Managing the survey process
Gathering data from employees and stakeholders (both internal and external) helps us make smarter decisions. But if we want our audiences to continue responding to our surveys and to take our improvement efforts seriously, we need to make sure that all data-gathering efforts:
* Reflect the Right Methodology (the right sample, questions, data collection method, and analyses)
* Send the Right Messages…implicitly and explicitly, to the respondents whose perceptions we’re trying to improve
* Have the Right Follow-through Strategy (we know how we’re going to translate the data into action)
Here are some questions you may want to ask before deploying a survey.
Right Method:
Is the approach (quantitative vs. qualitative) appropriate?
If measuring satisfaction, is the underlying satisfaction model valid?
Are our questions appropriately constructed?
Are we using appropriate response scales?
Do we have the right sample and sampling strategy?
Are we using an appropriate data collection method?
Are we conducting appropriate analyses on the data?
Right Messages:
The research process “sends a message.” Have we identified what we want the message to be?
Will the research process support our “know, believe, and do” goals?
Have we considered what unintended messages the research process will send and accounted for them?
Do we have a plan for credibly demonstrating that we’re acting on the feedback?
Right Follow-through:
Who needs to be involved in interpreting the research results and translating them into action?
How will we catalog and provide access to the data?
How will we bring various data together to better understand systemic relationships?
How to best work within and across organizational silos to translate results into action plans?