Examples of surveys based on a company-wide survey tool are employee surveys and pulse surveys. This article provides an overview of the purpose, key features and best practices for this survey tool.
The survey tool refers to the technical format of a survey. The settings are defined in the template editor and the availability depends on the license modules. The use of the template editor is explained here.
Why this tool is important for companies
The company-wide survey tool is a channel through which employees can share their thoughts, ideas and concerns with the company. This could not only boost employee engagement, but also the retention rate and employee satisfaction.
This tool is used to survey a group of participants (employees). The surveys can cover the entire company and are based on the company’s departmental structure. As a result, the employees’ responses are assigned to the respective departments and the results are broken down accordingly. The tool supports the involvement of production employees or “deskless” employees, who can cast their vote paperlessly. This enables a holistic perspective on the company.
In addition to employee and pulse surveys, this tool can also be used to launch other surveys throughout the entire employee life cycle, such as onboarding and exit surveys.
How the survey tool works
As already mentioned, surveys that are started with this tool are based on the organizational structure of a company. This means that entire departments can be invited when starting a survey. Users who are not assigned to a department cannot take part in this type of survey, as their participation is assigned to a department.
There are also further setting options for inviting participants, such as filtering by attributes, inviting in individual mode and automatic invitations. How participants are invited to a survey is explained here.
Participation in the survey takes place via a personal link that is sent in an invitation and/or reminder email, or via a personal participation code that enables “deskless” employees to participate. These employees can either participate with their own devices (if permitted by the company) or at terminals provided by the company.
The survey results are broken down according to the organizational structure and the corresponding departmental reports are generated as long as the predefined evaluation limit has been reached. Participation is assigned to higher-level departments so that responses from smaller departments or those below the report minimum are not lost.
A total of four report configurations are possible:
- The comprehensive and management reports show the overall evaluation for the company, i.e. the aggregated results of all participations.
- Focus reports 1 and 2, on the other hand, represent a targeted evaluation per department.
The report configuration describes the template in which the results are presented at the end of the survey. A time comparison is possible for all four report formats.
The reports can be distributed automatically to the relevant recipients. Distribution is based on the users who are entered in the system as managers. Additional report recipients can also be configured for departments, and automatic distribution to employees and users with the “HR” role is also possible.
Attention should be paid to this in the company-wide survey tool
Target group & survey scope
Participation in the surveys should be controlled in a targeted manner. For example, in an employee or pulse survey, newly hired employees may not yet have enough experience to provide well-founded answers. They can be excluded from the survey by using a filter for the participants or by specifically hiding questions for these employees. The handling of filter questions is clarified here.
Organizational data & evaluation
The quality of the evaluation depends on the organizational data. It should be ensured that the employee and department data is recorded completely and accurately and that all relevant data points are transferred to HRinstruments for evaluation. A matrix structure, for example, cannot be mapped directly in the user interface, but is technically possible. The responsible Customer Success Manager can be contacted if there are any questions.
Deskless employees
The involvement of deskless employees must be structured and scheduled. Important decisions are
- The clearance of the use of own devices
- The provision of company devices and terminals
- A strategy for the distribution of participation codes as well as advertising and communication for the survey
You can find more information on involving Deskless employees here.
Report configuration
The desired presentation of the results should be determined in advance. For example, a comparison between the results of a department and the overall results of the organization can be helpful for the analysis of an employee or pulse survey.
In the case of an onboarding or exit survey, it should also be considered whether an evaluation at company level is sufficient.
Languages
Multilingualism is possible in all available survey tools. It should be ensured that the survey is understandable and accessible for all participants.