Around the world, many organizations invest large amounts of time, energy, and financial resources in conducting employee surveys. Unfortunately, if employee surveys are poorly designed and implemented, they can do unintended damage. A failed survey is more than a waste of organizational resources-it can negatively impact employee engagement, which is a direct and vital condition for organizational success.
Why do surveys fail? Through the work of Mercer Human Resource Consulting´s Organization Research team on morethan 1,000 survey projects, 10 key areas within the survey process have been identified that consistently stand out as potential stumbling blocks to survey success. By being aware of these pitfalls and adopting best practices to avoid them, organizations can significantly improve the odds of conducting employee research that produces valid, reliable and useful results which, in turn, will help build employee engagement.
1. Project planning
In the absence of proper survey planning, things can go wrong early on. The survey will lose credibility in the eyes of management and employees, and the follow-up process will fail to secure the time, resources, and commitment required for success.
Careful thought should thus be given to the selection of a project management team. The team should represent the major business areas, possess a comprehensive understanding of the organization, and have the support of senior management. The team should define the long-term objectives for the research and define how the survey process fits into and enhances change initiatives and the execution of business strategy.
In addition to the project team, a network of survey champions should be developed to represent major organizational groups and locations. An additional tool to support project management is a project intranet or extranet site that facilitates the exchange of information among all of the team members.
2. Communication
Employee surveys often lack the benefit of a well-developed communication plan. For many organizations, the objectives of the research are not made explicit, management responsibilities are unclear, and thus the credibility of the organization´s commitment to follow-up action may not convince employees.In other cases, the survey also may lack a brand or identity that helps position the survey as an important initiative that is worthy of employee participation. Planful communication is a critical success ingredient that serves the strategic interests of research efforts and ties together all the phases of project.
An effective survey needs a detailed communication plan that defines key messages, audience segments, timing, and responsibilities. The communication process should begin well in advance of survey administration, with briefing sessions for
management and announcements to employees. The plan should include the design of a survey title and tagline that is integrated with current organizational-change initiatives, and a graphic logo that can be used with all survey-related communications.
3. Questionnaire design
Often the content of the survey questionnaire is determined centrally and addresses only the issues known to the project management team. Questionnaire design should begin with a strong model founded in the human capital components that have been shown to have an impact on business performance. (Mercer has developed a Human Capital Strategy Model that describes six factors that have been found to be significant predictors of employee productivity: people, work processes, managerial structure, information and knowledge, decision-making, and rewards.)
Additional input for questionnaire design should be obtained from employees and managers through focus groups and interviews. The survey should include questionsthat address organization-wide issues and lead to central action planning, plus questions that address "local" issues where results are likely to vary across groups andfor which action planning would be locally managed.
4. Timing
The timing of research field work often fails to take into account the availability of employees, the requirements of the business, or the organization´s business-planning process. As a result, the survey may be administered at a time when maximum employee participation is not possible or when the findings may not be available in time to inform the business plan.
Field work should be scheduled so that the results are available in time for the business-planning cycle. This will position the survey as a management information tool and help to secure the necessary budget for follow-up actions. The survey should be administered when it will pose minimal disruption to the business and when a maximum number of employees are available for participation.
5. Prioritization of issues
Presented with complex and diverse survey results, organizations often have difficulty in identifying and prioritizing issues for follow-up action. The prioritization of issues requires a three-step process. First, following analysis, the results should be compared to external norms to identify the organization´s unique areas of strength and those areas of genuine employee concern. This comparison process provides an opportunity to control for the influence of national culture and content.
The second step involves a review of survey trends-specifically, which items and dimensional areas have improved or declined over the benchmark data based on previous survey work?
The third step involves identifying the topic areas assessed in the survey that will have the greatest impact on organizational performance. This is where the ROI (Return on Investment) is realized in employee research. Without identifying and committing to work on the "discovered" issues, the organization will gain very little of potential benefit from the employee research.
6. Engaging senior management
Senior management needs to be engaged throughout the entire process, but particularly at the conclusion, so that management is seen as "hearing" and responding to employee concerns. The survey process can appear to be very protracted and is sometimes viewed as "yesterday´s news" by the time the organization´s leadership has had the opportunity to review the findings and consider follow-up actions. Presentation of survey results to senior management must be seen as an important milestone and calendared early in the project so that the presentation and follow-on discussion receives its full measure of management attention.
Ideally, a presentation of top-line survey results should be conducted with senior management within two weeks after data collection. With a timely report-back, management will appreciate the significant results and their relevance to important business goals and plans.
7. Data delivery
Most surveys yield a large amount of data that is difficult for managers to interpret. Moreover, data report books are often dense and difficult to understand. As a result, managers may feel overwhelmed by the survey findings and be put off by the follow-up process.
The format of data delivery (whether electronic or printed) should be designed to support the organization´s requirements and the needs of the survey´s end users. The report books should be easy to interpret and the results should be displayed with graphics that enhance understanding. Results should engage managers and draw them in to a full review and meaningful use of the findings.
8. Follow-up support
The key to effective follow-up action is defining the areas where accountability rests at the organization-wide level versus those areas where accountability rests at the divisional or local level.
Even in instances where results have been delivered in a timely way and report books have been designed with the end user in mind, many managers will feel ill-prepared to develop follow-up action plans because they are not sure how to approach the task or where to turn for support.
Support in the interpretation and use of survey data can be provided by training managers. This is best achieved through a "train the trainer" cascade where survey champions are trained-in interpreting data, communicating results, prioritizing issues, and developing action plans-to support the larger group of line managers. A second area for support involves documenting and sharing best practices among managers. This information should be documented in a best-practices database.
9. Monitoring and accountability
Often the employee survey is launched as a "fire and forget" initiative; questionnaires are administered and results are cascaded with the vague hope that something good will happen. The emphasis tends to be placed on process-driven outcomes that are relatively easy to measure-survey field work, response rates, and delivery of data-report books to managers-rather than follow-up actions.
To avoid this, it is crucial to define clear management responsibilities for survey activities, and to establish follow-up goals on the basis of actions, rather than on improvement in survey scores. It is also important to conduct a regular monitoring of survey follow-up activities and regularly review survey activities at management meetings.
10.Linking survey results to business outcomes
Finally, even a well-developed and well-administered survey-with some evidence of follow-up action-will eventually fall into disuse if it remains a standalone or isolated initiative. Senior management-as well as employees-will invariably lose interest and shift their attention to shorter-term priorities.
To keep the process alive, the organization should integrate the survey with change initiatives and link survey results with business outcomes. This includes taking account of survey results in the business-planning process, and integrating survey data with human-capital metrics to identify the drivers of such effects as absenteeism, turnover, and job performance.
Indeed, employee opinion research is a valuable tool, and it is here to stay. The challenge for organizations is to avoid its common pitfalls by adopting a best-practice approach-and maximizing its value.
Paul Sanchez is a worldwide partner with Mercer Human Resource Consulting and the global leader of the firm´s Organization Research and Effectiveness group. He is also is a trustee and co-chair of the International Association of Business Communicators´ Research Foundation and has served on the board of the International Foundation of Employee Benefits. Based in New York, Mr. Sanchez can be reached at paul.sanchez@mercer.com or 212 345 0102.
