Guthrie's 3 Tips for Conducting Employee Surveys

The use of employee surveys has become ever-growing in the world of business. An effective employee survey has the capacity to quantify employee engagement, and thus help corporations tailor their work environment to the needs of their staff. Holistic knows that happy employees make for better, more productive employees and we believe collecting employee sentiment is the recipe for success. This week we chatted with Holistic’s Senior Director of Client Services, Guthrie Blechman, for their advice on how to conduct effective employee surveys. Here are their #threetips:

1. Keep it brief and to the point.

When people think about the concept of a survey it often is imagined as an optional form they’d like to avoid. The work day only has so many hours, and if you want people to respond with accuracy and honesty it is best to cut out anything that won’t be actionable or that isn’t a part of your primary focus. Pulse Surveys are brief question sets that gauge employee views on various topics. Make sure each pulse survey focuses on one theme and doesn’t deviate from it! An employee is more likely to do you the favor of filling out your survey if you can present it to them and tell them it has a set amount of questions regarding a specific topic. 

2. Repeat question formats for easier reading. 

This is for both you and the employees’ sake. If your first question is a 1-5 scale, don’t make question two a 5-1 scale or a 1-7 scale. When collecting data, it is most logical for the survey to follow the same scale so your interpretations of the measurements are quantifiable. Moreover, using the same scale will be less confusing for your employees when they are filling out the survey and is more likely to result in accurate responses.

3. Know what you’re asking.

This is where Holistic can help! We frequently work with clients to uncover further insights about their company and employee data. Our employee surveys ask the right questions so that they will result in answers that translate into actionable data. By taking a people first approach to the employee experience we hope to be a proponent of guiding company growth through company satisfaction. 

If you’re interested in having Holistic conduct an employee survey at your organization, contact us today at info@holisticindex.com

For more advice on conducting actionable employee surveys, tune into Holistic’s “What We Learned: Don’t Assume, Ask Your Employees” Webinar on 7/21/22, 11am CST.