Taking the time to engage the team in your survey project is an important step which is often missed by organisations who are keen to quickly launch their survey.
Whilst this anticipation is understandable, not investing the time at this stage is likely to have an impact on the overall project success reducing the number of responses and the quality of feedback you receive.
Prior to launch, your team need to understand:
- Why you are running this survey and the positive benefits to them.
- When the survey will be running.
- What to expect – i.e. details about the survey and how they will receive it.
- Who will see the data and how their anonymity will be protected.
There are multiple ways you can let your team know about the survey and we advise utilising as many of your existing communication channels as possible.
As a minimum, we recommend sending 3 communications to the team, ideally over a 4–6-week period prior to launch.
Communication 1 – This should introduce the survey project and its aims.
Things to include:
- The business objective for running the survey
- Why obtaining employee feedback is important to your business
- Timescales for the survey
Please click here for a link to a Word template which you can adapt and use for this communication.
Communication 2 – This should provide full details of what to expect.
Things to include:
- Launch period including what an employee should do if they are on holiday/unavailable during this time.
- Survey delivery methods
- Benefits to employees of having their say
- Reassurance of anonymity
- Next steps – post survey
- Who to contact if they have any questions
Please click here for a link to a Word template which you can adapt and use for this communication.
Communication 3 – This is usually sent out the week before the launch as a general reminder that the survey is coming.
Things to include:
- Launch date reminder
- How they will receive the survey – i.e. link from provider
- Reminder of the importance of having their say.
Please click here for a link to a Word template which you can adapt and use for this communication.
Launch Poster
In addition to the templates provided above we will also provide you with a personalised PDF poster for you to put up around your business to keep the survey and launch date in mind. The best places to put these are in communal employee areas such as break rooms, meeting rooms and canteens. We also find the back of lavatory doors works well 😊.
We advise you put these posters up once the 2nd communication has been sent advising of the specific launch date.
Other Communications
Below is a list of other communication methods you can use to share information about your upcoming survey:
- Intranet
- Business newsletters
- Team meetings
- Managers briefings
- Screen Savers
- Email footers
- Video message from the Business Leader
- SMS/WhatsApp Group message
- Payslips
If you would like any further advice on how to engage your team in your survey project, please let us know and we can discuss in our next project call.