Internal/Employee Research Surveys
Most progressive businesses, governments, non-profits and educational institutions have recognized the importance of employee satisfaction in the success of their enterprise. However, as an organization grows, it becomes increasingly difficult for management to maintain a finger on the pulse of what the staff members are thinking and feeling.
Realizing their marketing research departments or consultants were experienced at providing this type of information for customers, prospects and the public, these organizations began using the same marketing research methods internally as they had used externally for many years.
Thus, many organizations now conduct annual employee satisfaction surveys, and conduct periodic focus groups and in-depth interviews when particular information is needed. These studies often revolve around human resource issues such as compensation or benefits, but they have also been utilized for reactions to possible mergers and acquisitions, and corporate relocations.
However, because of the sensitive nature of this type of research, it is generally best performed by an outside contractor. The advantages for using a consulting firm include the confidentiality of the raw data, and the impartiality of the interviewer or focus group moderator. As is the case in any organization development intervention, employees need to feel heard by an impartial party, and need to feel confident there will be no retaliation. These two factors must be in place before staff will be willing to open up to a researcher. Without this level of trust and candor, an internal research project cannot guarantee the real issues will be revealed and explored. Thus, the results will not be valuable or could be counter-productive.
The Qualitative Difference has extensive experience in conducting internal corporate research studies. With an advanced degree in Industrial Psychology, and years of experience in management and team building, Daniel Oromaner has proved to have the perfect combination of skills to both secure the candid opinions of staff members, and to analyze the results and make recommendations based on his HR and management experience.
Our firm has investigated possible employee benefits changes for a fast-food restaurant chain, helped establish an employee rewards/incentive program for a major international bank, investigated compensation and bonus issues for a large telecom provider, and secured reactions to new product ideas from countless members of the sales force for a variety of firms.
In all cases, these internal research projects provided answers—and in some cases surprises—for management that greatly assisted their decision-making process and increased both the productivity and job satisfaction of their employees. In some cases, very expensive solutions were discarded in favor of less expensive alternatives that were just as acceptable, or preferred by the staff members. In other cases, issues that may have one day reached a boiling point and made the employees receptive to union advances were dispelled before employee relations got out of hand.
In our many years of conducting internal research projects, there has never been a time where management didn’t recognize that the cost of this research was dwarfed by the benefits and savings made possible by the results. In addition, employee satisfaction generally increased just from the fact that management was willing to spend the time and money to listen.