Staff surveys becoming key business tool

What you will find in this IDS report

This 108-page publication:

• highlights trends in employee attitude surveys, such as the increasing popularity of online surveys and a closer alignment of surveys with business objectives
• examines the content and layout of the questionnaire and looks at how companies seek to involve a broad cross-section of staff in the design
• discusses the most appropriate means of distributing the questionnaires and the methods used to encourage a good response
• looks at how internal and external benchmarking can help put the results in context and at how the findings are communicated to staff
• considers the importance of effective action planning, on which employees are likely to judge the success of the whole exercise.

The report contains four main sections:

Overview

• aligning employee surveys with business objectives.

Analysis

Looks in detail at the main stages in the survey process:

Designing a survey:

• using in-house or external resources
• involving staff in preliminary research
• drawing up the questionnaire

Conducting the survey:

• distributing questionnaires
• carrying out an online survey
• encouraging a good response

Acting on the results:

• analysing the responses
• communicating the findings to staff
• devising action plans at organisational and local levels.

Company practice

A detailed look at the approaches taken to employee attitude surveys by six case study organisations:

• British American Tobacco
• EDF Energy
• Inmarsat
• Loop Customer Management
• Somerfield
• Waterstone's

Guide to suppliers

Many organisations opt to use an external supplier to undertake, at least parts, of the survey process on their behalf. By doing so, they can benefit from the supplier's specialist expertise and resources, knowledge of best practice and experience of working with other organisations. Moreover, the independence and objectivity of the third party can help to reassure employees that their responses will remain anonymous and therefore influence return rates.

The guide to suppliers, a major section within this publication, offers:

• a checklist of the key considerations when selecting a supplier
• comprehensive details of the services offered by 31 specialist providers.