THE WIKI COMMUNITY

Wednesday 29 September 2010

The Employee Survey ? What's In It For You?

By Crystal Powers

It is common for employee surveys to be eye-openers for bosses ? mainly because this is an employee's chance to comment about his or her job, his or her superiors and co-workers and other job-related matters. In general, the employee survey can be beneficial to any company that has one, but there are several reasons why certain companies suffer from a high turnover rate, unable to retain their best workers, or companies that suffer from poor productivity. You will need to analyze the survey to see what's happening behind the scenes, or what isn't immediately apparent when you drop by to supervise your workers.

It is normal for a company owner to be surprised ? not in a good way ? when he or she sees what's on the employee survey. On the positive side, it can also be a good validation of your popularity as the head honcho, as employees can express why they love their jobs, co-workers and/or the pay they're getting. However, this is usually a chance for employees to state how you and/or the system can improve. For many businesses, it can be a turning point.

Because the survey will be conducted through the use of a blind study, that means that the employees who partake in it can do so with the confidence of knowing that their opinions will not be judged or they will not receive harsh treatment if they do not provide good answers.

How can you as the owner or president learn from such a survey? The first thing you can learn is the manner of communication in between levels, and the level of communication among rank and file. You can find out the reasons why so many people are resigning or wanting to quit, and how you can discourage more employees from jumping ship. Don't underestimate the impact of a so-called ∞little thing to an employee. As you go through the survey, you will find out more about the company, and could probably uncover some dirty little secrets, such as hidden or unreported cases of harassment and discrimination.

You can ask any one of many outside agencies to conduct the employee survey on your behalf. Once the survey forms are turned in, they will then read through the information and return to you with more specific results. You'll find that you have options in helping to create an employee survey or you can use a generic model as well. Regardless of the type of survey you conduct, you can use these surveys to learn more about what's going well, and more importantly, about what's not going well and how you can sort things out.

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