Struggling with Low Response Rates in Employee Satisfaction Surveys? Let's Brainstorm Solutions

Dear Team,

I am working as an HR Executive in an IT firm, and we have recently initiated the Employee Satisfaction Survey. We are gathering feedback from each employee personally. Despite reaching out to them via email, we are receiving very few responses from the employees. Please advise on how we can improve the survey process and how we can engage with them more effectively on a personal level.

Thanks & Regards,
Reena

Dear Reena,

I suggest you to draw a format reflecting the points to be taken care of, wherein the associates are required to rate the parameters upon the scale provided. Then mail the same to the associates concerned and ask them to email you back with their self-ratings. You need to compile the data and check the same with the previous data of ESI. Calculate the average rating. Wherever you come across a low rating, list it down and talk to the concerned person to solve the issue.

I am just giving you a glimpse of the process; it requires a lot more to do.

Regards,
Srilatha

Are you communicating the following to the employees?

The following table outlines some of the key messages that should be communicated at each stage of the survey process:

Pre-Survey:
- Objectives of the survey, rationale for the survey, and how the results will be fed back
- Use an independent, third-party agency for data collection
- Timing of the data collection
- Senior management commitment to the survey
- Importance of getting a good response rate so that all employee opinions are heard
- Importance of participation
- Methodology to be used (online vs. paper-based or some combination)
- Assurance that the study will protect anonymity and preserve confidentiality

During the Survey:
- Reminder of the objectives and assurance that action will be taken
- Assurance that individual surveys cannot be seen
- Regular reminders and a notice of when the survey completion period will end
- How the results will be acted upon
- Update on current response rate
- Reinforce the importance of participation
- How employees can participate and what employees should do if having problems accessing or completing the survey
- Reinforce anonymity and confidentiality of the results

Post-Survey:
- Thank employees for participating
- Final response rate (Company wide vs. Business Units/Divisions)
- Highlight and recognize successful examples of action planning
- Recognize the contributions of teams and individuals to the action planning process
- Local results and local improvement action planning
- Provide top-level summary results
- Reminder of the action planning process

Between Surveys:
- Highlight and recognize successful examples of action planning
- Senior management endorsement and support of the final action plan/survey outcomes
- Detailed plans for the next survey
- Highlight any areas where action cannot be taken and the reasons for this
- Highlight the impact of action planning on customer service and business performance

Please review the corrected text for any further adjustments.

Hi,

I thank Pranathi and Srilatha for their valuable suggestions. First of all, let me explain the process we are following in our organization. We have already created a format. We send emails to the concerned employees to participate in a survey during which we talk to them personally about their job satisfaction, compensation, company culture, etc. Then, we provide them with the format we have, and they give their personal ratings. The final step is to collect all the feedback from employees, put everything in an Excel sheet, and analyze it.

The problem I am currently facing is that employees are not showing interest in coming to us and providing their feedback. In this case, how should I proceed further? Please help.

Regards,
Reena

Hi,

The fact is that if you want frank and true replies from employees, you've got to make the survey anonymous. Most of the time, HR is not able to build its credibility. Instead of calling them personally, send them a format which they can fill out, take a printout of, and submit in a box placed near the cafeteria/gate. You may not get 100% responses this time, but analyze the forms, take action, publicize results, and next time your response percentage will increase.