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Will You Add? - Using Employee Opinions Effectively When Designing HR Programs
Many people turn a beloved hobby into a vocation. They have a gift, a talent screaming for expression. It means doing something that they love. At last, they feel empowered.However, this newfound empowerment is inside the person, not in the changing of careers. How can you feel empowered if you are already successful in your work but feel discontent? You must recognize and feel the value within you and your work every day!A colleague and I were presenting a workshop on career satisfaction to a group of health-care staff members. His segment, "Feeling Empowered in Your Career", and my following segment, "Empowerment in Words and Actions", complimented each other sp
Whatever form a survey takes, it is destined to fail unless employees have faith in its confidentiality. It is strongly recommended that a third party conduct the survey, as employees are often suspi
Traffic lights – the decoration de rigueur for performance dashboards and reports. Have you gotten more carried away with the decoration, than with the rigueur? Take a look at these four common approaches to traffic lights, and see if you’ve got some room for improvement.Approach 1: % difference from month to monthWhen this month is 10% worse than last month, the traffic light turns red. When it’s 5% worse than last month, the traffic light turns amber. When it’s 10% better than last month, the traffic light turns green. Obviously, this approach works for time periods other than a month, and for cut-offs other than 10% and 5%.Such traffic lights encourage u
Employee opinion is one of the most powerful resources available to human resource professionals. But what are the best methods for harnessing those opinions?
Conversation - Welcoming feedback via informal conversation is the first step towards utilizing the viewpoints of employees.
Focus Groups - Focus groups take conversation to the next level by brainstorming on particular issues. A focus group gives HR insight into the thoughts, feelings and motivations behind an opinion. An optimal focus group consists of 10 - 20 employees.
SWOT analysis - While focus groups have more free-flowing discussion, SWOT Analysis focus the group on very specific issues. First, the Strengths of the organization are explored. Second, the Weaknesses of the organization are discussed. Third, Opportunities for improvement are brainstormed. Finally, Threats to improvement are considered.
Opinion Surveys - Surveys are an efficient means of extracting information, and for large or geographically dispersed organizations they may be the only option. Here are some things to consider when planning a survey:
Type - Web-based surveys may work for technologically savvy corporations, but others may prefer telephone, or tried-and-true pen-and-paper surveys.
Length - Somewhere between 30-60 questions is the ideal length of a survey. Any longer and you risk driving response rates down due to respondent fatigue.
Language - Both the reading level and the native tongue of an organization's employee base are key to crafting effective questions.
“While a survey can be used as preventive medicine when asking questions about a wide variety of issues, it can also draw out responses on subjects known to generate dissatisfaction. If HR gets wind of rumors about a particular supervisor, or notices a high turnover rate in his or her area, a survey may be able to pinpoint what's amiss,” explained Jennifer C. Loftus, SPHR, CCP, CBP, GRP, National Director, Astron Solutions.
After an organization's first survey, it will be difficult to draw definitive conclusions beyond extreme positives and areas for enhancement. In further years, trend analysis will be possible as opinions change or persist on key issues. After the first survey, focus on extremes. Where did the organization receive its lowest marks? Seek out those areas to follow up on promptly and visibly. This will build faith in the survey process for future years.
Whatever form a survey takes, it is destined to fail unless employees have faith in its confidentiality. It is strongly recommended that a third party conduct the survey, as employees are often suspic
Heather and Mark work at a leading attorneys’ office in Seattle. They order fresh ground coffee for the office every month, and sent me this comparison between two major coffee vendors.Coffee company ‘Torrefazione’ (I name the winners)• We received a call from a customer service representative about a coffee order placed at their website earlier in the week.• We were informed that shipments are sent by UPS, but their coffee warehouse is only a few blocks from our office. So they offered to send future orders via courier the next day without a shipping charge.• They also noted we order coffee monthly and provided information on how we could qualify fo
SWOT analysis - While focus groups have more free-flowing discussion, SWOT Analysis focus the group on very specific issues. First, the Strengths of the organization are explored. Second, the Weaknesses of the organization are discussed. Third, Opportunities for improvement are brainstormed. Finally, Threats to improvement are considered.
Opinion Surveys - Surveys are an efficient means of extracting information, and for large or geographically dispersed organizations they may be the only option. Here are some things to consider when planning a survey:
Type - Web-based surveys may work for technologically savvy corporations, but others may prefer telephone, or tried-and-true pen-and-paper surveys.
Length - Somewhere between 30-60 questions is the ideal length of a survey. Any longer and you risk driving response rates down due to respondent fatigue.
Language - Both the reading level and the native tongue of an organization's employee base are key to crafting effective questions.
“While a survey can be used as preventive medicine when asking questions about a wide variety of issues, it can also draw out responses on subjects known to generate dissatisfaction. If HR gets wind of rumors about a particular supervisor, or notices a high turnover rate in his or her area, a survey may be able to pinpoint what's amiss,” explained Jennifer C. Loftus, SPHR, CCP, CBP, GRP, National Director, Astron Solutions.
After an organization's first survey, it will be difficult to draw definitive conclusions beyond extreme positives and areas for enhancement. In further years, trend analysis will be possible as opinions change or persist on key issues. After the first survey, focus on extremes. Where did the organization receive its lowest marks? Seek out those areas to follow up on promptly and visibly. This will build faith in the survey process for future years.
Whatever form a survey takes, it is destined to fail unless employees have faith in its confidentiality. It is strongly recommended that a third party conduct the survey, as employees are often suspi
Okay, it has a headline, picture, copy, and even a map. Heck, you’ve been running it for years. It seems to get lots of calls and everything is wonderful in “Directory-Land.” But there’s something wrong. Did you spot it? How do you know it’s doing as well as it could? Where’s the feedback? If you’re receiving plenty of response, which part of the ad is working well and which is failing? In other words, are you tracking the results and also asking the customer why they picked your ad over the competition?You may wonder why this is so important if the ad is pulling well. Suppose it wasn’t. Suppose it got a poor result. You wo
Type - Web-based surveys may work for technologically savvy corporations, but others may prefer telephone, or tried-and-true pen-and-paper surveys.
Length - Somewhere between 30-60 questions is the ideal length of a survey. Any longer and you risk driving response rates down due to respondent fatigue.
Language - Both the reading level and the native tongue of an organization's employee base are key to crafting effective questions.
“While a survey can be used as preventive medicine when asking questions about a wide variety of issues, it can also draw out responses on subjects known to generate dissatisfaction. If HR gets wind of rumors about a particular supervisor, or notices a high turnover rate in his or her area, a survey may be able to pinpoint what's amiss,” explained Jennifer C. Loftus, SPHR, CCP, CBP, GRP, National Director, Astron Solutions.
After an organization's first survey, it will be difficult to draw definitive conclusions beyond extreme positives and areas for enhancement. In further years, trend analysis will be possible as opinions change or persist on key issues. After the first survey, focus on extremes. Where did the organization receive its lowest marks? Seek out those areas to follow up on promptly and visibly. This will build faith in the survey process for future years.
Whatever form a survey takes, it is destined to fail unless employees have faith in its confidentiality. It is strongly recommended that a third party conduct the survey, as employees are often suspi
If your company is -- in the make-buy-outsource decision -- taking the step to “Buy” it will face a lot of challenges. This doesn’t mean that a decision to Make would leave you with less uncertainties. If you do opt for addressing your resources in making your own systems you will face the same level of challenges, but these ones will stay within your company. You do not have a benchmark, because you have chosen to build a proprietary solution that is specific only for your situation. There is no way to check whether you did a good job.In this sense, the step to Buy is a new one. You have chosen to go for a more best-practice approach and in the area of Enterprise Resou
“While a survey can be used as preventive medicine when asking questions about a wide variety of issues, it can also draw out responses on subjects known to generate dissatisfaction. If HR gets wind of rumors about a particular supervisor, or notices a high turnover rate in his or her area, a survey may be able to pinpoint what's amiss,” explained Jennifer C. Loftus, SPHR, CCP, CBP, GRP, National Director, Astron Solutions.
After an organization's first survey, it will be difficult to draw definitive conclusions beyond extreme positives and areas for enhancement. In further years, trend analysis will be possible as opinions change or persist on key issues. After the first survey, focus on extremes. Where did the organization receive its lowest marks? Seek out those areas to follow up on promptly and visibly. This will build faith in the survey process for future years.
Whatever form a survey takes, it is destined to fail unless employees have faith in its confidentiality. It is strongly recommended that a third party conduct the survey, as employees are often suspi
Winners are ALWAYS looking for ways to grow their business. They trust their company, trust their customers to come through for them, and realize that a financial crunch offers advantages that aren't available during better economic times.1. Get More For Your Advertising BucksWhen the economy makes a turn for the worse, it just makes sense that your advertising will give less of a return than during and economic boon. Sure there’s a lot less money being spent, but you don’t have to have to watch your profit margin plummet!Think about it... advertisers are feeling the recession just as much as you are, and are more desperate for clients. It’s the perfect atm
Whatever form a survey takes, it is destined to fail unless employees have faith in its confidentiality. It is strongly recommended that a third party conduct the survey, as employees are often suspicious that opinion surveys are tools of an organization's “Thought Police.” Honest feedback can't be elicited if employees feel their opinions can be traced to them.
”Follow-through is vital. A complaint we often see in the comments section of opinion surveys is, ‘I don't think this makes any difference. We do this survey every year and nothing ever happens.’ If you don't want to know about a certain issue, or aren't in a position to effect change once you do, don't ask. Focus on what matters and can be acted upon,” added Loftus.
After a survey, a broad overview of findings and the next steps management will take should be shared with employees. This assures employees that their voices have been heard, and that their supervisors are serious about making the necessary changes.
Jennifer C. Loftus, SPHR, CCP, CBP, GRP is a National Director for Astron Solutions. Her primary areas of expertise are customized market surveys, employee opinion surveys, exit interview systems, base pay compensation programs and computer-based solutions to HR issues. She has nine years of experience garnered at the Hay Group, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Eagle Electric Manufacturing Company, Pace University, and Harcourt General.
Jennifer is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), SHRM’s Consultants Forum, WorldatWork, and the American Society of Healthcare Human Resource Administration (ASHHRA). She is also a member New York HR associations HR/NY and the New York Compensation Association.
Jennifer holds the position of Public Relations Chair for HR/NY and is a member of the Career Planning and Professional Development Committee.
Jennifer is a sought-after speaker on topics regarding employee retention strategies, labor market trends, and human resource automation. She has appeared on Cold Pizza, ESPN2's morning show, and WNET, New York City's PBS affiliate, on The Employment Channel. She has presented to national conferences of SHRM’s Employment Management Association (EMA) and ASHHRA, as well as numerous local HR conferences. Jennifer has been published in The American Economist and Workspan, and quoted in the New York Daily News
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