step 4 - Proof Reading And Testing

Spelling, Grammar and Clarity

Before the survey is published carefully check that there are no spelling and typing mistakes or incorrect grammar. If available it is always better to have someone who has not been involved in designing the survey to proof read the survey with clean eyes, if no one is available try to take a break before checking through the survey again.

Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say

When checking the survey you should consider the survey from the viewpoint of the respondent, will the employee interpret the question the same way that you intended them to?

Allow The Employee To Answer Truthfully

Check that for closed questions where the employee will be required to choose from a number of available responses; have allowed the employee to answer accurately? Make use of answer response options like ‘No Comment’, ‘Not Applicable’ or ‘Don’t know’ where you want to make the question mandatory but the employee may not be able to answer.

Consider allowing the employee to include an ‘Other’ answer but also appreciate that ‘Other’ answers will add to the complexity when analyzing the survey results.

Don’t Require A Response To Questions That May Not Have One

Check that for questions that have been made mandatory that you definitely do require an answer, for example open questions that ask for additional comments should be made optional unless you really do require the respondent to write a comment.

Check the Result Data can be Properly Analyzed

Make another check of the survey but this time examine how the results of the survey will be analyzed. Consider how you are likely to want to analyze the survey data, have you asked the right questions to be able to perform detailed analysis? For example if you want to be able to view the detailed response data from the perspective of the different departments, or maybe length of service, check you have asked the employee to indicate their own department and/or length of service.

Don’t Ask Anymore Questions Than You Need To

Consider all the questions in the survey and make sure that they are all ‘need to know’ questions.

Test The Link And Try Completing The Survey

Publish the survey and then send the survey’s link to colleagues who will be able to help you test the survey. By completing the survey yourself you will get a feel for how the respondent will view the survey. From your own and others feedback stop and make adjustments to the survey as required.

Repeat this process until you are happy with the survey.

Check the data

Take the time to view the online results of the test data and ensure that the data is being collected and can be analyzed in a manner that will give meaningful results.

Step 5 - Promoting And Deploying The Survey

Where all or the majority of employees have access to the Internet or company intranet deploying the online survey is as easy as falling off a log, either via email or by establishing a link to the survey from your own website or the Intranet.

If there are employees that do not have direct access to the Internet there may be a number of alternatives that can be used such as issuing the survey in printed form, providing access through a shared terminal or giving them an incentive to complete the survey at home.

Allowing Anonymous Responses?

There is a choice to allow all surveys to be completed anonymously. A survey where respondents are allowed to be anonymous may encourage employees to speak their minds promoting ‘a warts and all’ approach, in turn giving management an opportunity to address potentially serious problems before it is too late.

However, allowing anonymous comments also allows employees to be more cavalier and flippant with their responses. Some organizations may only wish to take account of the views of those employees that are prepared to stand by their convictions and that will also allow the organization to follow up the specific concerns of individual employees.

Deciding to allow anonymous responses or not will mainly be down to the individual organization, the specific nature of the survey, the type of survey, the management style and the existing employee/employer relationship.

Step 6 - Monitoring

While the survey is in progress you will be able to view the summary results online and also monitor in real-time the number of surveys that have been both started and completed.

If after a few days the number of completed surveys falls short of the expected target it is advisable to send periodic reminders to employees asking them to complete the survey.

Step 7 - Analyzing the Results

When it comes to analyzing the results data there are no hard and fast rules. Much will depend on the specific survey, the questions that are asked and the number of responses that are received.

Most surveys will benefit from many of the results being displayed in graphical as well as tabular form.

On the proviso that the right questions have been asked when the survey data is first analyzed a number of ‘headline’ results will often stand out that can provide you with an overview and an assessment of the general mood of the organization.

In areas where the results indicate areas of concern a more detailed analysis may be advisable. For example if employees were asked if they felt the organization provided equal opportunities to both genders and 25% gave a negative response it would be useful to know the gender split of the organization and also to look at what the gender split was of the 25% that answered negatively. Was the negative view shared by employees of both genders, evenly spread throughout the organization, or of a particular gender from a particular department?

Reports can display the result data in tabular and/or graphical form allowing those who are interested in the results to view the raw data.

Often used as a complement to the first, another method is to interpret the results and provide an analysis of the data and offer a view as to what the meaning is behind the results, what circumstances may have contributed to the results being as they are and, where the results indicate a negative, what initiatives could be taken. Such analysis if done by a single individual is likely to be very personal, if done by a committee it is still likely to be objective and therefore open to interpretation.

Step 8 - Further Action

Probably the most important step is the last. The results of an employee survey will either confirm that the perfect organization really does exist or, and more likely, it will by the individual and common concerns that are raised identify the areas that are less than perfect.

It may prove necessary to conduct further, more detailed surveys, to target specific areas. For example the survey may reveal that employees working in a particular department are collectively unhappy, but the reasons for their dissatisfaction may not be clear. A highly focused follow-up survey may help reveal the root causes.

When employee surveys are periodically run an organization that has taken steps to address issues will see their efforts reflected in subsequent survey responses. Almost all organizations have problems and it helps an organization’s moral to see that a channel exists that will highlight problems that can then be addressed and resolved.

Summary

It is hoped that these guidelines will help an organization conduct successful employee satisfaction surveys, they are however, only a guide.

Each organization is different in style and structure and that will directly influence the tone and nature of the survey and will also dictate what the primary and secondary reasons are for conducting a survey.

By utilizing existing technology and conducting surveys online you are now able to monitor the heart beat of an organization, quickly, easily and, by using websites like www.surveygalaxy.com, at minimal cost.

Technorati Tags: employee, employee relations, employee satisfaction, employer, feedback, human resources, management, Online surveys, personnel, satisfaction surveys

It is time to thing again if you have a perception that conducting surveys can be a useful exercise but are far too time consuming to prepare, unwieldy to deploy and require extensive resources to process the responses into a meaningful report.

Online surveys turn what was once a time consuming, resource hungry, cumbersome process into a low cost, quick, easy exercise that delivers real-time reporting.

The Ease of Design

Out with the word-processor, now there is a quick and easy way for almost anyone to create surveys using a simple menu system that allows surveys to be created in minutes and with the ability to add additional questions and modify and move existing questions around.

The Ease of Delivery

Once a survey has been created it is deployed through the internet or organisation’s intranet making it instantly available to anyone with access to the internet.

Ease of Promotion

Inviting respondents to participate in a survey is achieved with ease by either sending an email that contains a link to the survey and/or linking to the survey from a suitable website.

The Ease of Participation

Online surveys don’t just make it easy for the publisher as most respondents find that, when compared against the traditional pen and paper survey, completing a survey online is quicker and easier and from the publishers point of view a lot less prone to mistakes such as respondents missing out questions or multiple responses being entered against single response questions.

Ease of Managing the Survey

With an online survey the publisher can view in real-time the response rate, summary and detail results.

Ease of Analysis

Once the survey publication has ended the response data is ready for detailed analysis, the information can also be exported to a spreadsheet or third-party analysis program where the survey result data can be sliced and diced.

Recognizing the Ease

Once the ease of the total life cycle of conducting a survey online has been appreciated by business managers they will begin to recognise the multitude of new opportunities that exist.

The costly annual employee satisfaction survey can now be done quicker and cheaper allowing the exercise to be conducted bi-annual or quarterly ensuring any employee problems are identified and dealt with early. There is now also an opportunity to conduct smaller and more targeted ad-hoc surveys on a departmental level or a niche area of the business improving employer/employee communications.

A survey can help deliver a management message and measure the employee support and concerns of introducing new initiatives, something a simple one way memo style directive cannot do.

Survey’s can be used as a marketing tool as the survey explains the benefit of a product or service and gathers the response from potential customers.

Return of Investment

Technology too often delivers better ways to perform certain tasks but with a Return on Investment that often requires ‘investment’ first and the ‘return’ later. Many of the available hosted online survey services have not only turned a cumbersome task into a cinch, but reduced the cost down to a pinch, giving you a return on investment from day one and opening up a world of possibilities and further savings.

With the many opportunities that online surveys bring to a manager it is a tool that is always useful to have to hand in their personal tool box.

Technorati Tags: employee, employee relations, employee satisfaction, employer, feedback, human resources, management, Online surveys, personnel, satisfaction surveys

Public transport operators who already use passenger surveys may not fully appreciate the multiple benefits that surveys can bring. Not only are surveys an efficient method of market research that will help identify areas of passenger dissatisfaction, they are also perfect for measuring the effects of improvements and can, at the same time, help promote new initiatives to customers using the service.

Establishing a Starting Point

When embarking on any change management programme it is always good practice to establish a base line before any changes are made. This baseline survey can serve four purposes, it will:-

• allow the proper targeting of investment
• allow measurement of the effect of change
• assist in the moral of those implementing change
• ensure that new issues are kept separate from the original plan and budget

Targeting Investment

There are many areas of any public transport system that can cause passenger dissatisfaction all of which need to be monitored to ensure that the service being provided meets, and where possible, exceeds, performance level targets.

Issues that can be of concern to passenger include:-

• safety and security
• punctuality
• fares and ticket types
• capacity and overcrowding
• quality and design of vehicle
• cleanliness
• facilities at stations and terminals
• facilities for passengers with disabilities

Often limited resources and budgets means that investment needs to be carefully planned and properly targeted.

With passenger surveys operators can identify those areas that are of most concern to their customers. By analyzing passenger feedback operators can confirm that their improvement and investment plans are in tune with the passenger demands and concerns. Issues can be classified into low and high priority, as well as short and long term plans.

Some capital investment such as the building of new terminals, runways, laying new track or upgrading air traffic control or rail signalling equipment may take years to implement. However, significant problems can be identified by the initial survey that have a quick and simple solution and that can be immediately resolved for a minimal cost.

Measuring Change

From having established a comprehensive programme from an initial survey the objectives for running periodic surveys are twofold.

An important objective will be to ensure that the changes and initiatives that are implemented have been effective in addressing passenger issues. A second objective will be to advertise and promote the initiatives that have been implemented and also educate and inform passengers of ongoing improvements and future plans.

Passengers can appreciate that it can take time to resolve some of their concerns and more understanding towards the operators if they know that the problems have been identified and are being addressed.

Keeping Moral

Those implementing change can often develop a siege mentality. Passengers can be slow to appreciate any improvements as changes can be implemented that will take time before they become effective.

By monitoring passenger opinion and measuring the results against earlier surveys a successful change programme should see passenger issues change over time, some issues that were problems will no longer be raised.

Those tasked with implementing change and making improvements can become very demoralised as suffering passengers are slow to appreciate the efforts that are being made and are therefore negative in their comments. It is important that a team implementing change can see clearly the effects of their efforts.

Identifying New and Old

In any long term change management programme issues can change over time. Events can happen that make what was important, no longer important and what wasn’t an issue, an issue.

Having a survey that will act as a baseline will make sure that the passengers concerns can be chronologically documented. Passengers are an evolving group, individual travel arrangements change, fashion changes, life styles develop along with technology. Annual surveys will ensure that any changes in passenger attitudes are monitored.

Online Surveys Make It Easy

Online surveys can reach a broad cross section of any travelling public. They are quick to design and implement and they provide feedback in a format that is ready for detailed analysis. Because online surveys are low cost and flexible there is no need to generalise and instead publish multiple detailed surveys aimed at fully understanding the aims of specific groups such as the disabled passenger, the business traveller and single parents travelling with children.

Not only will online passenger surveys make it easy to collect important market research data it will also deliver a message to the passengers that the operator has a genuine commitment to securing positive passenger satisfaction.

Passengers benefit by having an effective channel to raise issues and through periodic surveys will begin to appreciate that the operator is continually investing and improving the service. The following are links to samples of Passenger Surveys

Sample Passenger Survey for an Airline Carrier: Airline Passenger Survey

Passenger Survey for a Train Operator: Train Operator Passenger Survey

Sample Passenger Survey for a Bus Operator: Bus Operator Passenger Survey

Technorati Tags: airline, airline carrier, airline surveys, bus, bus operator, coach, customer satisfaction, customer services, feedback, market research, marketing, Online surveys, passenger surveys, promotion, train, train operato, transport, transport operators, transport surveys, travel

Designing surveys is considered easy; but is it? The reality is that writing surveys is easy but writing surveys that will be effective is more difficult. The following are twenty tips that if followed will help you with your survey questionnaire design and help you write effective surveys.

1. What is the survey’s purpose?

There are many reasons for conducting questionnaires. By correctly phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in many ways and for a variety of reasons. When compiling a survey don’t lose sight of its purpose.

2. Give the survey a good title

The survey title is key and an opportunity to instantly summarise a survey’s objective and encourage respondents to participate. Respondents are going to invest time in completing the survey so make them feel that their investment is worthwhile.

3. Keep the length of the survey as short as possible

Every question that is asked should be asked for a reason. Limit asking questions that will provide you with ‘nice to know’ information and instead concentrate on the ‘need to know’ questions.

4. Use plain English, maintain consistency and avoid jargon, acronyms and asking questions that could result in ambiguous answers

Care must be taken in wording a question. If a question can be interpreted in more ways than one then there is a real risk that any analysis of the survey data will be meaningless or at the very least misleading.

5. Avoid questions that are long

Use short sentences wherever possible. Long questions can lead to a higher level of incidents where respondents abandon a survey.

6. Ask one question at a time

Avoid confusing the respondent with a question like ‘Do you like athletics and football?’

7. Avoid influencing the answer

It is important not to load the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell cigarettes to minors be prosecuted?’ is unlikely to have any value.

8. Make sure that the chosen answer format allows the respondent to answer the question being asked

Ensure that the respondent can answer how they really feel or they may be inclined to abandon the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a “Can’t say”, “Don’t know” or similar response option.

9. When you are compiling your survey consider how the compiled data is going be analysed when the survey is complete

When asking questions that allow for a free text open ended response appreciate that such information is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider grouping answers. For example “How long have you worked here?” - ‘less than 3 year’, ‘between 3 and 6 years’ and ‘more than 6′.

10. Ensure that the questionnaire flows

Group questions into clear categories as this will make it easier for the participants completing the survey.

11. Target your respondents carefully

You may want to target a specific group, in others a cross section. If you can’t control who responds to your survey consider including questions/answers that will allow you to filter out respondents who don’t fit your target profile.

12. Allow the respondent to expand or make comments

By allowing respondents to make additional comments you will increase their satisfaction level and the comments will also give valuable feedback on the specific questions and/or the survey as a whole. Keep in mind though that for a large sample collection it may be difficult to analyse free text open ended responses.

13. If you are conducting a confidential survey ensure that your pledge for confidentiality is honoured

If you have assured the respondents that the survey is confidential ensure that the individual data is not to be shared with anyone and not used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained at all times and any identifying information destroyed once the survey has finished.

14. Weigh up the advantages of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable

If your respondents are to be anonymous then appreciate that you will be unable to follow up or match “pre” or “post” surveys. There are advantages to allowing respondents to remain anonymous for example it would allow respondents to respond without possible peer pressure.

15. Carefully consider what the best response format will be

Being consistent with the format used for responses is good practice. When designing your survey keep in mind that when analysing the data radio buttons are easier to analyse than check boxes that offer the respondent multiple responses. If a radio response format can be used do not use a check box format.

16. Inform the respondent as to the approximate time it will take to complete the survey

Respondent drop out can increase if there is no end in sight to the survey questions. It is good practice to indicate how long the survey is likely to take so that the participants can choose the best time to complete the survey.

17. Provide respondents with the survey end date

Try and encourage your invited respondents to complete the survey as soon as possible but advise the respondents of the survey’s end date so that they have the opportunity to schedule the necessary time.

18. Trial the survey

Before publishing a live survey publish a pilot survey to check for questions that are ambiguous or confusing and to confirm that the survey is aesthetically pleasing.

19. Before publishing the survey proof read the survey carefully

Check more than once that the survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If practical get a colleague to check the survey before you publish, if no one else is available then take a break before checking again.

20. Say ‘Thank You’

Respondents devote their time when completing surveys and should therefore be thanked at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider incentives such as entry into a prize draw or a reward.

To get started there are numerous survey software websites to choose from.

Technorati Tags: advertising, customer services, employee surveys, employer, feedback, market research, marketing, Online surveys, promotion, questionnaires, satisfaction surveys