Knowledge Center
How to Design Surveys That Work for You
By Timothy Bentley
The creation of an effective survey is like a 7-act play:
- Devise an integrated plan
- Inform stakeholders
- Write the questionnaire
- Select responders
- Run the survey
- Generate the report
- Distribute the results
You'll find complete information about setting up effective surveys in the Panoramic Feedback Manual which you will receive when you register.
Devise an Integrated Plan
The key to valuable surveys is careful planning and implementation.
If you are planning an organizational survey, it should be integrated with the organization's mission, values, and strategic plan. That means you must understand them, clarifying exactly what information the survey should gather to help the organization fulfill its responsibilities and prosper. You will want to look not only at how closely the proposed survey corresponds with the strategic plan, but how it measures up against the inevitable changes and challenges in its environment.
Inform Stakeholders
The approach of a survey raises many questions. Why? Why now? What changes are being planned? Who will be affected?
Make sure that everyone who is likely to hear so much as a whisper about the survey receives clear information about why it is taking place and what the organization hopes to gain from it. Inform them early on of a central contact to whom they can go with questions, concerns, or advice for the survey organizers.
Be prepared to answer all questions and respond to concerns in an open manner. This means having your own thoughts organized and clear. Let everyone know exactly why you are conducting a survey, what will happen to the results, who will see the reports. Be absolutely honest about it; make promises, and keep them.
Write the Questionnaire
Deciding exactly what to assess requires discipline and insight. At a time when we need all the information we can get, it is sometimes tempting to ask for the moon. It is a rewarding challenge to limit the scope of the survey, choosing which questions are most important to ask, to avoid overwhelming the responder.
As a starting point, ask yourself these questions about the proposed survey:
- What are the issues that need to be clarified?
- What information is already available on these topics?
- What do you suspect are the most important questions to be asked?
- Will responders fear replying frankly?
- What do you expect the answers to be?
- Who most needs to hear them?
- What action needs to be taken?
- Assuming it leads to action, what impact is the new data likely to have on the aims and success of your organization?
Select Responders
Deciding who to invite to respond depends on many factors: the survey topic, the level of interest, departmental affiliation, familiarity with the issues, and others.
When producing surveys for small groups, it is often wise to survey everyone who is likely to have answers. Sometimes you can profitably survey three or four people, but you stand a better chance of developing helpful data when you get the input of all or most of the people in the group.
For medium and large organizations, the issue is less one of numbers than efficiency. If productivity is a concern, the challenge is to select a responder group that fairly represents the various demographics of the organization. Much of the time, however, there are good reasons for inviting everyone to respond to a survey. You benefit from the widest possible perspective, and at the same time you advertise your commitment to communication, your interest in everyone's ideas, and your respect for all your members, employees, colleagues, or contacts.
Panoramic Feedback provides Auto Emails to notify responders about the survey, saving you time and increasing accuracy. Responders who receive their Personal IDs by Auto Email get them accurately the first time, reducing delay and frustration .
If you are dealing with a large number of potential responders, you may not be able to check whether every one of them is appropriate. Your credibility will be enhanced if you offer those who do not wish to reply (usually because of unfamiliarity with the issues) the option of being dropped from the list. Panoramic Feedback's unique opt-out feature offers those people the opportunity to enter valuable comments that explain to survey organizers why they want to be excluded from the survey.
Run the Survey
While the survey is actually running, the experience is quiet but awe-inspiring.
It all happens while you, well, sleep. Emails fly out automatically. People log in and respond.
There's a vast amount of buzz on the Internet and very little at your desk. Until you decide to generate a report.
Generate the report
As soon as people begin to respond, you can generate Interim reports (clearly marked) that give you a foretaste of the final result, and allow you to experiment with report customization.
Creating an effective final report is something of an art. The Panoramic Feedback report has powerful sorting (cross-tabulation) capabilities, enabling you to generate multiple reports on the data for various audiences. And you can add text throughout the report to clarify the context of certain questions and responses.
Other layout options include A4 or 8.5x11 paper sizes, and choice of bar graph or pie chart display for multiple choice questions. You can choose whether to display narrative comments and high/low responses to each numeric question.
And you can export all the responses for further analysis using a database or spreadsheet, without compromising the confidentiality of individual responders.
Distribute the Results
For greatest credibility (especially in organizations where people are skeptical about the likelihood of positive change) provide reports to as many people as possible. Present the data in both raw and sorted form, to reveal that your own prejudices aren't obscuring the information.
For decision-makers, you may wish to provide Panoramic Feedback's attractive, colorful reports in the form of printed documents that they can annotate. For other interested parties, you can send an economical paperless PDF file.
Make sure you acknowledge the contribution of those who took the risk of offering unpopular, challenging responses. It requires courage to speak one's own truth, and yet that uncomfortable truth may be the impetus for crucial change and development.
You may or may not personally have the authority to make changes based on the data you have collected. But see yourself at a minimum as its steward. Help decision-makers remain aware that the survey has created expectations which they need to manage. This is a rare and powerful opportunity to lead and inspire.
Timothy Bentley is Chief Operating Officer of Panoramic Feedback.
