No matter how your organization is performing in the current economic climate, it’s important that you have a good understanding of how your employees feel about their roles, your leadership, the work environment, and more. It always makes good business sense to take a proactive approach to managing your human resources--rather than reacting to situations as they arise--and employee surveys allow you to do this.

A well-crafted employee survey can affirm the steps you are taking to engage employees and ensure their loyalty; more important, it can help you determine areas where you need to improve and help you decide the types of policies, processes, and programs you need to implement. For example, if your company has had to cut salaries and benefits during the recession, how are your employees reacting? Do they understand the need? Are your leaders managing it in a way that promotes openness, or do they need to improve their communication efforts? Can you create low-cost programs to help boost morale? On the other hand, what if your company is growing? Are you doing so in such a way that your employees still feel connected? Are you continuing to focus on your company’s values amid all the change?

These are questions to which you need answers because all of this affects your bottom line. Research presents varying figures on the cost of employee turnover, with some sources indicating that replacing an employee costs up to one and a half times his or her salary. Considering that 36 percent of employees are at high risk of leaving (according to the 2007 Walker Loyalty Report for Loyalty in the Workplace), you face losing a lot of money. Offering employees an opportunity to provide feedback, listening to them, and actively addressing their concerns can help make a difference. A study published in the Harvard Business Review notes that if you can improve retention by just 5 percent, you can cut costs by 10 percent and boost productivity between 25 and 65 percent.

Your survey can ask about a number of areas, including leadership, compensation and benefits, communication, and diversity. Questions can allow for multiple-choice ratings, which are easy to administer and analyze, as well as for open-ended questions, which give the employees a chance to better express themselves. Good surveys will also ask some demographic questions, allowing managers to see how different departments compare to one another, for example, or how employees’ length of service influences their attitudes.

You should realize, though, that an employee survey won’t be a cure-all. In fact, it could cause more harm than good if you don’t conduct it properly. If the questions are poorly phrased, if they don’t focus on the right subjects, if you analyze the data incorrectly, or if managers aren’t prepared and willing to follow through, the survey can have an adverse affect on employee attitudes. To alleviate some of these problems, here are five tips to follow:

1. Make sure your company’s leaders are committed. If senior leaders don’t care about conducting an employee survey, it’s likely they won’t be interested in addressing the concerns raised in the survey. The survey will be a waste of time, and if employees sense that no one listened to their input, you will face negative consequences. Before you proceed, take the idea to the top and make sure that your organization’s officers have bought in and are willing to take action.

2. Get the help of HR professionals. Experienced HR professionals—whether in-house employees or outside consultants—should help you develop appropriate questions and administer the survey. They can ensure that employees understand the purpose of the survey, the opportunities it provides, and any limitations it has. They can also help plan the focus of the survey and interpret results. It’s important to remember that no two organizations are alike, so your survey should be customized accordingly—a standard one-size-fits-all survey usually isn’t effective.

3. Stress that the survey is confidential. This is essential. To get the most open and honest opinions, you must ensure employees that their responses will remain anonymous. If there’s any doubt about this, the results will be skewed and the survey will be worthless. Using an outside firm to help administer the survey and interpret results can help in this regard.

4. Examine the results closely. Give careful consideration to the survey results--don’t just accept them at face value. Employees often answer based on emotion, and their responses can contain hidden meaning. For example, if a particular department receives high marks on leadership, it could mean that the supervisor is indeed leading well, but it might also mean that she’s adopted a hands-off work style and is not holding people accountable. Be aware of this pitfall, and look for clues in other answers, including open-ended remarks, that can confirm your interpretation.

5. Communicate results as quickly as possible. Upon completing a survey, employees feel vested in the process and want to know the outcome. They have every right to feel this way, and you should share the results through feedback meetings. You should provide as many of the details as possible (making sure to limit any information that will compromise confidentiality or reflect poorly on particular individuals), and just as important, you should address action steps the organization will take based on the survey results.

For additional advice on employee surveys or to find out how FlashPoint has helped organizations conduct them, contact us. You can also find out more by visiting the surveys page on our website.