Employees need to feel safe and secure in their workplace to thrive.
This is where employee safety surveys come in. These surveys are designed to gather feedback from staff about current safety measures/policies in place. Additionally, employee safety surveys also assess the awareness levels staff have about these policies.
Using the survey feedback, businesses are able to better market these essential policies to their employees. In turn, this leads to a more open work environment where both the employer and employees are on the same page.
Continue reading to learn more about employee safety surveys and their importance.
What Is An Employee Safety Survey?
An employee safety survey collects staff feedback and opinions about current safety policies at a company.
Conducting these surveys allows companies to measure how staff view the safety policies and if they are aware of them. Safety surveys also reveal if these policies are communicated well throughout the companies and will highlight any gaps in this area.
As a result of this, both the employer and employees have a clear knowledge of what the company safety policies are, what they entail, and so on.
Why Is An Employee Safety Survey So Important?
These surveys are incredibly important, as 75% of employees believe their employer's safety policies aren't effective.
Using the survey insight, businesses can feel confident they're meeting the needs of employees and creating a safe work environment no matter the industry.
Common changes enacted based on safety survey data include:
- Better safety protocols/policies
- Answers for specific safety concerns
- Overall feeling of safety/security at work
- Improve employee communication
Recommended Reading: Improve Employee Wellbeing With These 7 Strategies
Questions To Ask On Employee Safety Surveys
An online survey is only effective by engaging employees with good questions.
This means they should be clear, concise, and relevant. Questions will also cover the most relevant topics based on the employer's specific needs.
Ultimately, these questions will vary depending on the type of company conducting the survey. For instance, a company with employees who deal with manual labor may ask different questions than a company with mostly remote employees.
Take a look at these example employee safety survey questions below:
- Do you feel generally safe at your workplace?
- Do you feel [company name] prioritizes employee safety measures?
- How familiar are you with [company name]'s safety policies?
- Do you feel you've had effective safety training sessions?
- Are you aware of [company name]'s emergency procedures?
- Should an emergency at work arise, do you feel prepared to handle it?
- Are there adequate safety measures in place at [company name]?
- Do you feel your physical work environment is safe?
- Are there medical kits/first aid kits available to you in the workplace?
- Do you feel your coworkers adhere to [company name]'s safety standards?
- Have you ever reported a safety concern at work?
- Do you feel comfortable sharing safety concerns with your employer?
- Do you know where safety equipment such as fire extinguishers, etc. is located?
- Are there adequate safety signs/warnings at work?
- Do you feel [company name] handles safety inquiries/reports effectively?
How To Create and Conduct A Safety Survey
Employee safety surveys can be conducted internally by the company in question or with the help of a third-party firm.
Choosing to conduct these surveys on your own or with the help of a team depends on your comfortability in distributing surveys, budget, overall goals, and so on.
Below, we'll run through the basic steps of employee safety surveys whether they are done internally or with an outsourced team like Drive Research.
Step 1: Define Your Goals
Creating a set of main goals for what the survey should achieve is key in the market research process.
Heading into the process, a business should have an idea of what questions they want to ask, topics they wish to cover, and how they plan to use that data.
It's also important for brands to know their budgetary limits (especially when contacting an outsourced team) before kicking things off. That way, employers will be able to understand what can be done with the money they're willing to spend.
Step 2: Find Your Target Audience
Determining a target audience is critical, as businesses will be basing major decisions off their feedback.
In the case of employee safety surveys, the target audience is staff members.
However, it's still important to ensure the proper teams and departments within a business are being reached. Not only is this important to get relevant feedback, but in larger companies, different departments may have different levels of knowledge around safety policies.
Securing a target audience will ensure survey questions are relevant to each specific department.
Step 3: Write Your Questions & Design Your Survey
Next, survey questions are drafted. Questions should be relevant to employees, clearly written, and engaging.
The amount of questions included depends on how much information the business wishes to gather.
With longer surveys, there's a higher chance of respondent drop-off. Because of this, the safety surveys should take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
After questions are set, the survey can be designed. When possible, businesses should consider changing up question styles instead of just including multiple choice. This helps respondents stay engaged throughout the survey and helps cut down on straightlining.
Step 4: Collect Your Data
During the fieldwork period, employees will take their safety surveys and submit responses.
The time this takes varies on the company, size, and goals of the project. Because of these different factors, fieldwork can last a few weeks to a few months.
When working with a third-party team like Drive Research, we'll keep you updated throughout the fieldwork process.
Step 5: Analyze Your Data & Use It For Insights
The final step in this process is analyzing the safety survey data.
This includes cleaning the data and ensuring only quality responses are used. Common things to look out for include nonsensical responses, straightlining, duplicate entries, and so on.
After the data is thoroughly analyzed, it can be put to use! When working with a third-party team like ours, we will create a full report of the findings.
These reports include common themes found in the survey data, key findings, and expert recommendations.
Partner With Our Employee Survey Company
Prioritizing employee safety is at the core of a thriving business, no matter the industry. Our team will partner with yours to run employee safety surveys, ensuring you receive quality, actionable feedback directly from staff.
To learn more about our market research services, get in touch with us today.
- 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.
