Employee survey

A professionally executed employee survey leads to increased job satisfaction, productivity and loyalty.

The employee survey has continuously developed into an improved standard instrument of the personnel management and is used for various purposes in large as well as in medium-sized and small companies and administrations. The performance of an employee survey requires more than mastering the questioning technique; it calls for a corporate culture which assigns the role of co-entrepreneurs, whose opinions matter, to the employees.

The process of an employee survey

Every employee survey runs through the phases "planning", "execution", "evaluation" and "implementation" (four-phase scheme).

Planning
The first phase of an employee survey, namely planning, cannot be carried out thoroughly enough. It must answer many important questions such as the following, which are essential for the success of the employee survey:

1. What does the employee survey aim for, which benefit is to be expected for which interest group? Well founded justification is important, because when it comes to the project proposal, the employee survey competes against other projects.

2. Who is to be surveyed and who is not? Basically, one can choose between complete surveys (survey of all employees) and sample surveys (selective survey).

3. Which survey concept is to be selected? Following the basic orientation of employee surveys, we differentiate between "satisfaction-oriented survey concepts" (focus on job satisfaction), "stress-oriented survey concepts" (focus on work load), "loyalty-oriented survey concepts" (focus on loyalty towards the company), and "attractiveness-oriented survey concepts" (focus on company attractiveness). ISPA consult proposes an integrative approach, which unites those and other orientations.

4. How and with which questionnaire are the desired data to be collected? The questionnaire's design is of high importance to the success of the employee survey. Among other things, it has to be decided about:

• type and number of closed questions with given response options for predefined topics

• each subject area, with or without additional "open" questions

• the type of scaling of the "closed" questions for measuring the characteristics

• the inclusion of personal questions for the respondent who remains anonymous (e.g. questions regarding department, gender, age, seniority, position in the organisation's hierarchy, etc.)

5. How is the necessarily required internal marketing of the employee survey to take place? Employees and executives have to be convinced of the necessity and benefit of the employee survey in order to maximise the response rate.

6. When and in which period of time is the employee survey to take place? According to experience, 14 days are sufficient in order to give the employees a fair chance to properly complete the questionnaire.

7. Is the employee survey to be executed in a print or online version? By trend, the number of online surveys increases. ISPA consult offers online surveys as well as print surveys.

8. For which evaluation units are the data to be evaluated separately? Beside analyses regarding the whole company, differentiated analyses e.g. for certain business areas, locations, departments, etc. can be taken into consideration. This decision has to be made during the planning of the employee survey.

9. How can, how is the anonymity of the survey to be secured? For both print and online surveys the anonymity according to the Data Protection Act can be guaranteed through documented individual measures.

10. How is the surveyed, usually extensive data set to be dealt with? Before the survey results are available, concrete measures for implementation cannot be planned just yet, but preparations for the expected requirements can already be included in the planning.

Therefore, planning units are substantial. ISPA consult offers professional support through interactive client-provider-relations and the joint search for tailored solutions for the employee survey.

Execution, evaluation and implementation
ISPA consult gets involved with the scheduled execution, evaluation and implementation of the employee survey. The client's subsequent revisional requirements and wishes are considered as far as possible.

Architecture of the employee survey
In order to understand employee surveys, one has to know not only the instruments and methods of data ascertainment and evaluation, but also the ideal and conceptual superstructure. Guiding principles can be feedback, humanisation, promotion of satisfaction, etc. They are substantiated by the concepts of the different providers. ...more

Special types of employee surveys on offer
ISPA consult provides the users and interested parties with a wide range of special types of employee surveys:

• The international employee survey for head offices with foreign subsidiaries and locations inside and outside the EU. A book review by K.-F. Ackermann in "Personal Manager" issue 3/2009 informs about this special set of problems.

• The municipal employee survey for public administrations. cf. K.-F. Ackermann's two-part contribution in the 2009 October and November issues of the magazine "Der Gemeinderat".

• The self-perception and interpersonal perception surveys for personnel departments and other organisational units. Here, the employees of an organisational unit are surveyed for their self-perception, whereas the internal customers of this organisational unit are surveyed for the interpersonal perception. The profile comparison of the self- and interpersonal perception provides important elements for future improvement measures, where applicable, also for Service Level Agreements.

• The 360° executive feedback survey, which combines the superior assessment, employee assessment, equalisation assessment and self-assessment. Where applicable, the customer survey is added.

• The focus group survey in several varieties with the core of "interviews with selected employee groups based on guidelines".