With so many changes to the workforce throughout the past few years, conducting an annual employee survey is becoming increasingly important.
Challenges among the current workforce stem from retention, engagement/dealing with change, and compensation. However, surveying employees will give your organization a better understanding of your unique challenges and areas for improvement.
And we’re not the only ones recommending this approach to increasing employee retention.
For instance, Gallup’s Guide to Employee Engagement focuses on five tips:
- Survey employees and measure the most critical factors
- Bring the survey results to life through genuine conversations
- Leaders and managers need to communicate clearly (i.e., set clear expectations and provide the right resources/opportunities for each person.)
- Find out how the five elements of wellbeing (i.e., career, social, financial, physical, and community) impact employees’ lives
- Focus on employees’ strengths by motivating high performance and directing them to the right well-being resources to meet their individual needs
Interested in learning more about how to conduct a regular workplace survey? Check out the details of a recent project our employee survey company completed below.
Learn more about our turn-key solution that effectively provides honest employee feedback in days.
The Challenge
A manufacturing company hired Drive Research to conduct a follow-up employee survey based on the results from the employee survey conducted in 2020.
The results showed opportunities to increase the employee net promoter score and several specific opportunities related to the employee experience.
The goal was to measure changes and identify opportunity areas to improve. This provided definitive, measurable, and actionable feedback to guide the next steps with leadership.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Conducting a staff survey is great, but conducting an annual survey for them is even better. The main benefits of employee surveys are that they provide early data–giving the research analysis details about changes, improvements, and additional improvement areas as needed.
The Solution
For these employee survey questions, online and paper surveys were used.
The process begins with a kickoff meeting to discuss the goals and objectives of the research. After this meeting, a product timeline is defined and the survey is drafted. Once the survey draft is complete fieldwork begins.
Fieldwork begins with a pre-survey notice sent to all employees from the organization's leader.
The purpose of this is to let employees know the survey is coming, reassure employees that the data is collected by the third-party market research company to keep their anonymity intact, and share details about the survey invite so employees know when to expect it.
💡 The Key Takeaway: The process for an employee survey can be uniquely customized based on the needs of your employees. Some employee surveys are sent via email, text, completed on a tablet, or completed on a paper survey and mailed to the research company.
Recommended Reading: Using a Third Party for Employee Surveys: Costs, Benefits, & Process
The Approach to Yearly Employee Surveys
This employee survey project was uniquely customized based on the results from the previous survey. The goal of the survey was to remeasure key performance indicators and areas of improvement found in the prior employee survey.
Check out the example employee survey questions below or learn more about conducting a workplace survey in just a few steps.
Example annual employee survey questions:
- How important are each of the following when determining satisfaction with a job?
- How likely are you to recommend [insert manufacturing company] as a place to work?
- How has your job satisfaction with [insert manufacturing company] changed over the past 12 months? Working at [insert manufacturing company] now is…
- When you think about working at [insert manufacturing company], what are the top 3 words that come to mind?
- How does [insert manufacturing company] compare to employment at other organizations? Working at [insert manufacturing company] is…
- Please rate your agreement with each of the following statements.
- My organization's fiscal well-being is stable.
- I am satisfied with my overall job security.
- I get excited about going to work.
- Employees here are willing to take on new tasks as needed.
- Senior management and employees trust each other.
- Employees in my organization willingly accept change.
- I am compensated fairly relative to my local market.
- My organization's work positively impacts people's lives.
- I am satisfied with the culture of my workplace.
- In the last 6 months, have you looked for employment outside of [insert manufacturing company]?
- In the next 6 months, how likely are you to look for employment outside of [insert manufacturing company]?
- If you could change one thing about [insert manufacturing company] to improve your satisfaction as an employee, what would it be?
- Do you have any final thoughts or comments?
💡 The Key Takeaway: Keep in mind that this form of market research is incredibly customizable, one of the many benefits of yearly employee surveys. Again, the purpose of this survey was to re-measure key performance indicators and areas of improvement found in the previous survey.
The Results of the Annual Employee Survey
The survey took an average of 7 minutes to complete and included 25 questions. The survey received 153 responses. The overall response rate was 57%, which is high.
According to Forbes, the average employee survey response rate ranges from 30% to 40%.
Fieldwork for the survey began on May 9 and lasted until May 27, 2022.
While the employee satisfaction survey report remains confidential with the client, it included background and methodology, an executive summary of themes with recommendations, an infographic, a respondent persona, and next steps for market research.
There are a few different options available when it comes to the results of this employee opinion survey.
A comprehensive report includes all the details listed above (i.e., an executive summary with recommendations, infographic, persona). A topline report is a simplified version that simply includes the background and methodology and key findings.
Other add-ons or reporting options include just receiving the online portals and/or a banner file.
💡 The Key Takeaway: This survey yielded significant results that were able to give us tremendous insight into needs of our client. It included a number of themes including recommendations, a respondent persona and more.
Contact Our Employee Survey Research Company
Employee survey feedback is crucial to the success of any company. We were able to craft a detailed survey and report for our client, using the actionable data obtained by the survey.
Drive Research is a market research company located in New York. Our team has the advanced tools and years of industry experience to create an insightful market research report for your company.
Want to learn more about our employee survey work? Reach out through any of the four ways below!
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Lark Allen
As a Content Marketing Specialist, Lark has a strong background and passion for creative, professional, and journalistic writing. She is also a self-proclaimed music freak and 90s enthusiast.
Learn more about Lark, here.
