Applications
Survey-online.com can be used anytime you want to collect and analyse the views of any stakeholder group. These stakeholders might include employees, customers (internal and external), suppliers, or literally any whose feedback is of value to you. Data can be collected via the internet, intranet, or using hard-copy questionnaires. Some of the more obvious applications include:
Employee Satisfaction Surveys
Because measurement is the foundation of management practice, the employee satisfaction survey has become an essential key performance indicator in high performing organisations. Take Sears Roebuck & Company for example:
"We could see how employee attitudes drove not just customer service, but also employee turnover and the likelihood that employees would recommend Sears and its merchandise to friends, family and customers. We discovered that an employee's ability to see the connection between his or her work and the company's strategic objectives was a driver of positive behaviour. The point is that we know vastly more than we once did.and this has given us a decided competitive edge." - Harvard Business Review, Jan/Feb 1998
Properly designed and implemented, the survey can articulate strategy, be the catalyst for change, shape behaviour, focus action, and align the organisation around activities that lead to success. Other outcomes you can anticipate include:
- A critical "health check" on levels of satisfaction, commitment, trust, pride etc, and the trend of these indicators over time
- A benchmark of how the organisation 'stacks up' against other organisations, including JRA's database of the 'Best Places to Work' database
- A measure of the organisation's readiness for change, and/or the impact of change
- A measure of the impact of Vision & Values, and the extent to which employees empathise with these
- Early warning of new or emerging issues
- Segmentation of issues by business unit, location, gender, length of service etc
- Improved communication
Organisation Culture Mapping
Critical to any successful organisation change programme is a clearly articulated vision of what the organisation needs to become in order to achieve its performance objectives. This includes definition of 'how we do things around here' in the future state. Culture mapping allows you to assess the gap between reality and the desired state, and then - and to measure progress towards your goal.
Along the way the survey will provide critical feedback on how the change programme is perceived, identify areas of potential resistance, and encourage a sense of inclusion.
360-Degree Feedback
"O would some power the giftie gie us, to see ourselves as others see us! It would from many a blunder free us, and foolish notion." Robbie Burns
Unlike conventional performance appraisal, where the individual receives feedback from one person - typically the boss or team leader - 360-degree feedback allows that person to receive feedback from people at all levels above and below, internal and external to the organisation.
Feedback is given against a set of competencies and associated behaviours linked to superior performance of the job, and reflecting the organisation's vision and values translated into day-by-day behaviours. Interest in 360-degree feedback has grown enormously in recent years for a number of reasons, including:
- It provides a more realistic, balanced picture of qualitative performance (the "how"), effectively complementing the traditional quantitative measures of performance (the "what").
- It is a powerful catalyst for change and an excellent needs analysis tool - the insight gained normally means need for change is obvious, and irresistible.
- It achieves an alignment of leadership behaviours with the organisations values and preferred leadership style.
- It can be used at all organisation levels (our system has been used at Supervisor and Board of Director level.
- It can be the catalyst for improved teamwork.
To find out more, view JRA's 360 Reflect product offering.
Internal Service Surveys
The purpose of this survey is to measure the levels of internal customer satisfaction (or Baldrige/NZBEF Category 6 Process Management measures), thereby providing the basis for continuous performance improvement initiatives.
Key features of this survey are:
- Survey metrics are either the organisation-wide service standards, business unit/department standards, Baldrige or NZBEF criteria, or a combination of these
- A business unit/department's performance against these standards is measured on a regular basis by gathering feedback from internal customers
- Surveys are conducted at least annually, and in some cases quarterly
- Pre-determined or randomly selected respondents are contacted via an email containing simple instructions and a link to the online ISS
- Online reporting is available immediately, enabling:
- Business Unit / Department to view own feedback
- Overall performance index
- Section-by-section results
- Analysis within section
- Textual comments feedback
- Analyse the feedback from various customer groups (e.g. HR can view the feedback its gets from ALL departments, as well as individual feedback from IT, Marketing, Customer Services, etc.)
- Business Units can compare results of each Department within Business Unit
- Department can compare results to Business Unit total, and to normative data for the Total Organisation
- Results can be trended over time
To find out more, view JRA's Internal Service Survey product offering.
Programme/Event Evaluation
Survey-online.com provides and ideal option for quickly and efficiently evaluating the effectiveness and/or success of programmes or events. Streamline the evaluation of training and development activities using standard surveys, or using a variation of the 360-degree feedback survey. The latter option allows you to conduct 'before' and 'after' programme assessments around specific course-related competencies, thereby measuring with precision the 'take-up' of the training and/or development activity. The standard survey type allows you to measure the performance of presenters, trainers, as well participant satisfaction with course content, venue, and other related content.
Exit Interview Surveys
Our research suggests that the reasons staff give for their decision to leave the organisation after they have departed from the organisation can differ markedly from the reasons given during the traditional exit interview before they have departed. Survey-online.com enables you to reach out to leavers after they have left the organisation and to canvass their attitude and opinion in a safe, secure manner. The results can be surprising, and insightful! The application can also be used to complement existing pre-departure exit interviewing. Use Survey-online.com as your recording and reporting tool to store and analyse this critical information.
Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Recent research conducted by The Strategic Planning Institute of America noted:
- Managers don't always know customers' purchasing criteria. "Even when the criteria are correctly identified, management may misjudge the relative importance of individual criteria.sometimes by a factor of 3:1"
- Managers often misjudge how their customers perceive the organisation's service/quality. "Those differences in perception of performance may exist for the most basic of criteria."
- Managers can fail to see how their customers needs have changed and evolved because of "competitive product developments, technological advances, market and environmental influences."
- "Rather than focusing on customer preferences, management tends to evaluate the quality of products and services from an internal perspective."
A well-crafted customer satisfaction survey which is structured in a way that delivers high impact information can add significant value to your business. This information includes the following:
- Opportunities for increased customer satisfaction
- Identifying the need for a new product or service
- Recognising development needs of customer service staff
- Pinpointing your unhappy customers
- Knowing what is most important to the customer
- Determining your competitive position in the marketplace
- Anticipating future customer needs.
Communication Surveys
Our research has established beyond all doubt what most know intuitively - that effective communication is critical to organisation effectiveness. Critical then that you measure the effectiveness of your communication strategies:
- Do staff feel well informed?
- How do they feel about the nature and importance of information received/wanted?
- How do they feel about the source of information received (formal and informal channels)?
- What are their levels of satisfaction with existing formal communication channels, and are there suggestions for improvement?
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