Web-based employee satisfaction surveys cost less, produce better results

Moving your employee satisfaction surveys to the Web can reduce the cost and improve the quality of the results you receive. In fact, the cost of Web-based surveys is so low, that even if you have never done employee satisfaction surveys you should consider the Web approach. Response rates are typically higher on the Web because surveys are easier to fill out and respondents can complete them at their convenience. You can also control the environment to avoid bad data and Web based surveys save on analysis time because results can be immediately analyzed and graphed without the risk of data entry or interpretation errors. The advent of inexpensive and easy to use Web survey software has dramatically simplified employee satisfaction surveys. This article will explain how to get started. First of all, why bother to perform an employee satisfaction survey? The main reason is that dissatisfied employees tend to perform below their capabilities, leave their jobs relatively quickly and are not very likely to recommend your company as an employer. Measuring the level of satisfaction felt by employees is the first step to improving employee satisfaction. You'll find out what proportion of employees are satisfied and identify policies, procedures and management practices that, if changed, could result in higher employee satisfaction. As you make improvements based on the survey results, you'll be able to measure the changes in employee satisfaction by performing benchmark surveys at specified time intervals. Paper headaches Using traditional paper-based methods, employee surveys can be expensive and time-consuming. First you have to design the survey. Then, because paper surveys are usually mailed to the employee's home, you have to print mailing labels and stuff the envelopes. Once the surveys start coming back, you need to have someone key in the answers. This can be challenging because respondents don't always follow instructions. This makes it necessary for the data entry person to interpret the response, running the risk of inaccuracies. If the response rate is too low, it may be necessary to do one or more reminder mailings, which adds to the cost. That's why consultants typically charge between $10,000 and $20,000 to handle a satisfaction survey for a 1,000-employee company. You can save money by doing it yourself, but the demands on your staff's time will be high. Web surveys are an entirely different story. You don't have to pay for printing the surveys, stuffing envelopes, postage costs, mailing out reminders and typing the answers into your database. As with everything else on the Web, the cost of sending out the information to the employees and collecting their responses is effectively zero. The only real cost is designing and publishing the survey on the Web. Many firms have been inspired by the ease of doing Web surveys and have chosen to read up on surveying principles and design their own surveys. Survey software has improved to the point where even Web publishing has become a relatively easy task. As a result, the cost of Web surveys is so much less that many companies perform them on a regular basis - quarterly perhaps instead of the normal once every year or two - in order to get regular feedback on how well employees are receiving their programs. Higher response rate The response rate is also normally much higher for Web surveys. The response rate for an employee satisfaction survey done on the Web can typically be about 80%, compared to 50% to 60% for ones done on paper. The main reason is that Web surveys are easier to fill out. The electronic interface of the Web also helps define exactly what is requested of the employee for each particular question. The employee merely calls up the page with the survey on his or her browser, plugs in the answers and hits the submit button. Another reason for the higher response rate of Web surveys is that it's so easy and inexpensive to send out reminder notices via email that it becomes practical to send several reminders as a matter of course. Web employee satisfaction surveys also tend to be more accurate. If you want the employee to answer a question with a number between one and five, you can insure that they don't answer 10 and force your data entry person to try and make an interpretation. Software specially designed for Web surveys is available that automatically populates a database with the respondent's answers. This eliminates the risk of a data entry person being unable to read a respondent's answer or simply making a typing error. The software can also produce reports and presentation quality charts that show the answers to every question in English rather than the codes that are usually used as shorthand on response forms. The results can even be posted on the Web if desired. Easier-to-use software The reason that Web surveys haven't really taken off up to this point is the difficulty in creating the surveys. One approach is simply to hire a consultant to do the job but consultants frequently charge about the same for a Web survey as a paper survey, even though their out-of-pocket expenses are quite a bit lower. The second alternative is to have someone in the IT department create the survey form using HTML or an HTLM editor. While creating the HTML code isn't difficult, the process of naming and organizing the form elements can be tedious. Also, because HTML tools don't provide simple features to gather, decode, load and analyze the survey results, a considerable amount of time may be required to convert the completed forms into usable data. The recent introduction of inexpensive and easy-to-use Web survey tools has made it much easier to create Web surveys, collect responses and analyze the results. First of all, the latest Windows-based survey tools make creating the survey almost as easy as writing a letter in a word processor. As a result, there's no need to bring in a consultant or even get the IT department involved. Instead, the HR department or any involved manager can create the survey on their own. Secondly, a new generation of survey software has automated the process of gathering, analyzing and reporting the results. These tools automatically collect each survey, store it in a database table and offer pre-defined reports for presenting the results. Creating the survey The first step is creating the survey. The latest tools make it possible to simply type the entire survey, including questions and response choices, into a word processor. The user can also take advantage of a library of templates, questions, scales and wizards to develop the survey. The interface makes it easy to move questions or entire sections and copy and paste questions from other surveys. Response choices are formatted by simply selecting a response style from a pull-down menu. Some of the most advanced programs even provide wizards to create questions that guide you step-by-step through the process of creating a single question. In one implementation, the wizard sequentially asks the user to enter a question heading, question text, question type and then create a custom or select a preformatted scale or response choice. After you click on finish, the question is automatically inserted into the survey. The wizard can also create an entire group of questions or even an entire survey based on the user's instructions. Posting to the Web Wizards are also typically provided to post the survey to your Web site. The wizard asks for a title that typically appears as a heading on the first line of the page. This is also used to identify which database to add responses to if more than one survey is being performed simultaneously. The wizard also provides a choice of having responses stored on the Web server or having them emailed to a specific person. While storing them on the Web server is most convenient, some companies prefer to avoid that approach for security reasons. The software may also be able to create the survey as an email message that can be sent to respondents. After the results are collected from the Web or email program, they are automatically loaded to a database. Results from e-mail and Web surveys can even be combined in the same database. The results can be viewed in a tabular format. The software will also automatically create a presentation of the survey results or the user can produce their own presentation using an assortment of different chart types. Functionality is also provided to create cross-tabs, frequency reports and data filters. The bottom line is that it has become as easy and inexpensive to do employee surveys on the Web as it is to provide product information to customers. This means that there's no longer any excuse not to keep close tabs on how your employees feel about the company and what you can do to increase their satisfaction. Web-based employee satisfaction surveys let you keep your finger on the pulse of your business at minimal expense.