Safe Internet Blog

Although there are distinct advantages to conducting regular employee satisfaction surveys online to measuring employee satisfaction – there can also be risks.

Listed here are some of the main advantages, considerations and the possible risks to conducting employee satisfaction surveys online.

 

Advantages

Identify Problems – Surveys are can be very effective in identify problems areas before they become serious, especially those that are hidden from senior management.

Working Environment – From something small like a broken chair to the more serious problem of sick building syndrome that can result in personnel experiencing headaches; eye, nose, and throat irritation; a dry cough; dry or itchy skin; dizziness and nausea; and difficulty in concentrating. Surveys that focus on the environmental aspects of an organization will ensure that areas of concern are identified in a manner that can be properly measured and controlled.

Remuneration & Benefits – Measure and monitor how satisfied personnel are with their remuneration and benefits.

Mood and Moral – Provides a simple but effective method to measure and monitor the mood and moral of an organization.

Benchmark – In the same way that an organization will consider their financial position by comparison with previous years, so the regular use of online surveys will allow an organization to monitor and measure their progress and development in non-financial terms.

Processes & Procedures – As businesses evolve some of the traditional processes and procedures can become antiquated, personnel are often the first to know and the last to be asked. Businesses evolve and the business processes need to be regularly re-aligned.

Training – Lack of proper training is a common cause of dissatisfaction among employees and can lead to more serious problems such as stress.

Communication – For an organization to run efficiently good internal and external communications are essential, surveys can provide a method to help organizations to monitor and measure how well an organization communicates.

Goals and Objectives – Surveys can measure and monitor the extent that the personnel are aligned with the senior management’s business goals and objectives.

Cost Effective – Using survey questionnaire software surveys are quick and easy to create, simple to deploy and will provide real-time results.

Compliance – To properly comply with an ever increasing array of regulations the modern organization needs to be able to disseminate information throughout the organization and ensure, through records, that the information has been received, and importantly, understood. Online surveys provide organization with a cost effective method to meet many of their obligations.

Keeping the Initiative – It is always better for management to ask than be told. By conducting periodic employee satisfaction surveys the management is able to retain the initiative in trying to identify problems that could otherwise metamorphose into demands.

 

Considerations

Management Backing – A survey that is both sanctioned and has the support of senior management will go some way in ensuring that any action required, based on the survey findings, will be implemented.

Ask the right questions – Consider careful the questions being asked. If the survey is perceived by employees of just trying to tick the right boxes the survey could result in more negative attitudes.

A survey that is to be conducted annually should try and ask questions that will provide senior management with an overall health check of the organization.

Avoid questions that are specific to individual departments or personnel. Consider running separate one-off surveys that can be targeted at specific personnel if some areas of the organization require detailed investigation.

Incentive – Most employees will feel that by being able to give their opinions that they are already stakeholders in the exercise and will be happy to participate in the survey as they will expect to benefit from the process.

However, to help improve the overall response rate some incentive could be used and it could also be used to encourage early participation.

Small incentives could be awarded to all employees or all participating employees could be entered into a prize draw in the hope of receiving a more substantial prize.

Anonymous – The decision to allow respondents to remain anonymous or not needs careful consideration. Surveys that are conducted anonymously may encourage employees to be more honest, however, the anonymity may also encourage some individuals to make wild accusations that can not be substantiated and cause unnecessary concern. It is often better to keep everything ‘on the record’ rather than ‘off the record’.

Where survey respondents are known there is the opportunity to chase for surveys that have not been completed and also to follow up on some issues directly with those employees who have raised them as problems.

Comments – Keep free text comments to a minimum because they are difficult and time consuming to measure and analyze.

Limit the number of questions that allow for free text responses, usually a question at the end of the survey that asks for general comments is sufficient and very effective; consider conducting further surveys to follow-up where the earlier survey identifies areas where additional and more specific information is required.

 

Risks

Management – Some managers can regard any form of employee consultation as a sign of weakness and may have a tendency to dismiss out of hand any negative comment.

Warts and All – A survey is likely to reveal warts and all. Employee satisfaction surveys may expose that the senior management’s top down view differs noticeably from the employees’ bottom up view and that once problems have been exposed senior management could not claim ignorance and may be forced to act.

Non-Action – Many employees will invest time and effort in participating in a survey and their hopes and expectations will be raised. If nothing is done post survey to address the issues that have been raised by the survey then employees may develop a cynical attitude and make it more difficult to obtain employee feedback in future.

Management should be prepared to formally recognize and respond to any issue that is raised as a result of conducting a survey even if the demands of employees are not to be met. If senior management agree to address and resolve some issues then action needs to have started before any further survey is scheduled.

Can Cause Problems – Where surveys reveal, or bring problems, to the surface there could be a tendency for senior management to blame the messenger.

 

Summary

The benefits of conducting regular online employee surveys can be considerable, but for surveys to be effective important upfront considerations need to be made. Although the process of conducting a survey can be therapeutic in itself it is the post-survey analysis, response and action that will ultimately determine how useful and effective the process has been.

For a sample employee satisfaction survey: Employee Satisfaction Poll

Safe Internet Blog employee, employer, employment, feedback, human resources, management, Online surveys, personnel, questionnaires, satisfaction surveys, software tools, survey software

hard drives

These days people are snapping digital photos left and right and one reason they can so freely take pictures is that they don’t really need to stress too much about having all the perfect lighting conditions. Virtually every digital camera, and most new computers, come bundled with great photo software that lets you quickly and easily improve your shots.

It might take a bit of experimenting with your new photo editing software to learn all of the tools and the different options available. But many of the newest software versions have some basic automated functions that can very quickly improve your photos without the need of a degree in graphic design.

One of the most effective, and also the simplest, adjustments you can make to a digital photo with just about any photo software package on the market is changing the brightness/contrast levels. Photo editing software programs have a simple feature that is usually accessed through a dialog box which allows you to shift two different sliders to change the contrast and the brightness level of the image.

As you move the sliders you will be able to see the changes to the picture. When you get it just the way you like it, you can choose to make those changes, usually just by clicking on “OK.” Just remember to also go to the file menu to save the pictures permanently.

If you are not sure about the changes that you are making with the software, then you can go up to the file menu and choose “Save As,” which will let you create a copy that has your changes and will leave the original file untouched. You might want to re-name the photo so that you can easily recognize the file, or you can just add a letter or number at the end of the original file name.

If you are working with files that come from a digital camera, then you will find in most cases that the file names are just a series of letters and numbers that almost seem random. If you are going to be doing a lot of editing with your photo editing software, then it is a good idea to develop some sort of standard naming system and convert the file names so you can easily identify your digital pictures. Using a combination of a good file naming scheme with a good system of file folders will be helpful and will help you keep your hard drives organized as well.

Many photo editing software programs also have a function that helps you to organize and categorize your digital pictures. This is important if you will be taking digital pictures on a regular basis, as you can soon find that sorting through folder after folder of digital images to find that one photo can be frustrating. It is best when dealing with a lot of photos to use image management software to make your life easier.

After awhile you might decide to get more familiar with your photo software and the many kinds of enhancements you can make to your photos. You can find additional tools for some photo editing programs at the software downloads sites and you can also search for tips and tricks for your specific program.

Safe Internet Blog computer software, graphic design, hard drives, management software, photo software, software downloads, software tools