Overall strategy

• why are you having a survey ?
• when do you want the survey to be active ?
• the importance of learning from the history of previous employee
  research in your organisation
• linking the survey to your overall business strategy and goals
  

Survey communication

• the benefits of having a survey with a brand name and logo
• key internal communications messages that maximise survey response
• survey marketing campaign and tactics
• examples that work and examples that don’t

Creating buy-in

• understanding the role of the overall project sponsor
  
• the role of HR in the survey process
  
• best ways of getting buy-in from managers across the business
  (the people who will be tasked with taking action on the survey)
  
• asking for and getting input from the employees – to make the
  survey work for them (whilst managing their expectations)

Questionnaire development

• asking the questions that really matter, in the right way, with no bias
  
• understanding which survey scale is best for your organisation
  
• using open-ended questions appropriately, without the survey
  becoming a “moan-fest”
  
• key considerations when using demographic questions (“which department do you work in ?”,
  “How long have you worked for the company ?”)
  
• working with multiple languages and ensuring localisation as well as 100% accurate translation

Data collection

• paper questionnaires, online questionnaires or both (or something else)
  
• cost/benefit analysis of a paper-based approach
  
• online - your intranet, the internet (our website), or a hosted solution
  
• personalised invites and reminders – pros and cons
  
• data accuracy and standard quality checks

Analysis and Interpretation

• exhaustive data analysis, results available by all demographic groups
  
• trend data, comparisons with other groups, benchmarking
  
• thematic analysis of open-ended comments, plus verbatim quotes
  
• understanding the data - key driver analysis as standard – what really
  effects engagement and job satisfaction at your organisation

Reporting and Feedback

• your choice of report style – commentary, bullet points, data only
  
• all reports contain a set of recommendations for action
  
• intuitive, easy to read, colour-coded data tables (example)
  
• you won’t get hundreds of PowerPoint charts (unless you really,
  really want them)
  
• Board-level presentation, discussion and workshop
  
• Feedback to staff (presentations, newsletters, branded pdf documents)

Action and Change

• high-level strategic advice for action planning
  
• post-survey managers’ workshop to develop action plans
  
• follow-up meetings to check progress and gauge success
  
• consultancy advice for making change stick