Measurement2

I am not, as a general rule, a great fan of surveys. Asking people their opinion about anything can be a tricky business. Just designing neutral statements that do not bias the response is difficult enough but the issue of timing makes really reliable surveys even more challenging.

There is an expression in survey statistics: "We can get you any answer you want on any survey you want as long as you let us control when it is delivered".

Occasionally, I design and implement employee surveys but only under a specific condition. In order for me to undertake an employee survey, leadership must have an agreed upon strategy and action plan for any possible response to each item on the survey.

The worst thing a company can do is ask their employees to be honest with them and then fail to respond to their concerns.

Assessments are a little bit different. There are a lot of things that can be either leading or trailing indicators of attitudes and abilities within a business.

As just one example of something we often look at, "call turnaround time" is a great indicator of both communication and surprisingly employee turnover. How long does it take to get a reply back to a message left in another department or office? Assessments that focus on these types of behavioral indicators are much more reliable and trackable.