Employee engagement surveys that achieve excellent participation results often have great communication, which is fundamental to sensitize employees about the reasons and importance of participating in the survey.
The way a company communicates can determine the percentage of employee participation, and the higher this rate of adherence, the more reliable the results will be.
💡 Key Aspects
Below, we will show you some aspects that we consider important when communicating an employee engagement survey to your audience.
🟪 Define the survey's target audience
It is crucial to understand who will be the participants in your survey: will it include all employees? Only a specific department or area? A specific business unit? 🤔
Defining your target audience clearly will help guide other relevant aspects of effective communication for your survey.
It is also essential to have clarity about different stakeholders because communication may (and should) vary according to each profile. Let's see some examples:
🟣 HR: The department responsible for supporting the process, so it is important that everyone in the HR team knows how the project will be executed. It is suggested to always share the information with the HR team before launching the survey;
🟣 Top Management: Responsible for reinforcing the importance of participation to their subordinates who are leaders (e.g., Managers, Coordinators, etc.). These individuals play a fundamental role in communications to ensure effective reach;
🟣 Leaders: Responsible for reinforcing the importance of participation to their direct and indirect teams.
🟣 Non-Leaders: Responsible for filling out the survey seriously and honestly (this applies to everyone).
🟪 Choose the communication channel
After defining the target audience, you should think about the best channel to communicate your survey. The channels can and should be complementary, so the communication can be planned in a cohesive way, with everything revolving around the survey. Some examples:
🟣 Newsletter (or "E-mail marketing");
🟣 Corporate social network;
🟣 Business Partners (BPs) reinforcing with leaders;
🟣 Culture Influencers reinforcing in their areas;
🟣 Survey launch webinar;
🟣 Platform reminders;
🟣 Bulletin board in the Qulture.Rocks platform;
🟣 All Hands meetings;
🟣 Department/area meetings;
🟣 Official company communication platforms (e.g., Slack or Teams).
✏️ Note: When choosing the channel, consider the target audience defined earlier to ensure effective communication.
An example to illustrate: Suppose your survey is intended only for the sales department in your company. Sending communication via the corporate social network to all employees can lead to confusion among some staff members. Instead, you can communicate the survey through an exclusive launch webinar for the sales department.
🟪 Survey Objectives
Now, we get to the content of the communication! Whether it is done synchronously or asynchronously, it is essential to communicate the objectives of your survey to the participants.
Some examples of objectives for an employee engagement survey:
🟣 Analyze the internal environment and aspects of the organizational culture;
🟣 Identify strengths and areas for process improvement;
🟣 Understand employee perceptions and aspects of dissatisfaction.
To encourage participation, the communication needs to convey the purpose of the survey, igniting a desire for spontaneous involvement and an awareness of each individual's responsibility in the process.
✅ General Survey Information
When communicating your survey, in addition to presenting its main objective, it is essential to highlight some relevant information about the survey. Below are some key points:
🟣 Estimated response time and number of questions: To help employees allocate time to respond within the estimated response period, it is important to emphasize the estimated time to complete the survey.
✏️ Note: To determine the estimated time, you should test the survey form and time each respondent. This way, you can determine the average response time as an estimate.
🟣 Start and end dates for responses: Along with the first information, it is necessary to highlight the start and end dates for survey responses, so that all employees can schedule the best time to participate.
🟣 Anonymity: Ensure to assure participants that their responses are entirely anonymous in the survey introduction and communications. This ensures greater confidence for respondents to share their most sincere impressions.
🟣 Access via link: Another relevant point to emphasize to employees during the survey communication is that it will be accessed via a link sent via email. In other words, employees do not need to access the Qulture.Rocks platform to respond to the survey. They only need to click on the link they will receive via email.
📊 Communication Plan
Another essential aspect of the survey is to have a communication plan that encompasses the aspects mentioned above. In other words, what is the communication schedule for each stakeholder? In some moments, there may be no distinction (e.g., platform reminders), but in others, there may be distinctions (e.g., webinar launch). Having this structured plan greatly assists HR.
🚀 Initial Communication Template
Below, we have a template for the initial communication that can be adapted to the reality of your company and survey:
"Hello Q-Players! How are you all doing?
As discussed in the last All Hands, we will be launching a new cycle of the Employee Engagement Survey, and we are counting on the participation of everyone!
Objective
Your participation in the last survey was crucial, and this time it will also be essential to conduct in-depth analyses of our internal environment and create consistent action plans for our company.
Response Period and Participants
📅 Start date: 07/06 (Monday) 00:00
📅 End date: 25/06 (Friday) 23:59
⏱️ Estimated response time: 20 minutes ⏱️
👥 Participants: All Q-Players who joined the company before 15/03/2021 will be eligible to respond.
Feel free to reach out to the Organizational Development team if you have any questions!
Take this opportunity to make your voices heard.
⚠️Important: Remember that the survey will be entirely anonymous, and the link you receive via email is personal and non-transferable."
With this article, we hope you have understood how to conduct effective communication for your survey on Qulture.Rocks.
If you have any questions, #ChatWithUs, and we will assist you!
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