How to design and conduct employee engagement surveys

Author: Kate Pritchard

Summary

Click on any of the hyperlinks to go to more detailed guidance below.

• Use employee engagement surveys to measure levels of employee engagement and to identify where to take action to improve engagement and enhance performance.
• Decide on the survey's aims, scope and timescale.
• Consider what themes to explore, whether or not previous surveys have been conducted and the response scale to questions.
• Explore the benefits of conducting an employee engagement survey in-house or with the assistance of an external survey provider.
• Raise awareness about the reasons for conducting an employee engagement survey, to encourage employees to complete it.
• Take steps to encourage employees to complete the survey, including demonstrating senior commitment to it.
• Respect employees' confidentiality and reassure them of the anonymity of their responses.
• Analyse the results to inform decisions around what follow-up actions to take.
• Inform employees about the results to maintain their engagement with the process.
• Take action on the results, which should involve careful planning and development, training managers and tracking results.