Employee Opinion or Attitude Surveys (EOS) can provide employers with important insights into how employees feel about a wide-variety of employment issues. Additionally, it has been shown that these surveys have a positive impact on employee morale and productivity.

The Fundamentals of Employee Opinion Surveys

Too often EOS development overlooks critical strategy development and design stages, missing important elements of effective EOS planning. This article offers key strategies in the creation of successful EOS programs.

Employee Opinion Surveys in the Internet Age: Remember the Fundamentals (New)

Published in WorldatWork Journal

Correct EOS design, administration and analysis are vital to ensure that the information gathered is valid and reliable. Just as an EOS can offer positive insights, improperly designed and conducted employee surveys can be misleading and cause substantial damage to the employer – employee relationship.

For example, employee satisfaction relates to retention and productivity and measuring this is often a critical component of an EOS . Simple asking, “Are you satisfied in your job?” may appear to address this area, but without determining the factors that make up job satisfaction, leaves an organization helpless to take real constructive action. A properly constructed EOS will measure the factors that explain job satisfaction (e.g. relationship with supervisor, competency of supervisor, belief in company vision and strategy, understanding of pay and incentives).

Additionally, ensuring confidentiality and employee trust is imperative to receiving honest and accurate responses. The method of an EOS administration is as important as its design yet often is considered an afterthought in the survey process.

EOS Process Expertise

PDII has expertise in the design, administration, and analysis of an EOS. Steps taken in the process to insure that the findings are accurate and non-bias include:

Clarify the reasons for conducting an employee opinion survey

What is management trying to accomplish by conducting EOS?

Will management act on the survey findings?

Will employees see the request for their feedback as legitimate and meaningful?

Will the finding be timely and useful?

Determine what should be measured in the EOS

Interview sample cross section of employees to gain insight on their “hot button” issues.

Confirm that management is willing to address these issues.

Have a group of employees review the survey measures to insure their understanding and confirm proper company jargon.

Determine the best method of survey administration

How do we obtain the highest response rate in the shortest time frame with minimal disruption to operations that does not damage employee anonymity, confidentiality, and integrity of the survey process?

Should entire employee population be surveyed or does resources only allow for a stratified random sample?

Should a traditional pen / paper, web-based, or combination of the two be used?

Analyzing the survey data

Determine survey reliability and validity of survey measures.

Remove individual surveys that are deemed invalid.

Examine descriptive statistics on survey measures.

Use significant means testing across key demographics.

Use correlation, regression, LISRL and other analytical methods to determine the relationship between the survey measures.

Report back findings

Offer conclusions on findings and recommendations for improvement.

Present findings in easy to interpret format that is meaningful to all levels of the organization.

Determine implementation strategy and plan to act on survey findings

Develop plan to properly communicate survey findings to all employees.

Establish Strategic Implementation Process with senior management leadership and direct employee involvement to implement recommendations.

A sample of organizations and have benefited from the EOS process:

• Marsh Global Placement
• Groendyke Transport, Inc.
• Landstar Systems, Inc.
• Versar, Inc.

To learn more about PDII’s work with employee opinion surveys consider reviewing:

Safety Surveys

Research shows that accidents typical are not driven by unsafe condition but by employee behavior. Work culture has a major influence on at-risk behavior and accidents. PDII in partnership with Marsh Risk Consulting has pioneered a safety culture survey for light to heavy industrial employees and for drivers of company owned fleets. These surveys assess the degree to which work safety is reinforced by the organization cultures. The surveys can help management identify sources of mixed messages (safety versus productivity) and employee at-risk behaviors. See attached PDF files for a more detailed product description.

Employer-of-Choice Surveys

PDII works with management to define what characterizes an Employer-of-Choice work environment among the company’s in your industry or among your competitors for qualified employees. A customized survey is developed to assess whether employees perceive the company is acting as an Employer-of-Choice. This feedback enables managers to develop strategies resulting in the reduction of unwanted turnover, enhance employee morale, and create a more productive work environment.

High Performance Work Systems Survey

Based on a set of principles common to high performance organizations and teams, PDII has created an employee opinion survey that assesses whether organization or teams are operating by these principles. This survey can determine if:

• Employees understand how accomplishment of the business strategy is affected by their jobs,
• Employee input is valuable source of productivity improvement ideas,
• Compensation programs reward increased productivity, and
• Employees are receiving the training and work experiences necessary to increase their competency.

More information about designing high performance work systems can be found in Scanlon Plan.

Seminars and Workshops offered by Dow Scott, Ph.D.

Creating a High Performance Organization with the Scanlon Principles and Processes

Client Participation

• Sara Lee Coffee and Tea
• Marsh, Inc.
• Scanlon Leadership Network
• Illinois Manufacturing Association
• Kollmorgan and Hollngsworth
• Vose

Creating All-Star Teams

Client Participation

• Scanlon Leadership Network
• Sara Lee Knit Products
• U.S. Forest Service