PCI Employee Opinion Surveys

EMPLOYEE OPINION SURVEYS

Keeping in Touch With Your Employees

How do your employees feel about…

Their jobs?
Their work conditions?
Their benefits?
Their supervisors?
Your organization as a whole?

PCI can gather such information, analyze it, and feed back accurate and valuable insights to you through our Employee Opinion Survey.

Who better than PCI? We are experienced; we have been doing surveys for over thirty years. We have worked with hospitals, service organizations, financial institutions, and manufacturing firms, to help them understand employee needs and concerns.

What sort of organization can make the best use of an opinion survey? We have conducted surveys for organizations ranging in size from 9 to more than 4,000 employees. Surveys are valuable in organizations…

With a history of poor employee-management communications.
That want to avoid union conflict.
In which there is evidence of employee morale or performance problems, but no clear indication of their causes.
In which there has been a major change in management through reorganization or merger.
In which complex structure limits management’s view of what is going on.
That are geographically spread out, so management does not have the opportunity to hear all the needs of all employees.

Case number 1.
Using a custom-design survey, a manufacturing firm improved its training and development programs. They used the PCI Opinion Survey to determine training needs within its supervisory ranks. As a result, supervisors were helped to develop a more open communication style; and employee commitment to the organization rose dramatically.

Survey Benefits
Implementing a PCI opinion survey will enable you to…

Identify your organization’s strengths, so you can capitalize on them.
Identify organizational weakness, to build in those areas.
Evaluate the potential effects of, and resistance to, organizational changes.
Discover misconceptions or lack of information about specific issues so these can be remedied.
Locate causes of high turnover, absenteeism, accidents, errors and other problems related to low morale.
Compare attitudes among different departments or work groups to identify problem areas.
Assess the impact of specific policies, programs, or activities on employees.
Make better use of your employee population as a source of ideas, feedback and suggestions.
Demonstrate your organization’s commitment to human relations.

Case number 2.
A Fortune 500 firm was concerned about the high turnover among MBA management trainees. A PCI psychologist interviewed a sample of employees who had left the firm over the previous 18 months. We learned that many promising trainees had resigned as a consequence of being unprepared to cope with the company’s high-pressure work environment. Recruiting efforts were reduced to identify graduates more able to handle stress.

Survey Format
The survey Our approach will be tailored to the needs of your organization. PCI surveys can be conducted using the Internet as well as a variety of other data gathering techniques. We use a standardized, 100-item written questionnaire to assess the employees’ attitudes toward 23 critical aspects of work life. Questionnaire items are in a multiple-choice format and have been tested in a variety of work settings.

Customizing You have the opportunity to add custom items to address your concerns about the impact of specific programs, reactions to changes or the attitudes of particular work groups. We can also do completely customized surveys.

Function-specific items To supplement the core survey, you can choose from optional sets of 25 pre-tested survey items. One set is designed to evaluate the specific concerns of supervisors; another focuses on the attitude of sales personnel.

The survey interview (A semi-structured interview) The interview is typically used to supplement questionnaire results with open-ended comments from a sample of employees. In cases where there is a small population, where information is complex, or where the targeted group may resist completing a survey form, the major focus has been on the interview.

Case number 3.
A hospital conducted an opinion survey at a time when morale was low and a union organizing campaign was anticipated. Using the survey results and PCI recommendations, management, with input from employee advisory groups, made sweeping changes to the department benefits program, the management style in certain departments, and the structure and activities of the personnel function. One immediate result of these changes was that the union was not voted in. In follow-up surveys conducted over the next several years the continuing positive effects of these and other subsequent changes were documented.

Using Survey Results
PCI staff will analyze your employees’ multiple-choice responses, written comments, and interview input. We will prepare an interpretive report that will cover all the findings and our recommendations for remedial action in everyday English – no psychological jargon. The results will be analyzed to allow comparisons of any job or demographic subgroups you select.

We will hold a feedback meeting with the top management, to ensure full understanding of what we have learned. PCI staff can also conduct feedback sessions for middle management, supervisors and employees. As an option we can prepare a feedback script, visual aids, and training so your personnel can conduct these sessions… or we can prepare written feedback material to be distributed to employees or published in your in-house newspaper.

PCI will assist you to develop action plans to deal with problems identified by the survey. It can be useful to involve employees in this follow-up process. Either a PCI consultant will act as a facilitator for employee meetings or we can train your personnel to do so.

PCI can conduct a follow-up survey to determine if the remedial actions taken have brought about the desired changes in employee attitudes.

Case number 4.
In a retail chain, the work group in one warehouse location was seriously alienated from the rest of the corporation. Top management suspected the local manager as the cause of poor morale. A PCI attitude survey disclosed that the local manager was actually perceived very favorably by his subordinates. Top management, on the other hand, was viewed as distant and unconcerned because of their lack of response to their complaints about working conditions. As a result of the survey, management made some physical changes in the warehouse; morale improved and efficiency was enhanced.

Questions About Opinion Surveys
1. How long does it take to do an opinion survey?
A well-planned opinion survey can be administered relatively quickly. The key is initial planning. For example, in an organization with 1,500 employees, a comprehensive survey can be administered, interviews with a sample of 5% of the employees conducted, the results compiled, and initial feedback given to management in no more than ten weeks. For smaller organizations this time may be considerably less.

2. Aren’t opinion surveys expensive? Are they worth the investment?
The value of the survey depends on the use the management makes of the results. Survey costs will vary depending on the extent of the survey and the size of your firm. Employee-oriented organizations can get major return in increased productivity, more open communications, and enhanced morale by making effective use of the survey findings.

3. Do surveys of this sort raise expectations that cannot be met?
Management need not commit itself to giving employees everything they ask for, nor do employees expect management to do so. The purpose of an opinion survey is to identify issues, not to resolve them. It is expected that management will respond to the issues that are raised, but that response often involves simply providing more information.

Case number 5.
A bank found that its advertising programs were having an adverse effect on the morale of its public-contact employees. Those employees derived great satisfaction from the service aspect of their jobs. The ads presented them as aggressive and sales-oriented. Opinion survey findings led the bank to develop new approaches to advertising – approaches costing no more, having public appeal and enabling employees to take greater pride in their image. This pride was reflected in their dealings with customers and prospective clients.

Other Applications
Surveys can help solve a variety of organizational problems. Other uses are…

Internal training needs analysis.
Consumer attitude research.
Public opinion measurement.
Increasing employee awareness of specific issues.

To obtain further information about how a PCI Opinion Survey can help you call us at (412) 967-1130 or email Dr. Alfred Schnur. We will review your needs with no obligation on your part, and prepare a formal proposal if you wish.

PCI Human Resource Consulting, Inc.
1000 RIDC Plaza, Gamma Drive, Suite 204, Pittsburgh, PA 15238
Phone: (412) 967-1130, Fax: (412) 967-9199
TOLL FREE: 1-800 392 2927

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