Developing an Employee Survey for Small Business
Tacofino believes that a great way to understand employee engagement is to ask them how they feel about their workplace. As a small business, their way to collect data is different than for large business.
Below is their strategy to efficiently and effectively roll out an employee engagement survey.
1. Create a Sample Size
Based on the size of your organization, you may choose to ask everyone to fill out the survey, or ask a certain percentage of employees. If you decide to ask a segment of your employees, pay attention to how that sample is selected. Is there representation of roles? Is the selection randomized? Is there representation from different locations?
2. Set a Target
Decide ahead of time how many employees you want to hear from. What’s a reasonable sample size? A reasonable response rate target is 20%. However, if your organization has 20 people—you may choose to have that number be 50% or higher.
3. Communicate the ‘Why’
With team members being so busy, it is important for employees to understand why they should contribute. What’s in it for them? Why are you asking these questions? Ensure that team leaders also understand the why, so they can help answer any questions that might arise.
4. Make It Easy
One of the barriers to employees filling out a survey will be how hard it is for them to contribute. Tacofino provides each employee with 15 minutes during the work day, of paid time, to fill it out. Computers are available in the back of the restaurant for employees to do it during work hours. Tacofino ensures that the survey is short—with minimal questions, allowing a team member to do it comfortably during this time.
5. Ensure Anonymity
Tacofino ensures that each employee knows that their contributions are anonymous, and will only be looked at in aggregate. This allows people to be candid in their responses.
6. Follow Up
Tacofino follows up with employees as they know that people get busy, distracted—and may want to contribute—but forget to do so. They utilize their managers to help follow up at every store to ensure they reach their target completion. The survey is open for a month, which allows everyone to complete it.