Here are seven principles that define an effective survey process:
- Your employees should be aware of the rationale for the survey and why their input matters. With support from all departments, you must establish the expectation of 100% participation.
- Your organization’s leadership must be committed to and accountable for effectively dealing with issues of importance discovered in the survey process.
- Responding to the survey must be convenient for employees.
- The process must be relatively non-intrusive of employees, i.e., short.
- The process must produce easily understood, actionable information so that the organization knows what to do next.
- At the end of the survey process, thank employees for participating, provide a synopsis of results, and explain the next steps. Otherwise, they won’t respond again.
- The process should be viewed as a continuing conversation between leadership and employees and consistently administered regularly.