The Empuls Glossary

Glossary of Human Resources Management and Employee Benefit Terms

Employee Surveys

An employee survey is a way for businesses to discover their employees' opinions, feelings, and experiences. It is a great way to get a pulse on the company culture, identify areas that need improvement, and provide feedback on the job.

Employee surveys are often used alongside other methods of gathering employee feedback, such as focus groups or interviews. They can also be used as a part of an exit interview process when an employee leaves the business.

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What is an employee survey?

An employee survey is a way for an employer to get feedback from their employees on how they feel about their workplace. You can use surveys to gather information about what employees think of their company, its culture, management, leadership, and any other issues they have.

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What is employee survey best practices?

Conducting effective employee surveys involves several best practices to ensure you gather meaningful insights and promote a positive experience for participants. Here are some key best practices:

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Define clear objectives: Clearly define the purpose of the survey and what you hope to achieve. This helps in designing relevant questions and focusing on areas that will provide actionable insights.
Ensure anonymity and confidentiality: Assure employees that their responses will be anonymous and confidential. This encourages honest feedback and increases participation rates.
Ask relevant and concise questions: Keep the survey focused and concise. Avoid lengthy surveys that can cause fatigue and lead to incomplete responses. Use a mix of question types, such as multiple-choice, Likert scale, and open-ended questions, to gather a variety of insights.
Use clear and neutral language: Ensure that questions are clearly worded and free from bias. Avoid leading questions that might influence responses.
Pilot test the survey: Conduct a pilot test with a small group of employees to identify any issues with question clarity or survey flow. Use the feedback to make necessary adjustments before launching the survey to the entire organization.
Communicate the purpose and importance: Clearly communicate the purpose of the survey to employees and explain how their feedback will be used. Emphasize the importance of their participation and how it can contribute to positive changes within the organization.
Provide sufficient time for responses: Give employees ample time to complete the survey, but set a clear deadline. A typical timeframe might be one to two weeks.
Encourage participation: Promote the survey through multiple channels, such as email, internal communications, and team meetings. Encourage managers to support and remind their teams about the survey.
Analyze and share results: Analyze the survey results promptly and share key findings with employees. Be transparent about what the survey revealed and how the organization plans to address any issues or suggestions.
Take action on feedback: Develop an action plan based on the survey results. Communicate the steps the organization will take to address the feedback and make improvements. Follow up with progress updates to show employees that their input is valued and leads to tangible changes.
Conduct regular surveys: Make employee surveys a regular practice to continuously gather feedback and track progress over time. Regular surveys demonstrate a commitment to listening to employees and making ongoing improvements.

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Why are employee surveys important?

Employee surveys are important because they help you:

To evaluate your performance as a manager or supervisor.
To assess the effectiveness of an organizational change or initiative.
To improve performance, reduce turnover, and increase employee engagement.
To determine if there is a need to improve company benefits or employee training programs.

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How effective are employee surveys?

Employee surveys can be very effective if used properly. But the results will only be beneficial if the survey questions are well-designed and you have an action plan for following up on the findings.

One of the most important things to remember is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to employee surveys. Designing your survey will depend on what you want to learn and what kind of feedback you hope to get from it.

Should you be honest in employee surveys?

The answer is yes. The reason is that surveys are an opportunity to build trust and establish a culture of transparency. The best approach is to be as honest as possible in your responses.

It's common to feel hesitant about expressing negative thoughts or opinions. You may worry that you'll hurt someone's feelings or that you may come across as ungrateful or disloyal. But the truth is that most people want to hear what you have to say — and they appreciate honesty more than anything else.

What are the types of employee surveys?

The most common types of employee surveys are:

Employee opinion surveys: These surveys ask employees to rate their satisfaction with different aspects of the workplace on a scale from one to 10.
Employee satisfaction surveys: These surveys ask employees about the overall quality of their work environment, management style, learning opportunities, workplace culture, and more—essentially all aspects of their experience at work that affect job satisfaction (or lack thereof).
Employee engagement surveys: These are a great way to measure employees' passion for their jobs by asking questions about how motivated they are at work each day and whether they feel like they're contributing to something bigger than themselves in their roles at their companies.
Employee retention surveys: These surveys help identify why employees are leaving so that you can fix the problem before it costs you valuable talent.
Employee compensation surveys: These surveys help ensure that employees are paid fairly based on their skills and experience levels.

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How to analyze employee survey results?

Here are four simple steps for analyzing employee survey results:

Step 1: Review the results for each question.
Step 2: Look for themes in the data.
Step 3: Create actionable insights from the data.
Step 4: Create an action plan based on those insights.

What are the important employee pulse survey best practices?

Here are the important employee pulse survey best practices to keep your finger on the pulse of your workforce and foster a culture of continuous improvement:

1. Focus and timing

Targeted approach: Unlike annual surveys, pulse surveys focus on specific topics or timely issues. This could be a new policy rollout, team dynamics after restructuring, or gauging remote work satisfaction.

Actionable feedback: Design questions that go beyond satisfaction ratings. Ask open-ended questions to understand the "why" behind responses and gather insights for quick improvements.

Frequency: Conduct pulse surveys more frequently than traditional surveys (e.g., monthly, quarterly). However, strike a balance to avoid survey fatigue. Only survey as often as you can take action on the results.

2. Survey design and administration

Short and sweet: Keep pulse surveys concise, ideally taking 5-10 minutes to complete. This maintains engagement and ensures a high response rate.

Accessibility: Choose a user-friendly platform accessible on various devices to make participation easy for everyone.

Anonymity and confidentiality: Guarantee anonymity to encourage honest feedback on even sensitive topics.

3. Communication and transparency

Clear purpose: Before launch, explain the survey's purpose and how the feedback will be used for improvement.

Promote participation: Use multiple channels to encourage participation, emphasizing the value of their real-time feedback.

Transparency in results: Share key findings with employees in a timely manner. Be honest and transparent about the feedback, even if it's critical.

4. Taking action and closing the loop

Action plan: Develop a concrete action plan based on the pulse survey results. Prioritize issues and set realistic timelines for addressing them.

Communication of action: Communicate the planned course of action based on the feedback. This shows employees you're listening and taking steps to improve.

Closing the loop: Provide updates on the implemented changes and their impact. This demonstrates that their voice matters and builds trust.

5. Additional best practices

Mixed question types: Incorporate a mix of multiple-choice questions for quick response and open-ended questions to gather deeper insights.

Benchmarking (optional): Consider comparing your pulse survey data to industry benchmarks for specific topics to understand how you stack up.

Regular pulse surveys: Conduct pulse surveys periodically on different topics to keep a pulse on evolving employee sentiment and areas needing attention.

Employee pulse surveys:

These are short surveys that can be sent frequently to check what your employees think about an issue quickly. The survey comprises fewer questions (not more than 10) to get the information quickly. These can be administered at regular intervals (monthly/weekly/quarterly).

One-on-one meetings:

Having periodic, hour-long meetings for an informal chat with every team member is an excellent way to get a true sense of what’s happening with them. Since it is a safe and private conversation, it helps you get better details about an issue.

eNPS:

eNPS (employee Net Promoter score) is one of the simplest yet effective ways to assess your employee's opinion of your company. It includes one intriguing question that gauges loyalty. An example of eNPS questions include: How likely are you to recommend our company to others? Employees respond to the eNPS survey on a scale of 1-10, where 10 denotes they are ‘highly likely’ to recommend the company and 1 signifies they are ‘highly unlikely’ to recommend it.

Based on the responses, employees can be placed in three different categories:

Promoters
Employees who have responded positively or agreed.
Detractors
Employees who have reacted negatively or disagreed.
Passives
Employees who have stayed neutral with their responses.

How to conduct an employee survey?

Here are some tips to help you design and conduct a survey that will yield useful results:

Ensure you have all the necessary information before designing your survey. If you don't know what kind of data you want, you won't be able to create the right questions.
Don't make it too long. An effective employee survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete. It is crucial that employees feel comfortable answering these questions, so keep it short and sweet!
Make sure your survey is anonymous by using double-blind surveys (where respondents don't know who is asking them) or single-blind surveys (where respondents know who's asking them).

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How to create an employee survey?

If you're looking for some inspiration to create an employee survey, here are the steps to note.

Define the purpose of your survey. Make sure you ask questions that reflect the topic. If you want to see how they feel about their Salary and benefits, then ensure these topics are covered in your survey.
Create a draft survey and test it by sending it out to some of your employees and asking them for feedback on what they thought about it. This will help you determine whether or not you need to change anything.
Make sure to keep the survey anonymous, so employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings with you.
Make it easy for employees to respond by providing an online form or email address where they can submit their responses.
Analyze your survey results and take action on any areas that need improvement.

How to improve employee survey results?

Here are some ways you can improve your employee surveys:

Choose the right questions.
Select the right survey tool for the job.
Choose the right time to conduct the survey.
Ensure everyone understands what they are being asked.
Offer rewards or incentives for participation (e.g., gift cards)
Make sure every employee gets a chance to participate.

How to increase employee survey participation?

If your company's survey participation rate is low, here are some tips for increasing it:

Make sure your survey is well-designed.
Let people know their response is anonymous or confidential.
Ask questions that are relevant and interesting. Don't keep them too long.
Include an incentive. Employees are more likely to take a survey when it's easy and worth their time.
Make sure your survey is easy and quick to complete. The more time it takes employees to complete a survey, the less likely they are to complete it.
Assign a deadline for taking the survey, so people don't forget about it by accident or neglect it.

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How to answer employee surveys?

Here are some tips on how to answer employee surveys:

Answer honestly. If you don't give a fair representation of the company, it could negatively impact your coworkers' opinions and yours.
Don't make assumptions about what people think or how they feel when answering questions.
Don't be afraid of being honest about negative experiences or concerns, but keep them constructive! Don't just say, "This place sucks." Instead, ask questions like "Why are we doing this?" or "What would be a better way to handle this situation?"
Identify the purpose of the survey and ask yourself if it's what you think it is. If there's any ambiguity about the questions being asked, ask for clarification from your manager or HR before responding to a survey.

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What are the best employee survey questions?

Here are some questions to conduct the best employee surveys:

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1.Engagement and satisfaction

On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your current job?
How likely are you to recommend our company as a great place to work?
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2.Feedback on management

Do you feel supported by your manager in your role?
How often do you receive constructive feedback from your supervisor?
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3.Opportunities for growth

Do you believe there are good career advancement opportunities within the company?
How satisfied are you with the professional development resources provided?
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4.Work environment

Do you feel that your workplace is inclusive and respectful?
How would you rate communication within your team?
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5.Work-life balance

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your work-life balance?
Do you feel comfortable taking time off when needed?
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6.Recognition and appreciation

Do you feel recognized for your contributions at work?
How meaningful is the recognition you receive from your peers and managers?

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