Conducting HR surveys to get an idea of employee expectations is a crucial part of human resource management these days. If you have not started to conduct HR surveys yet then you must begin now. On the other hand, if you conduct these surveys regularly, you must make sure that you avoid making HR survey mistakes. What are these mistakes and how can you avoid them? Learn all that in this discussion on 10 HR Survey Mistakes You Must Avoid
All in all, it would not be wrong to say that doing an HR survey for the sake of it is a wrong approach. Every HR person should make the most of these surveys by following the aforementioned steps and keeping 10 HR survey mistakes you must avoid in mind. It will lead to better employee-employer communication and boost employee loyalty.
Do you have any other suggestions for making HR surveys a success? Feel free to share them with us by commenting on this discussion.
From India, Delhi
3- Using Unclear Language: When you are drafting the survey, you must make sure that every question in written in a clear and precise manner. No one wants to show that he or she doesn’t understand the question and they would just end up giving the wrong answers. So, you must make sure you use a simple and easy to read language while drafting the survey. You should also ensure that the survey has no grammatical or spelling errors as it will make you look bad in front of the employees.
- Not Giving the Option of Anonymity: When you are preparing to conduct a survey, each employee should be given the choice on whether he or she should enter his or her name in the survey or not. Don’t make it mandatory to write names on top of the survey. Instead, make sure that every employee has the option of writing his or her views without disclosing his or her name. You should also see to it that the employee has ample space to write his or her answers and no one is peeking over his or her shoulder to see his or her answers.
- Setting Time Limits: When conducting an HR survey, you should give every employee the liberty to take ample amount of time. This will help the employees to express their views clearly and they would not be eager to get done with the survey and get back to work. You must also see to it that the employees are not disturbed when they are completing the survey.
- Doing the Survey outside Office Hours: Another thing every HR person must understand is that employees do not like to stay in the office beyond office hours. So you should not make them stay at the office to fill the survey. Instead, take a survey break during working hours. It will not only ensure that the employee fills up the survey patiently, it will also allow the employees to get a break from work once in every 6 months.
- Creating a Long Survey: Honestly, no one has time these days. So your employees would not like a 5-page survey that’s filled with questions. They will end up writing short answers and their answers may also be guesswork. Hence, you should create surveys that can be limited to two or three pages only. If it can be shorter, it’s better. A short survey questionnaire will also help you to get the results of the survey quite easily.
- Not Giving the Option of Elaborating: When you are conducting an HR survey, make sure that you give an extra sheet or space to every employee to elaborate all his or her answers. This will help you get a better response from them. You will also get an idea of what instances happened in the office that disappointed them when you ask for instances in almost every question.
- Not Conducting Them Regularly: The HR surveys should be conducted in every 6 months. If you can’t manage it every 6 months, do them yearly. But you should never skip them. If surveys are a regular part of the HR exercises, the employee will also look forward to them to speak his or her mind. If not, the employees may consider them a waste of time.
- Not Divulging the Results: You should always be honest enough to reveal the results of the surveys. No, we are not telling you to read out all the answers of every employee. Rather you should focus on revealing the key findings you got from the survey. This step will make the employees feel that their opinion matters for the company.
- Not Implementing improvements: When you are conducting an HR survey, your key goal is to gather employees, opinion on various things such as management attitude, leadership, job satisfaction etc. So, when you realize that the employees are not happy with the status quo, you should try and implement some improvements in the things that dissatisfied the employees in the first place. This will help an employee to feel good about voicing his or her opinion. It would also improve the overall image of the HR department.
- Not Discussing Your Action Plan: Finally, you should make sure that you present an action plan on the changes you are making in the organization in accordance with the results of the survey. It will help the employees to voice their opinion on the new action plan and they may end up offering a better action plan.
All in all, it would not be wrong to say that doing an HR survey for the sake of it is a wrong approach. Every HR person should make the most of these surveys by following the aforementioned steps and keeping 10 HR survey mistakes you must avoid in mind. It will lead to better employee-employer communication and boost employee loyalty.
Do you have any other suggestions for making HR surveys a success? Feel free to share them with us by commenting on this discussion.
From India, Delhi
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Imprint-hr-surv ey-07.pdf
HR Survey Form.doc