More and more companies are recognizing how important motivated and satisfied employees are for business success. They are therefore looking for ways to create a working atmosphere and working conditions that enhance employee well-being. Employee surveys can provide important insights into this. Find out here what is important when it comes to employee surveys and employee satisfaction at Personnel Development .
Definition of employee survey
An employee survey is a survey on specific internal company topics that is tailored to the needs of the company. Employee surveys help to determine the mood in the company and can uncover weaknesses – e.g. in the area of leadership, communication or workplace and task design. The aim is to derive concrete measures for improvements from the analysis.
In most cases, (partially) standardized questionnaires are used for the survey: company-wide, in certain departments or on a representative sample basis. As a rule, the answers are voluntary and anonymous. It makes sense and is provided for by the Works Constitution Act to involve the works council – if there is one.
Objectives of an employee survey
There are different reasons for employee surveys. A very central goal is to motivate employees and involve them in decision-making processes. Especially when company-wide change processes are pending, employee surveys provide insight into the attitudes, wishes and opinions of employees. A survey helps to:
- Determine the status quo
- Establish a feedback culture
- Identify problem areas
- Raise employee awareness to encourage them to make important changes
- Identify blockages to change
- Show appreciation to employees by involving them
- evaluate the success of a project by means of a before-and-after survey.
Suitable topics for an employee survey
The survey is an analytical tool and serves to uncover strengths and weaknesses in the company. The selection of topics is developed in advance with the involvement of suitable persons. Questions on the following topics are suitable for employee surveys:
- Culture of the company
- Employer image
- Satisfaction with the task
- Identification with the company
- Satisfaction with the remuneration system
- Collaboration and working atmosphere
- Leadership behavior of the direct manager
- Personnel Development
- Information and communication
- Motivation and Motivational Factors
- Improvements for the company
- Transparency of company and departmental policies
Procedure of the employee survey
Ideally, the following steps are part of the employee survey process:
1. Involve executives
A survey can only be successful if the company management stands behind an employee survey and supports the results. If possible, involve the company's executives as well and engage them as multipliers. Only when the company's management has clearly assured its support can the project be communicated within the company.
2. Preparation of the questionnaire
First of all, it must be decided whether the survey will be carried out in-house or whether external help should be used. If you want to conduct the survey yourself, online questionnaires are a good option, as quite a lot can be automated. In this way, you avoid manual transmission errors and keep the organizational effort reasonably manageable.
The topics of data protection, data security and anonymity play a major role in the survey. Try to involve those responsible (data protection officer and works council) in the process. This boosts employee confidence and thus improves the response rate. Involve company management, works council, managers and employees in the specific design of the questionnaire.
3. Information in the company
You should communicate the project throughout the entire time to achieve a high level of acceptance from all stakeholders. Employees should have the opportunity to ask questions about the process and goals of the survey. Above all, communicate that the survey will be evaluated neutrally and carefully and should enable concrete improvement measures.
Inform employees well in advance of sending the survey. You should also go into details such as procedure, scheduling, data protection, voluntariness of participation, further procedure and anonymity of the data. Sending this initial piece of information on behalf of the company's management reinforces the importance of the issue.
4. Conducting the Employee Survey
The survey itself is either carried out with suitable software or a questionnaire is sent to the employees by e-mail. When conducting an employee survey, the following tips should be taken into account:
- Raw data must only be accessible to a neutral and secure body
- Only those results that do not allow conclusions to be drawn about individual persons should be published
- Keep the data as a basis for comparison for a later survey
- Once the company-specific questionnaire has been created, it should only be changed carefully. This is the only way to ensure comparability with previous and later planned surveys.
5. Evaluation of the survey
Of course, once the data has been collected, it will be evaluated. The presentation of the results in the form of diagrams has proven to be effective. Ranking the questions with the best or worst scores is helpful to see at a glance where there is room for improvement. Evaluate a question only if more than five employees participated. This is the only way to guarantee anonymity.
In the overall result, you can see which topics correspond to the predefined target values and where there are deviations. However, you should also compare the overall result with the respective divisional and departmental results. You may be able to initiate a transfer of knowledge between areas of your company if one area performs significantly better than another on a topic.
If you are accompanied externally in your process, your service provider will evaluate the questionnaires and prepare the results.
6. Information on the results and action planning
In order to ensure acceptance for later surveys, the results and the measures derived from them should be communicated promptly. Last but not least, open communication and the derivation of measures are the aspects of the employee survey that express appreciation for the employees.
When communicating the results, don't limit yourself to topics that need improvement, but show which topics are doing particularly well and where the company's strengths lie. In addition to improving the topics that show low scores, it is also a matter of consolidating and expanding existing strengths.
7. Controlling
Compare the pre-determined goals of the employee survey and the actual results achieved. If the employee survey is repeated at regular intervals, the results of the previous survey can be compared with the current values. In this way, it is possible to check whether derived measures have been successful.
In addition to the results of the employee survey itself, the implementation of the measures should also be monitored. The goals set are often clearly observable, for example in the case of a change in core working hours or the expansion of social benefits. In some cases, however, a new employee survey will be necessary.
The employee survey as a sign of appreciation
If done correctly, an employee survey is a powerful tool to measure and improve employee satisfaction. Internal problems can be uncovered through open feedback. In this way, both HR and management gain valuable insights. However, only if measures are actually derived from the knowledge gained will employees perceive the employee survey as a sign of appreciation. When words are followed by deeds, you can sustainably increase employee engagement.
However, the employee survey is only a small part of a feedback culture in the company. If such a system is to be established in the company, it will take a little more than annual surveys.
Example: Feeling the "pulse" of employees
A good example of a modern form of employee survey is provided by the Swiss telecommunications provider Swisscom. With "Pulse", the company has developed a feedback platform that processes feedback from employees and managers in real time, taking it to a whole new level.
A multidisciplinary team from the fields of Human Resources, Organizational Development, Market Research, Human Centered Design and Communication initiated the introduction of the new feedback tool: Instead of lengthy and inflexible employee surveys as before, "Pulse" relies on regular and continuous live feedback. This is not just an expression of the belief that leadership happens every day and at every level. Rather, it gives employees maximum personal responsibility and creative freedom. In this way, "Pulse" is in line with Swisscom's principles and a modern understanding of leadership – and this is one of the reasons why it won the St. Gallen Leadership Award 2017.
What is the added value? "Pulse" creates a space for feedback and promotes openness and transparency. The real-time feedback is discussed and implemented in the team – the manager only assumes the role of a mediator: He discusses rules for cooperation with the team, initiates and designs the learning process and promotes self-leadership of the employees. This means that everyone has the opportunity, but also the responsibility, to tackle and drive issues.
How does the method work?
Every four months, the staff answers seven short questions. In addition to the main question "Do I currently have everything I need to be able to do a good job?", the topics of work content, development opportunities, cooperation, leadership, communication and working conditions are weighted on a scale of 1-10 in terms of their contribution to employee engagement. Two open-ended questions make it possible to give individual feedback on employees' wishes and problems. Employees have three weeks to complete the questionnaire and can view the results in real time.
Feedback is an integral part of any company to promote ownership and creative freedom. Too often, however, employee input gets bogged down in rigid feedback structures. With Pulse, Swisscom offers a dynamic and transparent solution that can significantly promote active feedback.
Christoph Herzog
Christoph Herzog is interested in people and how they can work better together in the digital age. He is an editor at the Haufe Group, father of a daughter and likes to walk on narrow paths.
