If you want to find out in employee surveys what your people really think, avoid making habitually repeated mistakes. For example, don’t create a questionnaire yourself but hire an independent, external party. Also consider using the services of external consultants to manage and evaluate the data you have obtained. Employees will then be more direct.
Avoid only negative questions
Don’t just ask your employees what they don’t like. Questionnaires should also contain questions about their positive experiences.
Don’t use other companies as a benchmark
Staff surveys should always be unique to the particular organisation. If you copy another company’s questionnaire, your findings may be irrelevant.
Don’t look for quick solutions
Surveys need to be repeated regularly in order to reveal long-term trends. It is difficult to solve a deep-rooted problem with just one survey.
Don’t keep the results secret
If you don’t let your employees know the survey results, you can hardly expect them to help you in the future.
Don’t end with data collection
Collecting information should only be the start. Your people need to see that something has changed because of their suggestions and that there is a reason for giving their personal opinion.
-kk-