You’ve decided to write a survey to send to employees. Make sure their time and energy is well spent.
Like most aspects of business, writing a survey for your internal audience starts with proper planning. Follow these steps and you’ll write a survey that will provide valuable data and insights and help your organization make good decisions.
Step 1 – Be clear on the objective of the survey
This may sound too obvious to mention but knowing the objective is a fundamental of survey writing that is often glossed over or misunderstood. Take the time to articulate the objective and make sure the sponsor and/or primary stakeholders also see it that way.
To pin down the objective, ask yourself: “What problem are we trying to solve by conducting this survey?” Examples of answers:
- High absenteeism rates
- Low rates of employees using our product/service
- We don’t know how employees feel about the company
- Low participation in the volunteer program
- The negative effect of an overactive rumor mill
- High error rates
Step 2 – Know how the results will be used
Knowing how the results will be analyzed and used helps to determine if responses should ultimately be expressed as numbers. For example, if the results need to be weighted (i.e. some questions carry more value than others) or combined with other data for a scorecard.
Also, part of the planning phase is knowing how you will report back to the people who received the survey.
Tip Always report back. To everyone, not just those who responded. Within organizations, this helps to reinforce trust and demonstrates the value of the survey.
Step 3 – Determine timing, length and duration
The survey release date, how long it will take to complete and how much time employees have before the deadline play a major part in the effectiveness of your survey.
Timing of release/start
- Pick a date that is clear of other distractions.
- Examples of distractions: major organizational announcements/news (e.g. quarterly results or restructures), prime holiday seasons, times of intense workload of most/all employees (i.e. March and April for tax-related companies)
Length of survey
- If a survey is likely to take more than 5 minutes to complete, you risk having lower participation than if you keep it to 5 minutes. The longer the survey, the greater the risk of low participation.
- Try to keep the number of questions between 5-9. This is the ideal number because it’s enough to give you meaningful results yet isn’t overwhelming for the respondents.
- Sometimes a longer survey can’t be avoided. The most common example is an annual engagement survey. In these cases, pay extra attention to the timing and duration.
- Very short (3 question) surveys also have their place. These are most effective when you have a very specific, time sensitive problem you’re trying to solve. For example, registration for a highly valuable skills building course is low and you want to know why before the event. This gives you insights to make decisions about tweaking the promotion or cancelling the session.
Duration
- Two to three weeks is the most effective amount of time to give employees to complete a survey because:
- Reduces the risk of missing respondents because they are on vacation
- Allows employees to plan their time
- Shorter timelines are suitable for very short (3 questions) surveys
- Longer timelines don’t generate more responses
Step 4 – Do you need to know who has responded to the survey?
Employees are more likely to respond to surveys if they are confident that their responses won’t identify them in any way. Identification can happen through computer ID (for example, if the survey is integrated with your intranet or network) or through the questions you ask (e.g. What area do you work in?).
Generally, the only time you need to know someone’s identity is when completing the survey is mandatory.
The best way to ensure anonymity is by using a third-party online provider. Most are free or low-cost and easy to use. Two to consider are:
Of course, there are many others to choose from. When researching options, some aspects to look for:
- Easy to use interface for creating and analyzing
- Unique URL to access survey
- Ability to branch questions
- Some control over look and feel
- Number of responses allowed before price level changes
- Ability to customize thank you and “response required” pages
Paper always remains an option and makes anonymity easy. However, be prepared to need extra time to collect the paper and enter the data into a spreadsheet for analysis. There is also the risk of lower quality data because you can’t require or validate responses (or read some of the handwriting!).
Step 5 – Choose a perspective
To make it easy for respondents to stay in the mindset of the survey, choose the point of view of the questions or statements and use it consistently in the questions and descriptions.
Options
- You. This has the effect of being interviewed. Examples: “How would you rate…” “How would you describe…” “What was your first reaction to…”
- I. This has the effect of the respondent asking themselves questions. Examples: “I would rate…” “I would describe…” “My first reaction was…”
Step 6 – Make the questions neutral
You lower the value of responses if you directly or indirectly influence the person answer the question. For example, “How difficult was it to learn the new system?” implies that there was a degree of difficultly. A more useful and effective ways to find out if people encountered problems might look like:
- “Learning the new system was…” (with choices such as “super easy, sort of easy, neither here nor there, not very easy, really tough”)
- “Rate your experience learning the new system” (with a rating scale)
Step 7 – Keep each question simple
The point of surveys is to get clear, usable data. Therefore, you want to make each question as short and simple as possible. This includes having only one thought per question For example, instead of “How would you rate the quality and length of the workshop?” break it into two questions: “How would you rate the quality of the workshop content?” and “How would you rate the length of the workshop?”
Step 8 – Group question topics and types
Topics
To make it easier for people to respond, you want to lead them through a natural sequence of questions. This will help them stay in the mindset.
For example, if the survey is about how/if they make use of a benefit available to them, you might follow this sequence:
- How/if they heard about the benefit
- Their first impressions
- If they have or have tried to use it
- What their experience was like
- Have they/would they recommend it to colleagues
- Other comments
Types
There’s nothing wrong with using different types of questions in your survey. However, if you keep all the “rate from 1-5” questions together and all the “yes/no/maybe” questions, you’ll help the respondent stay in the groove.
The major types of questions are:
- Yes/No/Maybe
- Rating scale
- Choose from list
- Free form or essay (people write their responses within a constrained space)
Step 8 – Write the introduction
The purpose of the introduction is to make key information clear in a way that encourages participation.
- Purpose of the survey Example: “We are exploring changes to the benefits program and your opinions will influence decisions.”
- Who is receiving the survey Example: “All employees are invited to respond.”
- How long it will take Example: “It will take about 10 minutes to complete.”
- What happens to the results Example: “Executive leaders will review the results and use them in their decision-making process. We will also send all employees a summary of the results.”
- Deadline Example: “The survey closes at 9:00 pm on July 30.”
- If respondents are identifiable Example: “The survey is completely anonymous.” or “Your responses will automatically include your network ID.”
- Thank you and contact info Example: Thank you in advance for taking the time to provide us with this feedback. If you have any questions about this survey, call Mitzi at ext. 2345.”
A closing thought
Sending surveys to employees is part of employee communication. Therefore, they should align with your company’s strategic communications goals and fit into a broader plan. And, when done well, they reinforce broader organizational objectives such as building trust, making decisions based on real inputs (not assumptions) and making it easier for employees to provide feedback.
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