The 5 Keys to an Impactful Employee Survey

17 of August, 2023

You know that employee surveys are crucial to understand how your team really feels about work and gage what’s working and not working. But simply sending out a generic survey won’t cut it. You need to craft a thoughtful, impactful survey that will yield actionable insights.

Here are 5 keys to create an employee survey that matters.

Define Your Goals for the Employee Survey

To get valuable insights from your employee survey, you need to determine what you aim to learn. Do you want to gage job satisfaction, understand concerns, or evaluate new policies? Be as specific as possible.

For example, if you recently changed the vacation policy, ask questions like:

• Do you feel the new vacation policy is fair?
• How has the new vacation policy impacted your work-life balance?

To assess job satisfaction, consider questions such as:

• I feel motivated and energized at work. (Scale of 1-5, from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree)
• What are the top two reasons you find your work meaningful or rewarding?

Measuring Responses

For rating scale questions, determine the percentage of scores at each point on the scale. Look for any questions with a high percentage of “Strongly Disagree” or “Disagree” responses, indicating areas for improvement.

For open-ended questions, review all comments and categorize them by theme. The themes mentioned most frequently likely point to opportunities. Track how themes change over time to measure the impact of any actions taken.

An effective employee survey provides valuable insights into your team’s experience, needs, and concerns. Carefully crafting your goals and questions is key to getting feedback you can act on. With the right survey and follow up, you’ll build trust and a supportive work environment where people feel heard and empowered.

Choose Survey Questions That Align to Your Goals

To get the most out of your employee survey, carefully craft questions that will provide insight into the areas that matter most. For example:

• How satisfied are you with your benefits package? On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being extremely satisfied. This can help determine if your offerings are competitive and meeting employee needs.
• How would you rate your working relationship with your manager? Rating options could include: exceeds expectations, meets expectations, needs improvement. Manager relationships have a huge impact on employee satisfaction and retention.
• How often do you feel overwhelmed by your workload? Never, rarely, sometimes, often, always. Monitoring workload and stress levels is key to maintaining a healthy work-life balance and productive team.

When designing your survey, be sure to include a mix of question types – multiple choice, rating scales, open-ended – to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. Keep the survey as short as possible, around 10 to 15 questions, so employees can complete it quickly.

Once the results are in, look for trends and patterns. Are satisfaction levels dropping in any areas? Did any responses stand out? Share highlights with your team and develop an action plan to make improvements. Following up and actually implementing changes shows your employees you value their feedback.

Conducting a thoughtful employee survey, and then taking action on the results, is one of the best ways to build trust, boost morale, and transform your company culture. With the right questions and a genuine desire to understand your employees’ perspectives, your next survey can be a pivotal moment of insight.

Analyze Results and Take Action

Once you’ve collected and analyzed the results of your employee survey, it’s time to take action. Without following through, your team may feel their feedback fell on deaf ears.

Share the results

First, share a high-level summary of the survey results with all employees. Be transparent about both positive and negative feedback. Let them know you value their input and are committed to making improvements. You might say something like:

“Thank you all for taking the time to provide your honest feedback in the recent employee survey. We received many constructive comments on ways we can strengthen our company culture and better support our team. Over the next few months, we will be developing action plans to address the key opportunities for improvement you identified.”

Identify key issues

Dig into the details of the survey data to pinpoint major problem areas or trends. For example, if over 50% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the frequency or content of company meetings, that is likely an area that needs improvement. Group feedback into categories to identify broader issues, like communication, work-life balance, or career growth.

Create an action plan

For each key issue, develop a specific plan of action to resolve concerns and make positive changes. Get input from managers and employees on potential solutions. Be sure to include measurable steps, assign responsibilities, and set deadlines to ensure progress is made. Share the details of each action plan with staff so they know their voices were heard and meaningful changes are on the way.

Follow up

Circle back with another employee survey in 6-12 months to gage if your action plans have been effective and see if any new issues have emerged. Make adjustments as needed to continue improving based on ongoing feedback from your team. When employees see real action taken as a result of their input, they will be much more likely to provide constructive criticism and fresh ideas to help strengthen your organization.

Conclusion

And there you have it, five keys to creating an impactful employee survey. Remember, keep things simple but thoughtful. Ask questions that really get at the heart of how your team is feeling and what they need to thrive.

Make the survey easy to take and share the results openly and honestly. Most importantly, take action on the feedback. Show your team you listened by implementing changes that will make a real difference in their day to day.

Do that, and next year’s survey is sure to be even more positive and helpful. Building a great company culture is a journey, not a destination. Keep learning, keep listening, and keep improving – your team and your business will be better for it.