TOP TIPS: Getting value from your measurement

TOP TIPS: Getting value from your measurement
If you want to make your employee surveys more effective, the interval between survey and feedback should be as short as possible. Use these pointers to produce even better results.

by Phil Askham, head of communications, O2 UK

1. Be clear why you’re doing it
Think through how your findings will add value – what important gaps in knowledge will they fill? Relate the study to other priorities, like brand analysis or customer research. Framed accordingly, it may help you gain entry to discussions on the future direction of the company.

Relate the study to other priorities, like brand analysis or customer research.

2. Get sponsors on your side
The board will release budget only if you can persuade them how a knowledge of workforce opinion will help them achieve company goals and strategies. Court their support, but beware of promising too much or compromising the integrity of the research (it may come back to haunt you).

3. Explain what it’s for
There’s no such thing as pure data collection. By asking employees for their opinions, you raise expectations that something will be done with the results. Explain to employees why you’re doing it and what will happen as a result.

4. Move quickly
Make the interval between survey and feedback as short as possible. Don’t wait for the next annual survey to test opinion – start now with a short, focused piece of analysis. Surveys designed in April that report in July and receive a board hearing in September proceed too slowly to keep up with the changes in employee opinion they’re supposed to be measuring.

Don’t wait for the next annual survey to test opinion – start now with a short, focused piece of analysis.

5. Be ready to act on the findings
Research is only as valuable as the action that results from it. Prime your sponsors and decision-implementers in advance to decide how they will communicate the findings, act on the recommendations and measure the progress that has been made. One great piece of research – admired for its role in rallying people around change – could create the demand for more.

http://www.internalcommshub.com/trial/measuring/whatsworking/getvalue.shtml