ET17 Revisiting the employee survey with Paul Thoresen

We are delighted to welcome back Paul Thoresen on this episode of EvidenceTALKS. We first interviewed Paul on episode 9 about employee surveys and the concept of engagement and it proved to be a very popular episode indeed! So, we thought we would invite him back to discuss in more details some of the practical aspects of conducting surveys. Paul and Richard start with the fundamental question 'Do you really need to run a survey?'. Paul argues that any survey should be part of a wider strategy, rather than a tactical exercise. He recognises the challenge of moving away from an existing provider where you are familiar with the content, the process, the supplier and the difficulties of benchmarking old and new data, but if you need to do something differently, then it is worth reviewing the whole process. Another area discussed is being clear what you're going to do with the survey data. If you're asking employees to invest their time, energy and effort into taking part, what happens afterwards is extremely important. This leads on to a common challenge around budget and resources, where organisations invest their money in the administration of the survey, but don't think through the whole process such as feedback, action planning or communications. Survey is a process, not an event, therefore allocating resources and budget in a more balanced way is key. Paul and Richard go on to discuss what makes a good survey, exploring issues such as the variety of concepts they can measure (engagement, satisfaction, commitment), being clear about strategic objectives, the technical properties of the survey, transparency of vendors and quality of how the survey is implemented (pre & post survey). If you missed Paul's first interview you can listen here: http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/evidencetalks/id/5239508 If you have questions about your own organisational survey, please do get in touch: [e-mail]  Recommended books and resources: "Getting Action from Organizational Surveys: New Concepts, Technologies, and Applications': http://my.siop.org/Publications/SIOP-Store/Professional-Practice-Series/BKctl/ViewDetails/SKU/SIOPPHB9 'Designing and Using Organizational Surveys: A Seven-Step Process': edited by Church, Waclawski , and Kraut. "Organization Development: A data Driven Approach to Organisational Change'. http://my.siop.org/Publications/SIOP-Store/Professional-Practice-Series/BKctl/ViewDetails/SKU/SIOPPHB17 "Employee Engagement Survey Readiness Checklist" https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140322174642-29417413-employee-engagement-survey-readiness-checklist by Employee Engagement Survey Readiness Checklist | LinkedIn www.linkedin.com Before making decisions, it is useful to have a process to see if you are prepared to take the next step. Are you ready to buy a house? Are you ready to ...