Surveys and diagnostics
Surveys are one of the most effective ways of measuring your employee’s opinions and attitudes, and demonstrating that their views count. Given the importance of this information in strategic decision-making - it is imperative that you get it right. The Work Foundation’s survey team is a recognised leader in organisational research with a commitment to research, evidence and analysis as the key to unlocking strategy, delivery and engaging your staff in shaping the future.
We offer a variety of services such as:
Employee opinion surveys
These measure what your employees think about your organisation, covering a range of indicators from job satisfaction, to management behaviours and style, to development and awareness of organisational objectives. Built around a model of engagement your survey will focus on strategies to build commitment, loyalty and motivation amongst your employees.
Customer satisfaction surveys
How well do you know your customers? To what extent are they satisfied with the service you provide and how you communicate with them? A well designed survey can provide invaluable feedback that will drive improvements, influence your market offering and product development, inform resourcing, and highlight development needs.
Stakeholder analysis
Who are your key stakeholders? Staff, clients, shareholders, suppliers, the community….essentially they are the key players that can influence the decisions your organisations make. Recognising your stakeholders, and developing a greater understanding of how they influence ,their perceptions of you, and the actions you take, can be a powerful piece of strategic information. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods can be used to gather this information.
Communication audits
How effectively are you communicating? Are messages consistent and getting through to the right people? Is your communication strategy hitting the spot? How skilled are your managers at communicating? What stops/facilitates messages from getting down, and up, your organisation? Do departments/teams work in silos or is there a healthy flow of information across the organisation? Both qualitative and quantitative methods can find the answers to these questions and more, and our communication experts will then work with you to review, revise and re-evaluate your communication strategy.
Exit surveys
Exit surveys provide valuable information about your information. If turnover is high, either across the organisation or in a specific area, exit surveys will help you to take a strategic view of what is causing people to leave your organisation. We can design your exit surveys, review existing data, benchmark against normative trends, map your exit data against other HR metrics, and use the data to inform your people and/or retention strategy.
Benchmarking
Comparing your survey results against normative data is incredibly useful as it enables you to contextualise your results. We can also undertake benchmarking on a broader scale — on any HR issue — either by researching current trends and mapping your metrics against these, and/or through best practice case studies.
Work and well being audits
The Health and Safety Executives guidelines on managing workplace stress emphasise the need to understand and manage the pressures being faced by your employees and set standards against which to compare. Analysis of demands, roles, control latitude, relationships at work, and the management of change informs this process and data can then be mapped against HR metrics such as sickness absence, turnover, grievances, etc. We then work with you to develop strategies that address issues.
Positive work environments
From the physical space in which we work, to relationships at work, to corporate social responsibility, to how effectively we communicate. We help organisations define their notion of a positive work environment, audit against that and develop strategies to achieve aspirational organisational goals that support business objectives. The use of focus groups, surveys and appreciative techniques are all useful here.
Focus groups
They are a useful way of informing survey design, engaging staff in post survey action planning, or in the case of small organisations, may be the main form of information gathering. Facilitated by an experienced consultant, focus groups can generate buy-in to the survey, release creativity, over-come cynicism about the survey process, highlight organisational issues, problem solve, encourage cross-team sharing, and create new energy. Brief reports outlining key issues and recommendations are standard output from stand alone focus groups.
Workshops
Our experienced facilitators can run workshops in place of traditional survey methods. They may take a problem solving focus, or may follow appreciative techniques designed to release untapped energy in your organisation. We will work with you to design and deliver a series of workshops, at all levels in your organisation, that will suit your culture and meet specific objectives. Brief reports outlining key issues and recommendations are standard output from such events.