Employee surveys are nothing new in the HR world. According to a study conducted by Kienbaum, employee surveys are used strategically by 70% of all companies. They promise to add value to the workplace and make employees happy. Which leads to less turnover, higher productivity and lower absenteeism.

But, there are certain conditions that should be considered, which all too often, aren’t. How can you possibly get the best out of your employee survey? We share 5 tips with you.

1. Carefully select the contents of the employee survey.

Many companies offer the classic “working environment”, but it’s not for everybody. A very young start-up, for example, will have different focuses and abilities in what benefits it can offer to employees. They may instead focus on their employee’s commitment to the company. If you align your survey as close as possible to the team, then you will get better, more realistic feedback for things you can actually act upon. Also, it is useful to integrate these themes into later surveys. This way you will have meaningful benchmarks on changes in your business.

2. Get employees on board about the topics beforehand.

Not every topic of course, but in principle, employees should feel involved even before the survey is administered. You want to find out what topics your employees are interested in. Where is it that the shoe currently pinches?

3. Use a standardised questionnaire.

This allows for very good and sound scientific classification and interpretation of results. Nevertheless, it is not one size fits all. In start-ups the standards and effective factors may be quite different than in a large corporation. So you should compare your survey to that of groups that are as similar as possible to your company/team.

4. Establish a clear time frame.

How long will the survey run and when will the results be presented? Basic questions that employees want to have answered.

5. Keep your employees up-to-date!

Which changes were implemented because of the survey results? The above-mentioned Kienbaum study showed that less than 5% of the surveyed employees were informed about the measures and implementation successes derived from the survey results. How are your employees to know about the good you are doing if you do not tell them?

In the next article, we will look at some things you should absolutely avoid when doing an employee survey! Stay tuned!