Employee survey –
a modern way to increase engagement and effectiveness of employees

Employee survey is a tool that allows a company to collect information about the status of employees and, on its basis, adjust the work process. Employee polling has been around for quite some time, but it wasn't until a few years ago that companies really started using surveys. And with the outbreak of the pandemic and the transition of many organisations to remote work, the relevance of surveys has only grown.

Regular and correct surveys, as well as the use of the received feedback, will improve the following indicators:

• The effectiveness of individual employees and business processes in general
• Prevention of burnout and recycling
• Trust of the team to the leaders
• Retention of key employees
• HR brand development and employee loyalty

Now that we have figured out what corporate surveys are and why they are needed, let's understand which companies should conduct them and how.

There is a perception that interviewing employees (especially with the help of additional tools) is necessary only for large companies because in small teams the manager can personally talk with each employee and find out their thoughts. This is not true.

Of course, personal conversation with employees has a right to exist, but it takes too much time and distracts from other tasks, so this tool should be used rarely, but the conversations should be detailed. An employee should perceive a personal conversation with an HR manager or supervisor as a checkpoint, summing up the results, for example, of the past quarter.

In contrast, a structured survey should be quick, versatile and intuitive. Once the format and questions are decided on, the manager can effortlessly conduct a weekly employee survey that will take staff a few minutes to answer. And the obtained results, easily transformed into a graph, will help track the progress.

Intuitiveness for employees should be provided through feedback - we advise you to periodically share the results with employees, as well as keep them informed about decisions to improve their experience based on survey results.

If you ensure that the survey is easy to complete and employees are aware that their answers are taken into account, then from an obligation, surveys will become an understandable tool for feedback and influence on the work process.

It should also be mentioned that for a complete picture it is necessary to conduct surveys with different purposes and questions. For tracking day-to-day metrics such as employee performance, the monotony of tasks, the absence of overworking, and employee well being, a weekly survey is a good idea.

And to track the company's key HR metrics, you should use less regular but more detailed surveys. Such surveys can reveal indicators of employee retention, corporate culture development, career growth, employee loyalty and the company's HR brand.

First of all, the choice of the tool depends on the size of the company and the resources available. There are many platforms on the market that provide have the capability of conducting surveys. Small businesses can use free online survey builders. Of course, they have limited functionality and it can be difficult to download the data for analysis from them, but they are suitable for teams of up to 50 people.

There are also specialized solutions on the market with advanced functionality, for which you have to pay a subscription fee. To choose a platform for surveying employees, you need to pay attention to the presence of the following functions:

1. Groups. For example, creating a separate group for each department. The ability to download data separately for each group.
2. Built-in text analysis. Allows you to create open questions and easily analyze the answers.
3. Anonymity. Some employees, knowing that their answers are impersonal, will answer questions more honestly.
4. Presence of built-in recommendations. If the platform can provide advice on how to improve performance based on the survey results, the work of an HR manager will become easier.
5. Support from the platform developers. Responsible developers will not only help solve the product problems but also advise on improving the survey and employee engagement.
6. Automation. The ability to set up a survey once a week or a month will save managers valuable time.

Having decided on the tool for conducting the survey, it is worth moving on to compiling a list of questions. We advise you to adhere to the following rules:

• Use questions with an ordinal rating scale, where the minimum is very dissatisfied, and the maximum is very satisfied. The results of such a survey are easier to analyze and monitor dynamics.
• Try to avoid open questions. They not only require more time and effort to analyze, but they also waste employees' time.
• When creating questions, put yourself in the shoes of an ordinary employee - try to understand what worries them, what criteria are key for them in assessing the quality of company culture.
• Give the ability to leave comments. Only 5% of employees will do this, but their opinion can help in further analysis.
• Be consistent. Asking employees the same questions will help them get used to it and it will become easier for them to evaluate and express their feelings.

When evaluating and responding to results it is worth focusing on the goals of the HR department. The most popular goal is to improve such metrics as employee engagement, culture commitment, trust in management, and employee retention. An equally important indicator that should not be forgotten is the survey participation rate.

If you have used the right type of questions, it will be easy for you to graph the results and analyze them.

But correctly analyzing the results of the survey is only half the struggle. Since the primary goal of conducting surveys is to improve the HR performance of a company, identifying weaknesses, adjusting leadership style and listening to employee feedback is an essential part.

As we mentioned earlier, if employees feel that their response has led to real change for the better, their engagement, job satisfaction, and loyalty to the company will increase. This is the purpose of the HR department and this is what corporate surveys do.

Workstories will not only help you conduct employee surveys with built-in survey creation, targeting and analytics capabilities, but it will also make it easy to share results with your team. And thanks to the engaging format of stories, you will ensure 100% survey participation, as well as develop your corporate culture and increase key HR metrics.