What makes an effective employee engagement survey?

1 Define your goals

Before you start designing your survey, you need to have a clear and specific idea of what you want to achieve. What are the main objectives of the survey? What are the key questions you want to answer? How will you use the results to inform your HR strategy and actions? Having a clear purpose and scope for your survey will help you focus on the most relevant and meaningful topics, and avoid unnecessary or irrelevant questions.

2 Choose your method

There are different methods and formats for conducting employee engagement surveys, such as online, paper, phone, or face-to-face. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on your budget, time, audience, and goals. For example, online surveys are convenient and cost-effective, but may have lower response rates or technical issues. Paper surveys are easy to distribute and collect, but may be less secure or environmentally friendly. Phone or face-to-face surveys can provide more depth and nuance, but may be more expensive or time-consuming. You need to weigh the pros and cons of each method, and choose the one that best suits your needs and resources.

3 Design your questions

The quality of your questions is crucial for the success of your survey. You want to ask questions that are clear, concise, relevant, and unbiased. You also want to avoid leading, vague, or ambiguous questions that may confuse or influence the respondents. You can use different types of questions, such as open-ended, closed-ended, or rating scales, depending on the level of detail and feedback you want to collect. You should also balance the number and length of your questions, to avoid overwhelming or boring the respondents.

4 Test your survey

Before you launch your survey, you should test it with a small sample of your target audience. This will help you identify and fix any errors, glitches, or problems with your survey design, method, or questions. You can also use this opportunity to gather feedback and suggestions from the testers, and make any necessary adjustments or improvements. Testing your survey will ensure that it is reliable, valid, and user-friendly.

5 Communicate your survey

One of the biggest challenges of conducting employee engagement surveys is getting a high and representative response rate. To achieve this, you need to communicate your survey effectively and transparently to your potential respondents. You need to explain the purpose and goals of the survey, how long it will take, how the results will be used and shared, and how the respondents' privacy and confidentiality will be protected. You also need to motivate and encourage the respondents to participate, by highlighting the benefits and value of the survey, and providing incentives or rewards if possible.

6 Analyze and act on your results

The final and most important step of conducting an effective employee engagement survey is to analyze and act on your results. You need to use appropriate tools and techniques to process and interpret the data you collected, and identify the main trends, patterns, and insights. You also need to share and discuss the results with your clients and their employees, and solicit their feedback and input. Based on the results and feedback, you need to develop and implement action plans to address the issues and opportunities revealed by the survey, and monitor and evaluate the impact and outcomes of your actions.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?