Supercharge the staff survey

Article Type: Abstracts From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 18, Issue 2

Rigby R.Management Today (UK), October 2009, Start page: 52, No. of pages: 2

Purpose – Discusses the merits of staff questionnaires and surveys and how to ensure that the exercise serves a valuable purpose. Design/methodology/approach – Argues that management expends considerable time and money producing self-serving propaganda, and orchestrated feedback from which they will learn nothing; and that employees are generally adept at spotting spin and dissimulation. Suggests that even if the survey is conducted in a spirit of open enquiry, there are pitfalls to avoid, associated with a failure to act on unpalatable results. Feels that surveys tend to ask generic questions because companies love to benchmark, which in itself calls into question what surveys are for – are they an attempt to discover what your employees really think, or an excuse to indulge in finding out how well you are doing against your main rivals. Sites Royal Mail as an organization that has excelled in restructuring the way it conducts staff surveys, built on a priority of identifying exactly what questions to ask, including plenty of broad,thought-provoking questions with free-form answers; and Nationwide building society as another organization known for genuinely listening to staff. Offers advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of staff surveys associated with generic questions, too many questions, agree/disagree scales, no-follow through,infrequent surveys, imperfect anonymity, confusing dynamic with important, and spinning the results. Originality/value – Considers how the traditional staff survey can be recharged to become a document of value and purpose, and how pitfalls of the tick-box questionnaire can be avoided.ISSN: 0025-1925Reference: 39AA358

Keywords: Surveys, Feedback, Employee involvement,Benchmarking, Morale