Hot Tips for Employee Communicators
Are Your Response Rates Good Enough? - Benchmarking Employee Survey Response Rates
How do you measure the success of your survey communications? How do you prove to management that your efforts generated a respectable employee response? First thought: let’s find a reliable benchmark we can use for comparison purposes.
Sorry - if you’ve ever searched for benchmarks, you’ll know they are impossible to find, since there are hundreds of factors that influence survey completion. Angela Sinickas, noted measurement specialist, had stated that a good survey response rate can be anywhere from 20% to 80%. And she’s right!
So now what? Instead of looking for a magic number, gauge the caliber of your survey response by carefully considering the following factors relating to your survey’s audience, content, and execution. Some of the factors above are under your control, while some are not!
1.Your Audience. Did you consider your audience and match the survey to their point of view?
- Who are they, and what is their state of mind? Are they highly engaged or not? If you’re targeting part-time contact center workers who mainly see their job as a paycheck, you can expect their basic level of interest to be lower than that of managers on a specific career path, for example.
- Do they believe their opinion matters? If your staff have answered surveys in the past and never seen any resulting change or improvement, why would they bother putting in their two cents now?
- Do they care about the survey topic? Does it directly relate to their job and their individual focus? Surveying staff about the intranet home page layout may not matter to some of your employees who hardly use it. But ask them about the quality of snacks and coffee in the break room…
2.Content. Does your invitation motivate employees to action?
- Is your invitation clear and compelling? Did you include the action point right at the beginning or bury it at the end? Did you write a novel or a few short paragraphs?
- Have you told them why? Treat them like adults and explain why you’re asking and what you’ll do with the results (and don’t lie)
- Is it quick? Are you sending out a quick 10-question survey or an in-depth annual satisfaction survey? The longer the survey, the fewer people you can expect to complete it.
- Are the questions clear and easy to answer?
- Are you offering an incentive and is this clearly stated in the headline? Consider individual prizes and also team incentives (i.e. a free breakfast for the team if all members complete it)
- Did you wean out any problem questions? Test your survey on a few people ahead of time to make sure it all makes sense. Get at least a basic sanity check before sending it out, especially if you’re not a detail oriented person.
3. Execution. Do your delivery methods reach everyone and make it easy for them?
- Did you use multiple channels such as emails, desktop alerts, intranet news items, and team meetings to reinforce your invite and reach everyone? Or did you send out a single email? Depending on the importance of your survey and the difficulty in reaching your employees, the way you send you request can significantly influence completion rates.
- What does it look like? Is it visually appealing and easy to figure out?
- How hard is it to complete? How many clicks or actions does it take to get to it (if online)? How many demographic questions are you asking at the beginning? Or is it a paper-based survey they have to drop off in the mail?
- When did you send it? Did your email reach them at 9am Monday (along with another dozen emails), or did you time it to arrive right when most people return from lunch and might be open to completing it? Consider what time and day is the best for the delivery channel you’ve chosen (whether it be the intranet, email, regular mail, etc.)
- Did you use a reminder process for stragglers (in a way that got attention)? It’s human nature to think “I’ll do this later” and then never getting back to it. A reminder process can be as simple as additional emails, pop-up alerts, intranet news items, or reminders from the boss at team meetings.
If you can answer YES to the three main questions on Audience, Content, and Execution above, then hold your head high! While none of us are perfect, you can be confident that your efforts were on the mark. Consider these same points for multiple surveys and you’ll begin to create your own meaningful benchmarks in-house and will achieve valuable perspective on the success of your efforts.
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