Building a Quality Survey and Fostering Survey Engagement.

Time to Read: 4 Min

Building a Quality Survey and Fostering Survey Engagement.

Creating an effective survey for your project implementation is pivotal for gathering insights and ensuring the success of your project. Additionally, addressing survey aversion and promoting participation is equally crucial. Here are some key steps and tips to guide you:

First Steps

• Eliminate Negative Terminology: Replace the term "survey" with "targeted feedback." Position your efforts to solicit valuable insights for enhancing the implementation. This subtle shift can make the process feel more collaborative and less evaluative.

• Leverage Leadership: Present the survey as coming from high-profile leadership. This conveys influential messages from executives and encourages employees to participate.

• Survey History Analysis: Understand your organization's survey history. Evaluate how surveys were used in the past and how they influenced perceptions. Were previous surveys lengthy and burdensome? Did the results lead to tangible improvements or repercussions? This context informs your approach.

• Realistic Expectations: Acknowledge your organization's willingness to embrace suggestions or criticisms. Fear of dissenting voices can deter participation. Address this reluctance by fostering an open and receptive environment.

• Segment Responses: Consider segmenting responses based on user types, functional areas, length of service, and job positions. This analysis can reveal valuable differences in perceptions across different groups.

Tips for Success

• Define Audience and Objectives: 

  Clearly define your survey's audience and objectives. Are you assessing satisfaction with past or current projects? Identifying pockets of negativity for targeted interventions? Evaluating employee understanding of project objectives and readiness for upcoming challenges?

• Use Open-Ended Questions Sparingly:

  While open-ended questions offer depth, they can be time-consuming to analyze. Balance them with concise, structured questions.

• Craft a Powerful Introduction:

  Prepare an introduction that contextualizes the survey, sets expectations regarding completion time, ensures anonymity, explains the survey's purpose, and expresses gratitude for candid responses.

• Actionability: 

  Be ready to act upon the information obtained through the survey. This may involve revising the training plan, addressing common concerns, or implementing changes based on feedback.

• Follow-Up Communication:

  After the survey window closes, promptly send a follow-up message. Express gratitude for participation and share summarized results that reinforce positive messages. For instance, "Feedback indicates a desire for more communication on training, which is being incorporated into the communication plan."

What to Avoid

• Excessive Length:

  Avoid unnecessarily long surveys. Strike a balance between detail and usability, eliminating questions that do not yield meaningful data.

• Rating Individuals or Teams:

  Instead of evaluating individual or team performance for past projects, gauge employees' confidence in the management of the current project. This approach is less inflammatory and more constructive.

• Perceived Inaction:

  Prevent the perception that gathered information goes unused. Provide follow-up acknowledgment even if feedback is predominantly negative. Communicate thanks and an intent to evaluate results for future improvements promptly.

Building a quality survey and fostering engagement can significantly impact the success of your implementation (ERP or other). 

By framing the process positively, understanding your organization's history, defining clear objectives, and demonstrating responsiveness, you can gather valuable insights and enhance the overall Change Management effort.