ARCHIVED - Quality Services - Guide VI - Employee Surveys

• Previous Page
• Table of Contents
•  

This page has been archived.

Introduction

Listening to employees and encouraging their involvement can have a positive impact on an organization's quality services initiative. Their opinions and ideas are an invaluable resource that you can uncover in a variety of ways, including employee surveys.

Definition

Within the context of this guide, the term "employee survey" is defined in the broadest of terms. It includes methods such as the traditional survey, focus groups, work out sessions, and face-to-face meetings with one or more managers and employees.

Context

The current government environment of fiscal restraint and program review, coupled with the swiftness of changes in technology, public-sector organizational structures and the global economy, has a significant impact on the Public Service. Yet it is the Public Service that upholds the government agenda. In these times of rapid change, employees can contribute, significantly and positively, to the way in which an organization copes with this change. Consequently, employee surveys are valuable tools that can help organizations tap into the ideas and perceptions of their work force.

When considering the survey, consider the following ideas:

• Sensitive timing is always important, particularly in the current environment of fiscal restraint and within the "most-affected" departments.
• Organizations will likely be at different stages in their quality journeys. At appropriate junctures, organizations will need to assess individually the appropriateness of employee surveys.
• Organizations must consider employee sensitivities and cynicism in the current Public Service environment.
• Quality service requires a cultural shift that promotes a partnership between an organization and its employees. Employee surveys could be used as a tool to encourage and develop this kind of partnership.
• Surveying employees is one way an organization can involve employees, solicit their input and encourage their participation in its quality journey. Other alternatives for obtaining opinions and feedback from employees include using suggestion awards or other award and recognition programs, and encouraging the sharing of best practices.

Rationale

Organizations may conduct employee surveys as part of their quality services initiative for a number of reasons. Employee involvement, commitment and participation are key elements of any quality-conscious organization. Management needs the opinions of the work force to identify areas for improvement and should, therefore, provide opportunities for employees to participate in the decision-making process.

When handled well, employee surveys can catalyze or enhance expanded communication, partnerships with employees and motivation. Morale, productivity, commitment and organizational vitality can be substantially improved by listening to and acting on employee suggestions.

Employee surveys:

• allow an organization to tap employees as a resource to focus on areas within the organization that can be improved. Data provided by a survey can be used to identify the highest-priority elements of the organization's quality services initiative;
• may be used to establish baseline data for an organization in terms of the degree to which it meets the criteria of a quality services organization. From this baseline data, the organization can measure progress made in implementing or improving its quality services initiative. The baseline data could also help organizations identify, understand and adapt current outstanding practices that will provide the basis for further improving performance;
• may be used to obtain input from employees, thereby encouraging participation in the change process and fostering buy-in; and
• may be used to identify training requirements or learning activities that could push forward the organization's quality services initiative. Surveys may also be used to gather perceptions on other key elements of a quality services initiative, such as leadership and awards programs.

Guiding Principles

In this guide, the scope of employee surveys is limited to issues of quality and quality services. Although employee satisfaction contributes to the quality of an organization's service, measuring employee satisfaction is outside the scope of this framework.

When contemplating the use of an employee survey, the organization should consider:

• the extent to which employee surveys, if used, will drive their quality services initiative;
• the requirements related to access to information, privacy, information collection and security, which are set out in the Policy on the Management of Government Information Holdings in the "Information Management" volume of the Treasury Board Manual, chapter 3-1;
• the extent of senior management commitment;
• what will be done with the results of the survey and how it intends to convert results into action;
• how participation will benefit the organization and all of its employees;
• the conduct of effective, rigorous marketing before the survey begins, and throughout the process, to increase the chances for success. Employees should be informed of the purpose of the survey, assure them that it is confidential and outline how the results will be used;
• opportunities for employees to participate in the process as early as the design stage. Employees could be represented on advisory committees, or their opinion could be solicited in other ways;
• the involvement of bargaining agents, where possible;
• the inclusion of a feedback loop into the system to inform employees of the results of the survey and to tell them about actions being planned in response to these results;
• follow up, as appropriate, to improve response rates; and
• the consistency of content from one survey to the next to make it easier to measure progress accurately.

Elements to be surveyed

Each organization will determine what constitutes "quality" and "service quality." For instance, "quality" may be approached from an organizational perspective. "Service quality" can be defined as a combination of two movements: service, which means knowing what the client wants and satisfying that need; and quality, which means doing it right the first time and continually improving the product or service. The organization should define the essential elements that make up quality, based on its goals.

The organization may wish to survey employees to obtain their perspective on the quality of services being provided. For example, survey elements could ask employees about the extent to which they feel:

• clients are being provided with extraordinary service;
• employees contribute towards the development of service standards; and
• employees are empowered.

Alternatively, or in addition, the survey may be based on criteria used for awards such as the Malcolm Baldridge Award in the U.S. and the former Canada Awards for Business Excellence. The National Quality Institute (NQI) recently combined the criteria used for these two awards to form the new criteria for the Canada Awards for Excellence (CAE). These criteria apply to both the public and private sector.

The six major criteria categories of the CAE's Quality Award describe elements or attributes that are essential in a quality organization. These elements, individually or in combination, may form the focus of an employee survey.

Leadership

How senior management demonstrates a commitment to quality principles and practices, and how it supports strategic planning and an environment for continuous improvement.

Customer focus

How the organization focuses on customer needs, complaints, loyalty and satisfaction through information gathering, and how it translates that information into improved goods and services.

Planning for improvement

How improvement plans are developed, linked to strategic direction and effectively deployed.

People focus

How the organization manages, develops, involves and rewards its employees, while fostering participation and continuous learning.

Process optimization

How processes are analysed to ensure that they add value to customers and the organization, how they reflect priorities derived from goals in improvement plans, and how they support the organization's strategic direction.

Supplier focus

How the organization works cooperatively with suppliers and other stakeholders to innovate and improve continuously.

Questions that address these quality elements may be found in the NQI's "Quality Fitness Test." Organizations could adapt them for use in employee surveys.

Tools

Many tools can be used to survey employees or gather their feedback. Surveys may be formal (a prepared set of questions to a specific sample of employees), informal (a structured or unstructured discussion), predominantly qualitative (a focus group) or quantitative (a questionnaire that provides volumetric data). Rigid methodologies may be used but are not always necessary to achieve the survey objectives. A lesser degree of scientific rigour can still yield valuable information.

The most traditional survey tool is the written questionnaire. Electronic surveys are gaining popularity. Individual input may also be obtained through telephone surveys, face-to-face interviews or exit interviews of departing employees. These formats normally involve highly structured questionnaires. Information may also be gathered from groups. The most structured is the focus group, where predetermined issues are explored. Less structured, informal methods include "town hall" meetings or retreats. Smaller groups such as quality councils, advisory groups or committees may also be used.

A combination of several of these methods can often be used effectively.

The choice of tools will depend on such factors as cost, ease of completion, perception of anonymity, timing, available technology, and depth of information required. External consultants or internal experts in fields such as program evaluation can help managers choose appropriate methodologies, design questionnaires, compile data, and analyse and interpret results.

Success Criteria

As part of the survey process, the organization should attempt to determine whether or not the survey satisfied its stated objectives. Based on the reasons for surveying employees previously mentioned, the organization might assess the survey's success against the following criteria:

• the employee participation rate;
• the extent to which the data from the survey assisted in the design or improvement of its quality services initiative;
• the extent to which the data helped measure progress in defined areas;
• the extent to which the data were integrated with other data to design or improve it's quality services initiative;
• the extent to which follow-up surveys are used to measure its progress in its quality services initiative; and
• the extent to which feedback loops were built into the survey to give employees information on survey results and on actions deemed necessary by those results.
  
  

• Previous Page
• Table of Contents
•