Category Archives: Surveys

If you’re trying to cut costs, don’t cut the engagement survey

Reply

Topic: Engagement, Job Satisfaction, Surveys
Publication: Journal of Business and Psychology (JUN 2011)
Article: Measuring employee engagement during a financial downturn: Business imperative or nuisance?
Authors: Van Rooy, D. L., Whitman, D. S., Hart, D., & Caleo, S.
Reviewed by: Alexandra Rechlin

In these difficult economic times, organizations have been forced to cut costs. One way in which organizations are saving money is by reducing the use of employee surveys, but Van Rooy et al. (2011) contend that these surveys are valuable and should not be cut. The authors argue that measuring engagement is important because engagement has been shown to be related to many important business outcomes, such as turnover, efficiency, and performance. By researching engagement, an organization can better protect its current talent and prepare itself to attract talent that may leave other organizations.

The authors provide advice for practitioners who want to measure engagement but are looking to save money. Re-administering a survey without making changes from the previous administration will reduce costs, though it will present challenges if edits need to be made. Items should be directly actionable, so that responses to the items can be used to make real changes.

Continue reading →

You Look Good in Those Genes!

Reply

Topic: Surveys, Human Resources
Publication: Journal of Organizational Behavior (APR 2011)
Article: Genetic underpinnings of survey response
Authors: Thompson, L. F., Zhang, Z., & Arvey, R. D.
Reviewed by: Larry Martinez

Not many people like surveys.  Employees and participants don’t like taking them and survey administrators (if they are at all like me) don’t like bothering people with them.  Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that organizational practitioners and researchers alike live and breathe on data obtained through surveys.  And no matter how we try to coax people into taking our surveys, it is virtually impossible to obtain that coveted 100% voluntary response rate on any given survey.  A lot of research has been done to try and determine what factors are related to whether someone will respond to a survey and both environmental and personality characteristics have been identified.  However, Thompson and colleagues (2011) go even deeper for an explanation, into our genes.

The logic goes like this: we know that personality characteristics such as conscientiousness and agreeableness are related to survey response rates, and these personality characteristics have genetic underpinnings; thus, genetic influences should explain a proportion of the variabilitiy in survey response behaviors.

Using data from the Minnesota Twin Registry, these authors found that, indeed, a whopping 45% of the variability in survey response was explained by genetic factors alone.  This is especially impressive considering the 3.1% and 3.3% or variability explained by the two most powerful predictors of survey response, prior notification and monetary incentive, respectively (Yammarino et al., 1991).

Continue reading →

Any additional comments?

Reply

Topic: Employee Satisfaction, Surveys
Publication: Organizational Research Methods
Article: A Comment on Employee Surveys.
Blogger: Rob Stilson

Untitled

This
study focused on the empirical examination of qualitative data from employee
surveys (e.g., open-ended questions). 
The data set was a climate survey administered to 661 employees at a
large military organization, representing 23 different work areas.

Results
indicated that dissatisfied employees are more likely to provide comments in
the open-ended questions. Additionally, the more negative the comments were,
the longer they tended to be (as a quick aside, the longest I’ve seen is 3
pages commenting on everything from favoritism to adultery!). The authors
caution that open-ended comments tend towards the negative and people are less
likely to leave positive feedback in their comments.

There
were very little differences across demographics for those providing comments,
but that may be due to this particular population.  It would be best to break out the results into subgroups
before assuming you have a good feel for your particular population.  This may be especially true for large
companies employing both union and non-union employees.  Overall, the ability to code qualitative
data and examine it empirically holds promise for the future of surveys and
what can be learned from their administration.

 Poncheri, R. M.,
Lindberg, J. T.,, Thompson L. F., and Surface, E. A., (2008). A Comment on Employee Surveys. Organizational Research Methods 11(3), 614-630.