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Employee Surveys
Life in Workforce Management
Employee Surveys
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We just conducted a survey, and am preparing a presentation to our leadership with the results. What I'd like to do as part of the setup is provide some data behind employee survey norms. Does anyone
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Employee Surveys
posted at 12/3/2004 8:48 AM EST
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Posts: 31
First: 8/4/2000 Last: 7/8/2011 |
We just conducted a survey, and am preparing a presentation to our leadership with the results. What I'd like to do as part of the setup is provide some data behind employee survey norms. Does anyone have suggestions on where to find the following:
- typical response rates for employee surveys, and if there is any research that indicates what a high rate suggests, versus a low rate (for example, disgruntled employees are more apt to provide response, leading to a higher rate, etc. ) - typical trends in how employees provide responses -- for example, do employees tend to inflate ratings on employee surveys (really pump up positives), or do they tend to rate more harsh (focus on negatives and the positives are taken for granted) Thanks much. Brandon |
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Employee Surveys
posted at 12/16/2004 8:33 AM EST
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Posts: 544
First: 9/27/2004 Last: 9/13/2011 |
This really depends on the organization's culture. I have done survey research with organizations that have a standard 80% response rate where others are consistently lower than 50%. A lot depends on employee perceptions of how the information is used or why it is being asked. The best thing to do is track your organization's own trends.
And yes, I would say that some organizations have survey ratings that suggest a positive bias. There are techniques you can use to "drill down," but people tend to mistrust this so you have to carefully consider who your audience is. For example a 3.5 on a 5 point scale is relatively low if your range is 3 to 5 but it would be high if the range was 1 to 4. You can rescale or standardize the scores, but you may risk offending some people or giving unfair ammunition to someone with a negative agenda. If you think the ratings are inflated you can try to use a scale with more points in the future, this may give you more variance. Again this is something you need to gage with your within your own organization. Including options for open-ended comments can help you decide if there is a bias in the scores. I have seen people make negative comments that are not reflected in their ratings. For example, I just finished an evaluation that asked about a technical piece of a training process (i.e. scheduling, enrolling). This part was acknowledged as an all-aruond nightmare in their comments, but people were reluctant to give it poor ratings because they truely felt it was the best that anyone could have done under the circumstances. However, this part of the training was a major barrier to the success of the program that needs to be identified and addressed. I have also seen some organizations with negative biases, this is usually the case when there have been financial cut-backs and people resent any kind of spending, especially survey research. |
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