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Survey Crime: Failure to Respect the Respondent’s Time

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Crafting the perfect survey is an art and there are many elements you need to be conscious about while designing your surveys, including respecting your respondents’ time. If you create a survey that consumes too much time and effort on the respondent’s behalf it can lead to poor quality data, missing data and the inability to draw valid conclusions from the feedback collected.

When you’re putting together your survey, you need to make sure you don’t ask questions that you already know the answers to, questions that don’t relate to the topic of your survey and questions that are long and complicated.

Check out a clip from our recent webinar, Crimes in Survey Design, and see what Mike Phillips, our Director of Feedback Strategy has to say about this crime.

If you want a survey that yields actionable data, make sure to avoid this crime! Don’t forget to establish up front what the purpose of the survey is, how long the survey will take and what you’re going to do with the feedback that you collect. In the long run, you’ll not only save the respondent time, but you’ll save yourself time.  

Want to learn about the other crimes of survey design? Register to watch the full on-demand webinar here!


Many versus The One

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multi signsShould you be looking at multiple channels for your research efforts? Single deployment channels such as online, paper, phone or mobile may no longer get you the quantity and quality of responses you need. A working definition of multi-channel research involves using two or more deployment strategies to connect with your target audience(s).

Technology, or more specifically the adoption of new technologies is the key driver behind the use of multiple avenues for reaching survey participants. Take social media, for example, it can be a powerful tool for reaching certain segments and inviting them to participate in your research, but absolutely useless for connecting with other groups. A deeper working relationship between IT and marketing research; improvements in data collection platforms; the need for rapid reporting (and the subsequent development of dashboard reports for MR results) are a few of the other trends which are driving multi-channel adoption.

Going multi may not be right for all research situations. Both consumer and B2B market researchers must ask themselves:

  1. Who are my target audiences?
  2. How likely are they to adopt technology?
  3. Are response rates changing over time?

Knowing who our audiences are is mission number one. For example if your primary target is senior citizens then it may not be advisable to push a technology intensive approach such as social media. Paper-based surveys or phone interviewing may be better options. However, you cannot simply assume this – as tech adoption is not consistent across all demographic groups including seniors. It pays to ask how people wish to be communicated.

If your market is socially-active early adults then mobile and social media make sense. In fact you might consider a mix of mobile, social and an online panel. A key point is the need to assess differences not only in response rates across channels, but also in response quality and patterns of data distribution.

The question of changing response rates for a deployment channel must be watched. If rates are changing downward for traditional online surveys then it could be time to explore the creation of your own panels, each with a focus on a specific target group. This could also be the time to go mobile.

Keep this in mind: multi-channel approaches require a different level of reporting and data tracking. Can your tools handle sample from mobile, QR codes, online panels as well as traditional e-mail invitations? Can your platform provide you with reporting that is robust enough to assess response differences by channel?

If you are involved in researching diverse audiences then it is a good time to explore the options available.

 

Photo Credit: Travel Traffic Sign With Blue Sky by FrameAngel courtesy of Free Digital Photos

 

Survey Crime: Leading the Respondent

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The purpose of a survey is to gather opinions, thoughts, viewpoints, etc., not for you to include your personal bias and try persuade the respondent to answer a certain way. If you include loaded or leading questions, your data can be easily skewed and the accuracy of your results will be questionable – a huge crime in survey design.

What exactly is a leading question? A leading question prompts or encourages a desired answer. For example, if you are working with sensitive topics, you need to leave your personal judgment out. Prefacing a question about if the respondent thinks smoking is bad with ‘people who smoke are 5x times more likely  to develop lung cancer’ will potentially lead the respondent to say that it’s bad, even though they may smoke and are not really concerned about its side effects.

Check out a clip from our recent webinar, Crimes in Survey Design, and see what Mike Phillips, our Director of Feedback Strategy has to say about this crime.

By asking leading questions, survey authors are not getting the most out of their feedback programs. The main goal of a survey is to get candid feedback on a specific topic, so don’t let leading questions keep you from obtaining your goals.  

Want to learn about the other crimes of survey design? Watch the full on-demand webinar here!

Keys to Organizational Effectiveness: The importance of engaged employees [Upcoming Webinar]

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Engaged employees are an organization’s most important asset. When there are high levels of employee engagement, employees are more productive, customers are happier, turnover is lower and profits are higher.

However, there are an alarming amount of employees who are disengaged. Did you know that of approximately 100 million full-time workers in the United States today, only 30% of them are engaged in their work?* (Gallup). That means 70% of full-time workers are not living up to their potential.

Organizations that deliver on their basic mission and purpose, whether they are public or private, but deliver through disaffected workforces continue to get low ratings from their stakeholders even if they are delivering to the letter of their mission.

This webinar will explore key industry trends in using employee engagement to enhance organizational effectiveness, as well as how organizations are approaching the challenge of introducing, maintaining and growing an “engaged” organizational culture.

Date: Tuesday, May 13
Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm ET
Speaker: Mike Phillips, Director of Feedback Strategy, Cvent

During this webinar, attendees will learn:

  • The importance of the link between employee engagement and stakeholder loyalty, and its impact on organizational performance
  • How to move toward a more engaged workforce and the challenges associated with development and implementation
  • The necessary analytics to move from engagement concept to reality

Register now! This is a webinar you won’t want to miss!

If I knew then what I know now - exporting data

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Online survey platforms such as Cvent offer fantastic views into the data. You can have real-time visuals as well as tabular reporting. However there is a divide between survey platforms and analytical tools such as SPSS, SAS or R. These packages allow you access to the full power of statistical analysis and predictive modeling. There is a catch though…you have to be able to get the data out of the cloud-based survey platform into your stat package of choice.

In order to take maximum advantage of the export feature you will want to create “export values”. This can be found under Configuration Options on the Settings tab. Export values allow you to specify values for your question categories as well as assign a question number. For example:

Which category includes your age? (Q1)
Under 18
18 – 24
25 – 29
30 – 34
35 – 39
40+

Your questions should be assigned unique variable names such as Q1 or Age, in the above example. Variable names can be alpha-numeric, typically leading with an alpha character. The age categories should be assigned values (e.g. Under 18 = 1, 18 – 24 = 2, etc.) In SPSS these are referred to as value labels. The actual values are assigned in the Questions section link of the Design Survey tab. If export values are active there will be a button which allows you the ability to edit the values.

After your data is collected you will head to the Reports tab. Here you will select the Expanded Answer Details for All Respondents. If you plan to bring your data into a statistical package make sure you select “Export Values”. If you are exporting to Excel or a CSV file you can use either actual or export values. In Cvent you have the option of exporting directly to SPSS, a common statistical package used in market research. This is a time-saving option as Cvent will create a fully executable SPSS data file, which saves you programming time (although you may find that you want to edit the labels in SPSS).

If you work in another stats package then you can export your data from Cvent as a CSV file. This is a comma-delimited format that can be read by all programs.

Exporting gives you the analyst the full power inherent in a statistical program. With a bit of forethought and a few extra mouse clicks you can move your survey data from the cloud to the ground where decisions are made.

Are you guilty of committing this survey crime

 

Cash for Culture: Would you quit your job for $5,000?

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Recently, Amazon made headlines for its unorthodox approach to tackling a challenge every company faces. It’s the question haunting senior management and human resources professionals everywhere: How do you find out which employees are bringing your company down and what can you do to stop them?

Amazon’s answer: pay them to quit.

The e-commerce giant offered employees manning its fulfillment centers a financial incentive to clear out their workspaces and clock out for good. The baseline offer began at $2,000 for first-year employees and increased by $1,000 for each additional year an employee spent at the company, topping off at $5,000. Amazon plans on extending this offer on an annual basis.

Before you write off Amazon’s Pay to Quit initiative as a crass stunt or radical experiment, take a moment to view it through the lens of your own professional situation.

If you enjoy your company’s culture and your day-to-day job, I would be willing to bet you are probably a productive employee who turns out high-quality work and makes meaningful contributions to your company. It’s likely you feel loyal to your employer for reasons that go beyond a paycheck. You are bound by a sense of purpose, and no nominal, short-term financial reward could convince you to abandon that purpose.

On the other hand, if you dislike your company culture and feel like every day is a slog filled with work you don’t enjoy, I would wager a guess that you are prone to underperforming. Perhaps you don’t get as much done as you could, or the quality of your work doesn’t approach your full potential. Maybe your negative attitude affects other more engaged employees—either way, your income is probably the main reason you continue to show up. But, what if you had some cash to cover you while you pursued greener pastures? The folks at Amazon would rather not play the “what if” game. They know the long-term cost of an unhappy employee pales in comparison to the cash they are willing to forgo up front in order to cull the disengaged detractors from the pack. Recent studies prove it.

Gallup found that companies with 9.3 engaged employees for every one disengaged employee experienced a 147% higher average earnings per share than their competitors. To the same ends, employers with 2.6 engaged workers for every one disengaged employee had an average earning per share 2% lower than their competitors.

Considering those statistics, the Pay to Quit policy is a pretty effective way to systematically cultivate a workforce of employees who are emotionally connected to their company beyond a paycheck. However, a lot of organizations don’t have the luxury of dangling financial incentives in front of unhappy employees—and maybe yours is one of them. Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean you are stuck shouldering the disengagement burden without recourse. Instead, you can take steps to proactively keep satisfied employees engaged, and reverse the downward spiral of dissatisfied employees who pose a threat to your company culture and bottom line.

The first step toward increasing engagement is collecting feedback from your employees to find out how they are feeling. Use surveys to determine their current satisfaction levels, motivations, and what is holding them back from being productive and engaged staff members. These insights will help you take actions to improve your overall company culture and retain better employees. This is critical because happy employees lead to a healthy bottom line. They treat customers better, produce better products and services, and save companies from having to spend money replacing them.

Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company, wrote a column for Harvard Business Review about Amazon’s policy, stating, “In a sense, Pay to Quit is an annual performance review of the company by its employees: Can I imagine not working in this department, with these people, for this company?"

By actually collecting feedback and allowing employees to give your company a “performance review,” you don’t have lure them toward the door with money. You can analyze their insights, take action to make improvements, and ensure they feel trading in a superior workplace culture for cash is simply unimaginable.

For a step-by-step guide on how to implement an employee feedback program at your company, download our complimentary playbook Retain or Drain: The A.R.T of Engaging Employees.

 

 

 

What it takes to make Fortune’s “Best Places to Work” List

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Ever since Fortune released its inaugural Best Places to Work list in 1997, the honor has only grown in significance, and not coincidentally, so have terms like “company culture,” “work-life balance,” and “office perks.” There are many reasons for the uptick in popularity experienced by these corporate catchphrases—technology, millennials entering the workforce, a national increased understanding of health and wellness, the economic downturn—but one thing is for sure: being a “Best Places to Work” is good for business.

Publically traded companies on Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work list have gained an average of 10.8% per year since 1998. Companies on the list from the information technology and professional services sectors boasted an 8.5% and 13.4% lower turnover rate than their respective industry averages. These statistics aren’t surprising considering that companies willing to devote resources to keeping their employees engaged are rewarded with better quality of work, higher productivity, and a stronger sense of loyalty.

DPR Construction, a Cvent Web Surveys client and one of the nation’s largest general contractors, not only made Fortune’s top 100 for five straight years, they scaled the list’s upper echelons—coming in at #10.  So, what does it take to stack up to the best corporate culture companies on the block? For starters, keeping up with the Googles is no easy task, but here is how DPR did it.

1. Understand your Employees– This is the first and most important step to creating an extraordinary work environment. Fun perks are great, but they aren’t substantive enough to be the bedrock of a successful employee engagement program. Collecting your employees’ feedback and finding out what key factors drive their satisfaction or dissatisfaction levels is the only way to know how to better engage them.

DPR sends out comprehensive, anonymous employee satisfaction web surveys each year. The company heavily promotes participation among all staff members and provides many different ways for them to access the survey—emails, on-site kiosks, unique URLS, versions in both English and Spanish. This is critical because DPR’s field employees don’t have regular access to a computer, and for many, English is not their first language. Once DPR collects its employees’ feedback, the company actually puts the data to use. Reports with year-over-year analyses and regional comparisons are distributed to regional managers, so they can have complete visibility into overall satisfaction trends. The regional managers use these insights to alleviate areas of dissatisfaction in their business plans for the upcoming year. While it would not be feasible to address every single concern cited by employees, collecting their feedback and taking steps to make changes shows you value their input and care about their professional happiness--and that inspires loyalty and high performance.

2. Offer Cool Perks– Let’s be honest, perks add a fun element to your corporate culture, brighten employees’ days and can make for great recruiting fodder. At DPR, work groups take a half-day off once a year to do a team-building activity, employees are treated to free breakfast on Fridays, and there is even a wine bar in its San Francisco office.

How do you know what perks your employees would love? Ask them in your employee engagement survey!

3. Cultivate a Challenging Environment– When employees feel challenged, they work harder to deliver results. Success leads to fulfillment and keeps employees engaged. DPR creates a challenging environment by posting scoreboards based on success factors to get employees' competitive juices flowing.   

4. Incentivize High Performance– Employees at DPR receive annual bonus points based on their performance and company goals. They can save up and put their points toward merchandise or services offered in DPR’s catalog and online store.

These are just a few pieces of the “Best Places to Work” employee engagement puzzle—and they are specific to DPR and what makes its own employees happy. Every company is unique, but they all start with an understanding of their employees. Your employees might have a different idea of a great work environment than DPR's, but you won’t know until you ask. Read DPR’s full employee engagement success story here.

5 Types of Employee Surveys (You Might Not Know About)

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computerWhen you think about employee surveys most times you think about conducting surveys to understand employee satisfaction and engagement. However, there are many other types of employee surveys that you could be conducting to get a better understanding of all aspects of the employee lifecycle.

These 5 types of surveys will give you a well-rounded view of your most important assets: your employees:   

  1. Engagement surveys – These are the most common types of employee surveys. Employee engagement surveys are often kept anonymous so employees can be open and honest with their answers. Employee satisfaction surveys are great tools for improving morale within an organization. In fact, it's generally seen that companies that encourage or engage their employees to provide ideas and suggestions have higher employee retention rates and job satisfaction. Give your employees a chance to share insights and suggestions, and you'll have invaluable information that can be acted upon to increase workplace satisfaction and improve business processes.
     
  2. New hire surveys - Creating new hire survey is a great way to understand how your organization is perceived and what gives your company a competitive edge. A few question you might consider asking are ‘What made you choose our company over others?” Or “How did you hear about our company?” “What was your interviewing experience like from a process and people perspective?” Obtaining answers to these questions will help you understand how to better structure your interview process as well as how to better train your employees for an interview.
     
  3. 360 Reviews – Collecting 360 feedback incorporates opinions from a full-circle perspective: coworkers, managers, the actual employee and any other voices that can contribute to the conversation. Collecting feedback from all parties involved provides for a better detailed analysis.
  4. Compensation and Benefits Surveys – Understanding how your employees feel about their compensation and benefits is very important, as those are often time two of the biggest drivers that either retain or drain your employee base. Being able to tweak your benefits plan or adjusting salaries accordingly, these surveys will help you get to the bottom of what employees really want.
     
  5. Pulse Surveys - This is a type of survey given to employees to better gauge and evaluate employee satisfaction, productivity, and attitude. These types of surveys are often given a few times a year on a regularly scheduled basis. A pulse survey is intended to allow management to get a sense of the “health” of the company in regards to its employees.

So next time you’re considering running an employee survey, remember there are multiple kinds that each can help you to obtain specific information.

Don't have time to conduct all of these survey? Don’t sweat it because we can help with running these programs if you don't have the time or resources.

 


Humor and Surveys? Are You Joking?

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Ha, ha, 'tis to laugh!

Is there a place for humor is surveys? According to researcher and author Matthew Champagne, PhD there is indeed room for a bit of good clean humor is surveys. Surveys are known for their overwhelmingly serious tone and rigid adherence to proper grammar. This may have worked in days past, but as Millennials are taking over the market, it may be time to rethink our rigidness.

It is perfectly normal to open a conversation with a light tenor that may even include a bit of humor. This seeks to set an overall tone that is friendly and open. Respondents that are open tend to be more engaged which in turn yields better response and completion rates.

There are several places in the course of a survey where humor can be employed. Starting with the instructions the researcher can set the tone. For example instead of leading with a fixed completion time estimate you could say that expected completion time is 12 hours and 32 minutes. Of course you would want to follow this up with a re-assurance that you were just testing them to see if they were following the instructions and provide a realistic time estimate.

You could also use pop-ups or sub-questions that when triggered provide a brief humorous respite. For example if the respondent answers “no” to a question you could follow with a pop-up that says “bummer dude!”

One-offs are often used to bring the respondent back into the fold by leveraging a non-sense question and/or categories. It takes little effort to include a response category that has humor embedded.

The “thank you” page is also another place to include a humorous moment. You can wrap up the survey experience with a friendly passage, just like you would if concluding a conversation with a friend.

A cautionary note: humor is in the eye of the beholder. This means we have to know our audience and what they will and will not respond to. Sensitive subjects, such as bankruptcy, loss of a loved one, etc. are not the best place to use a light-hearted tone. However, if you are reaching out to video-gamers then an enthusiastic high-five may be just the trick.

Photo Credit: “Gags Key Shows Humor Jokes Or Comedy” by Stuart Miles courtesy of Free Digital Photos

Employee Engagement Fireworks: Why Cvent Employees #RedWhiteandBleedBlue

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As our nation commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July, people across the U.S. will show their patriotism by fervently taking part in customary American celebrations like going to baseball games, watching fireworks, throwing backyard barbeques and attending parades.

At the root of all the star-spangled spectacle are feelings of pride. People want to revel in their feelings of gratitude and loyalty toward their nation. While patriotism is a sentiment unique to citizens and their countries—companies can take a lesson and aspire to cultivate the professional equivalent—loyalty among employees.

At Cvent, we certainly do. Our motto is “Bleed Blue,” a phrase that references our company colors and our employees’ all-in attitude when it comes to working here. We aim to sustain an atmosphere of loyal, proud employees who are eager to celebrate the company’s traditions and future milestones—it’s really not unlike the spirit of a Fourth of July celebration. However, employee loyalty doesn’t materialize out of thin air; it’s a product of engagement. Before you can expect loyalty from your employees, you have to successfully listen, understand and engage with them. Here are just a few ways Cvent engages its employees.

  1. Collecting Employee Feedback– At Cvent, we use our web survey software to collect feedback from employees. We give everyone an opportunity to let the executive and human resources departments know how they feel about things like benefits, office culture, career development and management performance. Employees appreciate the opportunity to be heard, and take time to write honest, thoughtful responses detailing their likes, dislikes and ways to improve their work environment. Although no company can accommodate all the suggestions posited by its employees, Cvent makes sure to let employees know when change is taking place based on their feedback.

    In addition to using web surveys to measure employee engagement, Cvent uses them to gather pre- and post-event feedback. Before company outings, parties, happy hours and annual meetings, our event planning department surveys employees to determine their opinions on locations, venues, activities, and content if it’s a large-scale meeting. After company events, the planning department collects post-event feedback to find out how the experience can be improved upon in the future. This shows employees that decisions aren’t being made arbitrarily and that Cvent values building consensus.
     
  2. Preserving a Unique Company Culture– Like many successful companies that began as humble start-ups, Cvent had to use grit, hard work and ingenuity to claw its way to a more stable existence. Employee resourcefulness, creativity and collaboration trumped organizational hierarchies and traditional office formalities. Of course, some things evolved as our company matured—but whether it’s a flash mob at our annual meeting, casual dress code policy, easy access to senior management, or freedom to try out new ideas—Cvent’s leaders continue to make a pointed effort to preserve the culture upon which they founded the company. 
     
  3. Celebrating Achievements– Over the course of a 15-year existence Cvent has experienced some truly incredible feats. We’ve expanded our product lines, acquired other technology companies, went public, and will soon set up shop in a brand new office to accommodate our growing staff. Most recently, we became the only company in the Washington D.C. metro area rank among a prestigious trifecta of local best places to work lists, appearing in the Washington Business Journal, Virginia Magazine and Washington Post. Cvent believes that kind of success warrants the occasional celebration. Happy hours, holiday parties, social outings, World Cup viewing parties, and even simple department-wide lunches do a lot to boost morale and reinforce the significance of Cvent’s chief asset—its employees.

With Independence Day almost underway, step back and consider the level of employee engagement at your own organization. If your company was a nation and your employees were its citizens, would they be patriotic? Would they be excited to celebrate their loyalty? There is only one way to find out for sure. Collect their feedback and start setting off some employee engagement fireworks of your own. Schedule a demo of Cvent’s Web Survey solution, and watch how you can launch an employee engagement program that helps you increase satisfaction and reduce turnover.

Employee Engagement Fireworks: Why Cvent Employees #RedWhiteandBleedBlue

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As our nation commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July, people across the U.S. will show their patriotism by fervently taking part in customary American celebrations like going to baseball games, watching fireworks, throwing backyard barbeques and attending parades.

At the root of all the star-spangled spectacle are feelings of pride. People want to revel in their feelings of gratitude and loyalty toward their nation. While patriotism is a sentiment unique to citizens and their countries—companies can take a lesson and aspire to cultivate the professional equivalent—loyalty among employees.

At Cvent, we certainly do. Our motto is “Bleed Blue,” a phrase that references our company colors and our employees’ all-in attitude when it comes to working here. We aim to sustain an atmosphere of loyal, proud employees who are eager to celebrate the company’s traditions and future milestones—it’s really not unlike the spirit of a Fourth of July celebration. However, employee loyalty doesn’t materialize out of thin air; it’s a product of engagement. Before you can expect loyalty from your employees, you have to successfully listen, understand and engage with them. Here are just a few ways Cvent engages its employees.

  1. Collecting Employee Feedback– At Cvent, we use our web survey software to collect feedback from employees. We give everyone an opportunity to let the executive and human resources departments know how they feel about things like benefits, office culture, career development and management performance. Employees appreciate the opportunity to be heard, and take time to write honest, thoughtful responses detailing their likes, dislikes and ways to improve their work environment. Although no company can accommodate all the suggestions posited by its employees, Cvent makes sure to let employees know when change is taking place based on their feedback.

    In addition to using web surveys to measure employee engagement, Cvent uses them to gather pre- and post-event feedback. Before company outings, parties, happy hours and annual meetings, our event planning department surveys employees to determine their opinions on locations, venues, activities, and content if it’s a large-scale meeting. After company events, the planning department collects post-event feedback to find out how the experience can be improved upon in the future. This shows employees that decisions aren’t being made arbitrarily and that Cvent values building consensus.
     
  2. Preserving a Unique Company Culture– Like many successful companies that began as humble start-ups, Cvent had to use grit, hard work and ingenuity to claw its way to a more stable existence. Employee resourcefulness, creativity and collaboration trumped organizational hierarchies and traditional office formalities. Of course, some things evolved as our company matured—but whether it’s a flash mob at our annual meeting, casual dress code policy, easy access to senior management, or freedom to try out new ideas—Cvent’s leaders continue to make a pointed effort to preserve the culture upon which they founded the company. 
     
  3. Celebrating Achievements– Over the course of a 15-year existence Cvent has experienced some truly incredible feats. We’ve expanded our product lines, acquired other technology companies, went public, and will soon set up shop in a brand new office to accommodate our growing staff. Most recently, we became the only company in the Washington D.C. metro area rank among a prestigious trifecta of local best places to work lists, appearing in the Washington Business Journal, Virginia Magazine and Washington Post. Cvent believes that kind of success warrants the occasional celebration. Happy hours, holiday parties, social outings, World Cup viewing parties, and even simple department-wide lunches do a lot to boost morale and reinforce the significance of Cvent’s chief asset—its employees.

With Independence Day almost underway, step back and consider the level of employee engagement at your own organization. If your company was a nation and your employees were its citizens, would they be patriotic? Would they be excited to celebrate their loyalty? There is only one way to find out for sure. Collect their feedback and start setting off some employee engagement fireworks of your own. Schedule a demo of Cvent’s Web Survey solution, and watch how you can launch an employee engagement program that helps you increase satisfaction and reduce turnover.

Perks Don’t Necessarily Equate to Engagement

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lunchRecently I’ve been reading many articles where companies large and small are adding perks around the office for employees to enjoy: valet service, coffee shop, game rooms, free lunch and other activities free of charge. However, when you look at it, perks are good for attracting employees and sometimes retaining them, but most employees look past all of these goodies when it comes down to it.

"But my competitors are offering these perks, so I have to too, right?" Companies are introducing new perks quite often --- but are they really taking care of their employees when they do this?

Some companies look at it like this: if we give employees everything they need at work, they won’t have to leave. They can work longer hours and eat their meals in the office. But do employees want to work 12 hour days because their office has every amenity they can possibly think of?

After a while, these perks are going to wear off and when that happens, employers have to try to find other, natural ways to engage the employee base.

If management, leadership, career development, etc. aren’t there, then perks alone are not enough to craft an engaging culture. Think about this next time you’re looking to transform your 1st floor break room into a DDR competition every day at 12:30: let your employees know how they can have an impact on growing the company and where they will move to in the company if they are doing a great job. These efforts will lead to employee engagement and retain more people than a free coffee every now and then.

Are you employees engaged? Would they rather see less perks and more leadership? See how a Voice of the Employee program can help your company uncover these answers.

Emotional Drivers of Employee Engagement [[Infographic]]

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How engaged are employees at your organization? The below infographic that Dale Carnegie Training and MSW ARS Research put together shows the impact that both engaged and disengaged employees can have on an organization. If employees are engaged, look out world, your company will be on top! If they aren't, rough waters may lie ahead. Check out this infographic and see what some of the emotional drivers of engagement are:

infographic

Where does your company stand? Do you know what emotions are driving engagement within your building? Employee engagement is so critical to a company's success but the only real way to find out how engaged your employees are is to ask. Running continue Voice of the Employee programs is a surefire way get to the root of your employees thoughts, needs and emotions. Want to learn more about collecting employee feedback to ensure your employees have the right recipe of emotions to make engagement? Check out our playbook: Retain or Drain: The A.R.T. of Engaging Your Employees.

The Motivation Gap: How to Keep a Multi-Generational Workforce Engaged

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workInter-generational differences between Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y are especially pronounced in the workplace. It’s not hard to see why. The sheer range of communications styles, skill sets, aspirations, and values of different employees sitting side-by-side, confined within the four walls of an office for eight hours, is enough to present any organization’s leadership with a difficult conundrum. How do you keep employees who are shaped by distinctly different generational experiences equally engaged?

Sure, all employee are unique in their own way, regardless of age. A workplace policy that motivates one employee won’t necessarily motivate another just because they both happen to be Baby Boomers. But there is merit to the argument that members of different generations tend to exhibit qualities that are representative of their respective generations. Consider the different expectations of baby boomers and the millennial generation. Millennials, also referred to as Generation Y, were born between 1982 and 2000. Their formative years were marked by major advances in digital technology so communicating using technology like email, instant messaging, texting and social media is probably second nature and even preferable for them. On the other hand, Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, may be less familiar navigating modern technology and consequently favor face-to-face communication whenever possible.

The point is, a blanket-style approach to keeping your employees engaged, satisfied and productive isn’t effective when dealing with a multi-generational workforce. You’ll never be able to completely cater to the demands and preferences of every person in the office, but identifying certain trends among each generation will help your organization strike a healthy balance. The best way to identify these trends and key drivers of engagement is to use web surveys to collect feedback directly from your employees.

A lot of research has been done regarding the workplace preferences of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. Most of the differences revolve around compensation and benefits, frequency of management feedback, work/life balance and professional development.

Check out some of the latest statistics:

  • 57% of Baby Boomers named benefits as an important determinant of job satisfaction while only 49% of Millennials felt as strongly (SHRM).
  • Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1981, are most likely to ask for promotions and a flexible work locations, while Millennials are most likely to ask for mentors and training (SHRM).
  • An overwhelming majority of Millennials stated that workplace friendships had a positive impact on their productivity and motivation while 45% of workers ages 55-65 reported no effect on their professional performance (LinkedIn).
  • Nearly 50 percent of Millennials surveyed say they plan to depart from their employer after two years (Millennial Compass Report).

As you can see, recent studies have pinpointed some major rifts in what drives generational engagement. Here are some tips on designing an employee feedback program that can address them in an actionable way.

  1. Collect age information– In order to be able to measure the relationship between age and an employee’s drivers of engagement, you have to find out the age of your respondents. Use five-year age-range options in your survey to prevent you from collecting data that’s too general, while also ensuring that you don’t threaten respondents’ anonymity by making them state their exact age. If your organization is smaller, widen the age ranges or leave out other demographic questions that could further identify employees individually.
  2. Use a mix of questions types – Make sure your survey contains both Likert Scale questions and open-ended questions. The Likert Scale will help you determine the intensity of your respondents’ feelings, while open-ended questions provide insight into why respondents feel the way they do.
  3. Be Transparent– Let employees know why you’re conducting the survey and clue them in on your findings. It’s especially important to tell them when you’ve made changes based on their feedback—or if you can’t—explain why it’s not feasible at the current time. This builds trust among employees, while showing them that they’re valued.
  4. Devise Multiple Strategies – Once you’ve collected employee feedback and examined the data to see what drives engagement among different age groups, come up with a separate, actionable plan to improve engagement for each age group based on their differences.
  5. Continue to Collect Feedback – Now that you’ve begun to implement organizational changes based on your survey data, continue to conduct periodic pulse checks so you can monitor any positive or negative changes in engagement.

The office is a dynamic place that will continue to shift as Baby Boomers retire and Millennials rapidly ascend into management roles. An organizational policy that was wildly successful five years ago could be irrelevant or even detrimental to employee engagement today. The best way to ensure you’re creating an environment conducive to high engagement, low turnover and a healthy bottom line is to listen to what your employees have to say. For help on launching your employee engagement program, request a demo of Cvent Web Surveys.

Make Time for Employee Feedback

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feedbackThe cost estimates for replacing an employee vary widely depending upon the nature of the role. Regardless, it is an expensive and time-consuming task to recruit and onboard a new employee. Just as we are concerned with customer acquisition and retention the same thinking can be applied to recruiting and retaining top employee talent.

Research shows that engaged employees, compared to their lesser engaged counterparts, are 18% more productive and yield work that is of 60% higher quality. The Harvard Business Review estimates that disengaged employees in the United States cost the economy between $450 and $550 billion each year. It would make financial sense then to invest in employee engagement which can lead to direct impact on the bottom line.

The 360 survey is commonplace among companies of varying sizes and across industries. These annual surveys create a momentary snapshot of employee sentiment. They can provide an in-depth look into issues the employees consider important, but the data they collect goes stale. Data quality is proportional to recency.

However there are new models of measuring employee satisfaction and engagement. Quick polls can be used the check the employee pulse on a weekly basis. Each week employees are provided a single question poll asking about them to gauge the quality of their week. This can be followed up with a brief open-end asking for elaboration on what went right or what could have gone better. These polls can be anonymous if that is important to company culture. The responses can also have a manager’s name and department data appended post-facto thus allowing senior management the ability to track sentiment at the team level.

The high frequency of data collection allows for weekly trending which can become a leading indicator. Once sufficient data has been collected then it becomes an easy matter to correlate employee sentiment with other key measures such as sales and customer satisfaction. This timeliness increases the actionability of the data, which can be used to trigger alerts should a department’s data trend negative.

This format can identify symptoms but will require additional research to uncover the causes of employee sentiment. In short, it affords companies the ability to find the smoke before it becomes a fire.

Photo Credit: Time for feedback by Stuart Miles ID - 100146211


Make Time for Employee Feedback

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feedbackThe cost estimates for replacing an employee vary widely depending upon the nature of the role. Regardless, it is an expensive and time-consuming task to recruit and onboard a new employee. Just as we are concerned with customer acquisition and retention the same thinking can be applied to recruiting and retaining top employee talent.

Research shows that engaged employees, compared to their lesser engaged counterparts, are 18% more productive and yield work that is of 60% higher quality. The Harvard Business Review estimates that disengaged employees in the United States cost the economy between $450 and $550 billion each year. It would make financial sense then to invest in employee engagement which can lead to direct impact on the bottom line.

The 360 survey is commonplace among companies of varying sizes and across industries. These annual surveys create a momentary snapshot of employee sentiment. They can provide an in-depth look into issues the employees consider important, but the data they collect goes stale. Data quality is proportional to recency.

However there are new models of measuring employee satisfaction and engagement. Quick polls can be used the check the employee pulse on a weekly basis. Each week employees are provided a single question poll asking about them to gauge the quality of their week. This can be followed up with a brief open-end asking for elaboration on what went right or what could have gone better. These polls can be anonymous if that is important to company culture. The responses can also have a manager’s name and department data appended post-facto thus allowing senior management the ability to track sentiment at the team level.

The high frequency of data collection allows for weekly trending which can become a leading indicator. Once sufficient data has been collected then it becomes an easy matter to correlate employee sentiment with other key measures such as sales and customer satisfaction. This timeliness increases the actionability of the data, which can be used to trigger alerts should a department’s data trend negative.

This format can identify symptoms but will require additional research to uncover the causes of employee sentiment. In short, it affords companies the ability to find the smoke before it becomes a fire.

Photo Credit: Time for feedback by Stuart Miles ID - 100146211

Going, Going, Gone to Mobile

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Pete Townshend once sang about goin’ mobile. Now marketers and researchers are singing the same tune. The trend toward all things mobile continues unabated. This is one of those trends I certainly agree with, but as researchers we need to approach it with respect and understanding. It is not a trend to jump into without first becoming aware of its idiosyncrasies. Two points to ponder include:

Smartphone adoption is the driver behind the trend. Be aware however, that smartphone penetration it not equal across the board, with tweens and seniors being the best examples.
Question design is another key point of differentiation between standard online surveys and mobile. Namely, they have to be simplified.

Feedback On Smartphone ShowsSo if you have customers and prospects that are smartphone savvy, should you make the jump to mobile surveys? As stated previously the rules of design are not the same for mobile as they are online surveys, in fact we need to take a step back, and perhaps another step back. If your surveys rely upon advanced logic and heavy use of visual elements such as sliding scales you will need to let these go. Lengthy surveys covering many topics are not suitable for mobile delivery.

The key value proposition of mobile surveys is their ability to capture opinions in the moment. There is nothing more robust than a consumer’s opinions as the event, be it a purchase for example, is happening. Here are some key steps to consider if you want to transition to mobile delivered surveys:

Create short surveys – think three to five questions max
Keep those questions brief and preferably single-select or limited multiple-response
Avoid scaled questions that require visual sliders or other Flash-based question formats
Let go of the need for complicated logic

A perfect use case for mobile surveys came my way recently. A local restaurant chain wanted customer input regarding potential new milkshake flavors. The survey involved one multiple response question (select up to five flavors), one open-end (are there any other flavors) and one single select (which type of cup do you prefer for a milkshake). The survey could be completed with limited scrolling. In short it was ideally suited for mobile.

In summary, mobile delivered surveys are more than just the rage of the moment; they are fast becoming a necessary tool in the market researcher’s bag of tricks. They are not useful for complex surveys, but they are best applied when quick-hit opinions are needed.

Photo Credit: Stuart Miles at freedigitalphotos.net

Question: Are Your Samples Representative?

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For both B2B and consumer market researchers the question that lies in the back of our minds is to what degree is our sample a reasonable measure of the population(s) we are interested in? All aspects of our projects can be spot on, but if the respondents do not form a representative sample then the question of data quality arises.

balanceHow do we know if our sample is representative? There are many methods available to the researcher to ensure that the sample is free of bias. The first order of business is to make sure samples are selected randomly. There are numerous sources of error that are outside the researcher’s control. Randomization will minimize their impact. In theory randomization spreads potential bias evenly across all respondents sampled. If you are drawing a sample from a known list then there are several methods to create a random sample including simple random selection, stratified sampling or cluster sampling.

If you are conducting tracking studies such as brand awareness or customer satisfaction then timing is important to the process. These types of studies typically draw from a potential respondent pool that is created on an even time basis, e.g. weekly, monthly or quarterly. Samples drawn from different time frames can produce misleading results, due largely to factors outside of your direct control.

Having benchmark statistics to compare to is critical. This can be easily performed during the survey data analysis phase. If you have a known geographic distribution of sales then the distribution of survey respondents can be compared to this standard. If deviations are noted, for example one region responded more frequently than expected, then your survey response pool can be weighted after the fact. This is another good reason to invest in a CRM system that captures both transactional and consumer data.

The success of any consumer insight project requires that the samples selected, and subsequent response files align with known parameters. These parameters can be specific to the company or benchmarks set by projects such as the US Census. If making projections outside of your sample is important then you must pay attention to the quality of the sample and the data it provides.

Digging the Most Out of the Qualitative Data Mine

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Data quality is directly related to question quality. Nowhere is this truer than with open-ended questions. Qualitative research draws deeply from the well of consumer thought. The use of unstructured questions on surveys is an attempt to elicit that depth of feeling and emotion and harness it for consumer insight. The recent ascent of text analytics programs is driving the need for ever-richer comments, and more of them. Three points to consider.

Point one– target your open-ended questions so they best meet the needs and interest of respondent segments. If you are using complex logic in conjunction with a satisfaction question then different follow-up questions can be tied to the various satisfaction responses.

Point two– involves shifting from ‘what’ questions to ‘why’ questions. Research conducted by SMG shows that questions asking ‘why’ elicited responses that were approximately one-third longer than questions asking ‘what’. For example;

  • Please tell us why you were less than satisfied with the service at Uncle John's restaurant?
  • Please tell us why you were not highly satisfied with the quality of service at Terrapin Station?
  • Please tell us why you were highly satisfied with your most recent experience at Sugar Magnolia?

Point three– is all about where to place your open-ends. Unstructured questions placed early in the survey allow respondents the opportunity to ‘spill their beans.’ It would be easy to hypothesize that open-ended questions placed early in the survey flow would be advantageous due to lower levels of respondent fatigue. However the opposite is the case. Research on research shows that respondents believe a survey will take a greater time commitment when it begins with open-ended questions. This has a dampening effect upon completion rates.

The same research indicated higher levels of disconnect between sentiment in open-ended responses and subsequent closed questions when the open-ended questions were placed early in the survey flow.

In summary, target your open-ended questions to specific responses on your closed-ended questions. Using advanced logic will facilitate this. Second, shifting your focus from asking 'what' to asking 'why'. This will drive more thoughtful comments. Lastly, location is king. Place your open-ended questions later in the survey. It will positively effect survey response rate and enhance the connection between closed and open-ended questions.

Need some more helpful survey tips? Check out The Art and Science of Asking Questions?

Using Binary Scales to Shorten a Survey

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In consumer or B2B marketing research, as in life in general, there is typically more than one way to ask a question. Some of these methods are easier on the part of the survey respondent, while others although a bit more complicated yield richer results for our survey data analysis. When we are interested in measuring consumer attitudes toward companies, brands or products we typically call on the tried and true Likert scale. This scale, and many like it, is multi-dimensional and measures with comparatively higher levels of validity and reliability.

Yet to facilitate analysis, and presentations to senior management, we often end up collapsing these scales into a top-2 box or some derivative. If we know that ultimately we will go there, then why not consider a binary alternative up front and save yourself the trouble of re-coding variables. The primary reason for not going there initially is marketers, like most of us in the survey research business, like variation. We also like having the choice to collapse the data or not.

On occasion a binary measure, especially if it is wedged into a long survey, will serve the purpose. Below is an example of a binary attitude measure from a recent mobile technology survey.

True and false

What we give up in the ability to measure variation and create our own sub-groups is offset by the ease of analysis and a less intensive experience for the survey respondent. Even with binary measures we can still create a summary scale if the true/false questions are coded 0/1. I would suggest adding one or more negative measures to encourage a more thoughtful process on the part of the respondent.

Binary measures do have their place on a survey, and they don’t need to be limited to yes/no or demographics (male/female). If you are proposing a long survey then consider them as an alternative to lengthier scales, however keeping in mind your analysis needs.

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