A low employee survey participation rate is either due to a) lack of time b) lack of trust c) lack of communication d) trained apathy or e) all of the above. Every single one of these reasons is a leadership problem (I'm coming right out of the gate with hard truths today). The good news, leaders can solve every single one of these issues. Below, I address how to increase employee survey participation (post launch) in all of these scenarios. Plus, I discuss a few bad practices to avoid magnifying the problem.
A) If lack of time is the problem
First of all, unless you are going through a massive employee satisfaction study with accompanying questionnaire (a project typically lead by an outsourced vendor), your surveys shouldn't require more than 10 minutes of time (and that is pushing it). So, barring this scenario, employees being too busy to complete a survey is a cultural problem. Are employee calendars so tightly scheduled they can't fit in a 5 minute questionnaire? Is over-time not permitted for valid, and important, work reasons?
If managers and/or human resources are getting feedback, "I just don't have time," then create the needed time. Have managers let out a meeting 10 minutes early to free up time for survey completion. Pay employees OT to complete the survey (this is work and should always be done on the clock for legal purposes) if they can't fit it into their regular day.
For bonus points, consider if there are cultural changes needed in order to free up employee time to think, brainstorm, catch their breath, and avoid burnout.
B) If lack of trust is the issue
I've lost count of how many times I've fielded the question, "Yeah, but is this really anonymous?" Some people have a natural distrust of those in charge. Be very clear what identifying data is collected from survey participants and how it is used. Is the data truly anonymous? Can the HR team see participant names? Who sees job titles? These are the types of questions you should be answering for employees.
Furthermore, to the extent possible, create a fully anonymous survey. However, make sure the data doesn't become so aggregated you can't segment responses into useful categories. Most likely, you will want to know the employees department and/or division. Knowing their manager is extremely helpful too, so you can provide input to that leader to help their growth. Again, share all of these details with employees, letting them know why you are asking for certain details, like their job title. Transparency can alleviate trust issues.
C) If lack of communication is causing low response rate
Often, the easiest way to increase employee survey participation is to increase survey communication; this includes details about survey logistics, the survey purpose, and the value proposition. Hopefully, you already have a communication strategy as part of your survey project plan. If not, now is the time to create one.
Communicating logistics
Employees should receive communications several times throughout the survey run. For example, if you are running a survey for a week, 3 digital reminders should be scheduled during that week (day 1, mid week, last day). These are friendly reminders with clear instructions and timelines. "Please complete the anonymous employee engagement survey by Tuesday EOD. The survey is 6 questions and takes 5 minutes to complete. Follow this link to access the questionnaire," should do the trick.
Use multiple communication channels - email, chat groups, daily huddles, etc. Pro tip: Add a reminder on the final day to everyone's work calendar.
Communicating purpose
When employee understand why the survey is being conducted, they are more apt to weigh in. Even if you run surveys regularly, let them know the purpose of this specific questionnaire. Try a statement like, "Team, it's time for our quarterly engagement survey. Thank you for participating and helping us determine where to focus our attention as we continue to improve our culture." Or, "We haven't done an employee survey in awhile and we want to hear from you about our benefits and training programs. Please complete the questionnaire so we can enhance the programs to suit your needs."
Managers should also share with their team during a standing meeting how they plan to use the data for improvements. Display an eagerness and willingness to read all of the input, even the criticisms, to make the team an even better place to work.
Communicating value prop
As an extension of communicating purpose, communicating a value proposition let's employees know what they have to gain by completing the survey. Let them know what is in it for them. (spoiler alert - the value to the employee isn't an incentive; it's an improved work culture or program). Will the survey help design a better benefit program? Will it help direct budget and activities in a hybrid environment? Will it help leaders improve the culture or working environment to boost retention? Be clear with employees what they can gain as a result of the survey analysis; with skin in the game, you should see an increase in employee survey participation.
D) If your employees have been trained to be apathetic
Trained apathy simply means that based on past experience, employee know longer give a hoot. If surveys have been conducted in the past with no results communicated and no changes witnessed, employees will be far less motivated to participate in future surveys. Trained apathy can take time to bounce back from.
The first step to recovering from trained apathy with employees is to admit past failures. That sounds like, "We've conducted surveys in the past and done a poor job of communicating results and action plans. That was a misstep on our part and we are fixing that, starting today." Then, let them know the action plan to fix this. When and how will you communicate survey results and corresponding action plans? Will you provide them access to the data? How will managers use the input to guide their teams. Of course, it is critical to follow through on this action plan; otherwise, you are digging an even deeper hole to climb out of.
Bad Practices
There are some practices that can hurt your response rate or undermine your objective of obtaining accurate employee input. My recommendation is to steer clear of the following:
- Incentivizing employee survey participation: Yes, many sources (some even seemingly reliable) will tell you cash or prizes are a good way to increase feedback. As already stated, a low response rate is data you need to pay attention to. Incentivizing participation will mask that problem...and, it is a problem that needs addressing.
Additionally, rewards for responses can insert bias into your study, which isn't all that helpful to the analysis. Let's say, for example, you offer $5 coffee gift card to survey participants. That $5 might appeal to employees making minimum wage more than to higher earns. While your survey participation rate may increase, it might be skewed toward one employee group.
If employees aren't engaged enough to complete a survey without a prize, you already know where to focus your attention - what is killing your engagement?
- Mandating survey completion: Yes, some companies track who has responded. And, some go so far as to include participation as an employee quarterly goal. Really, just don't do this. See above about masking the problem of low response rates and improving the root issue - engagement/trust/culture.
- Badger employees to complete the survey: Survey participation is an important tool for a company to identify goals, problems, and projects. This task is critical to operations. Coercing employees to participate belittles the project, making it seem like a nuisance from the muckity-mucks at headquarters. Encourage, provide value props, explain. Avoid crossing over to browbeating.
Summary
If you launched your questionnaire and aren't seeing the response rate you'd like, evaluate the cause of the problem. What feedback are you hearing from employees? How have past surveys been handled? Ultimately, you are working to solve a leadership and culture issue around time, trust, communication, and/or apathy.
And please, if you take nothing else away from this post, stop incentivizing employee survey participation.
If you'd like more info on best practices for employee surveys, check out our article on tactics for implementing your questionnaire
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