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Posts Tagged ‘employer’

Has the IRS sent a Final Notice of Levy to you threatening to levy your bank or employer?

There are a lot of people who have received a notice from their employer notifying them that their employer has a Notice of Levy from the IRS instructing them to keep most all of your next paycheck. When this happens it is very upsetting. Right up there is when their financial institution  gets a Notice of Levy from the IRS and notifies them that they intend to deliver the funds in their bank account to them. Sometimes the IRS doesn’t comply with the law and send the required notice. Usually when that happens, a Notice of Levy is a nasty surprise. 26 USC § 6330 provides in pertinent part:

(a)  Requirement of notice before levy
(1) In general
No levy may be made on any property or right to property of any person unless the Secretary has notified such person in writing of their right to a hearing under this section before such levy is made. Such notice shall be required only once for the taxable period to which the unpaid tax specified in paragraph (3)(A) relates.

26 USC § 6330 provides this respecting the timing and manner of service of the notice:

(a)(2)  Time and method for notice
The notice required under paragraph (1) shall be-
(A) given in person;
(B) left at the dwelling or usual place of business of such person; or
(C) sent by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, to such person’s last known address;
not less than 30 days before the day of the first levy with respect to the amount of the unpaid tax for the taxable period.

When you take delivery of the aforementioned notices and study them timely, you should see that 26 U.S.C. § 6330(e) provides that as soon as a Collection Due Process Hearing (CDPH) is timely requested “the levy actions which are the subject of the requested hearing…shall be suspended for the period during which such hearing, and appeals therein, are pending…” This provision renders the request for a Collection Due Process Hearing (CDPH) a extremely useful tactic to bring to a halt an IRS levy on a bank account or paycheck.

On an occasion in which a levy was received by an employer but the notice had not been served as required by the above statutes, I have seen the IRS fax a release of levy to an employer in as little as two days subsequent to CDPH hearing request being sent. Now, all but the most ignorant of employees will be able to get all of their pay while the hearing is pending. It is my contention that almost anyone could stop an IRS levy by timely requesting a CDPH hearing as provided in 26 U.S.C. § 6330(b)(1). I make available the forms to competently request a CDPH hearing in a situation where the statutorily required notice has not been sent at www.irsterminator.com.

It is a high priority that when you receive the notice, you request the hearing timely. 26 USC § 6330(a)(3) specifies that the information included with the notice the IRS sends you shall include:

“The notice required under paragraph (1) shall include in simple and nontechnical terms-
(B) the right of the person to request a hearing during the 30-day period under paragraph (2);”

However, if the IRS never served you with the required notice, it is impossible to find out when the 30 day period begins and ends. The free videos at www.irsterminator.com explain how to inform the IRS that their failure to serve you with the statutorily required notice renders your request for a hearing timely and entitles you to the suspension of collection activities including the levy at your bank or employer. Discussed on those videos are plans that I have come up with to keep collection activity suspended permanently which is the challenging part.

If not repaired it won’t take long for a building with one broken window to quickly turn in to a building with many broken windows. Fixing problems when they are small will prevent them from developing into more serious problems.

When considering the level of employee satisfaction the same is true. Dissatisfaction can spread rapidly throughout an organization and before you know it you can have morale problems that can be hard to resolve.

To ensure that your employees are satisfied you need to appreciate any day to day concerns that they may have and deal with them quickly. Keeping the initiative is really important and the secret is that it is better to give a little and often.

This turns out be just a vicious circle. Fixing the problem when it’s small is also when it’s easiest and when it’s cheapest. If the management is reactive and waits until they are prompted by the employees they run the risk of having to implement urgent change from a weak position; if they are proactive they can operate form a position of strength and will also maintain the respect of the employees. Employees look for strong, confident management and having a proactive approach and taking time to understand the employees’ issues will gain the respect of the workforce.

Compare that with those managers who are out of touch. If they are late in addressing problems they are always on the defensive, having to concede to demands they run the risk of losing credibility which in turn can lead to having to agree to less reasonable demands. It is neither big nor clever.

How then can a company monitor the morale of the employees without a big budget and an abundance of spare time?

Online employee surveys. They offer a quick, easy and cost effective solution. Surveys can be created in minutes and deployed in seconds, with the results compiled in real time; and by using email and websites they cost nothing to disseminate.

A corporate internet is the ideal delivery mechanism.

By linking through to an online survey website a company can regularly conduct surveys so they become part and parcel of the daily operations.

With the ability of online surveys to produce real-time results the mood of the workforce can instantly gauged and collective and individual concerns highlighted.

By using the findings of a survey an organization can quickly identify problem areas and then use follow-up surveys to target specific concerns. With good intelligence managers are able to identify specific problems and prepare a considered response.

By conducting regular surveys companies are able to address small problems before they grow into much bigger problems that are then more difficult to address.

It should not be forgotten that most employees appreciate being consulted and asking their opinion is not seen as a sign of weakness but an indicator of good decision making.

Every now and then management problems can be solved with something that is quick, easy and won’t break the bank; enjoy.

With the need for many businesses to be more streamlined and productive a company can sometimes find itself with many of their employees working under pressure that can then lead to low moral and possible result in a high staff turnover. Organizations that have a highly motivated workforce can benefit enormously and having a workforce that is both productive and motivated should not be regarded as being mutually exclusive to one another.

Left unattended employers run the risk of alienating their employees, events can cause employee frustrations to boil over resulting in employers finding themselves on the back foot, faced with a problem that cannot be ignored.

Ideally employers would allocate the time to fully understand the needs of their employees and learn from their experiences of working on the front line, but employers are too often themselves tied up with the day to day task of fighting their own fires.

By automating the majority of the intelligence gathering process and having the findings in a format that can be easily analysed online surveys provide employers with an efficient and cost effective method to help towards establishing a pleasant working environment, where employee satisfaction and productivity is high.

 

Dissatisfied & unproductive

There are many reasons why employees may be dissatisfied with their job and more often than not staff frustration is channelled into a demand for higher salaries and less hours. Managers who tackle problems thinking it is all about salary and hours, will often find later that they have been dealing with the symptoms and not the root cause.

 

It’s not about money

The following are the most common problems to achieving productivity, none of which are likely to be resolved by increasing salaries or reducing hours:-

• Insufficient training
• Out of touch management
• Working methods that are past their sell by date
• Lack of proper tools and equipment

Numerous studies have shown that salaries are rarely the most important priority for employees and providing an employer is paying a fair rate they would be fundamentally wrong to think that paying higher salaries is a panacea to all employee problems.

Take the case of a single mother who is juggling a full time job with the need to look after three children. Out of frustration she may demand more money so that she feels that she is able to cope where a better solution, for both her and the business, may be more flexible working hours.

 

Good communications

It is in all companies interests to encourage good communication. An organization that makes communication between management and personnel difficult, or that takes the view that it is the responsibility for personnel who have a problem to say something, can often deceive themselves into thinking their workforce is content when it is not. It only takes one small problem and one disgruntled employee to feel aggrieved for an entire workforce to develop a destructive ‘them and us’ attitude.

 

Improving communication

Meeting one on one between the employer and employee would be ideal but really it is only a practical solution for smaller companies.

Meetings between management and worker representatives are good in theory but can often spiral into becoming talking shops and losing their purpose as both sides become more familiar with one another and the meetings run the risk of being hijacked by the more extreme personalities.

Suggestion boxes can be useful but can be viewed as token efforts by management as they wait for personnel to highlight a problem.

Newsletters can provide a positive contribution but they only offer one way communication and their primary function is to inform and not discuss employee issues.

 

Keeping the initiative

Conducting employee satisfaction surveys on a regular basis can be used to ask each employee specific questions and demonstrates a pro-active management initiative where the whole workforce can be consulted on various issues. Surveys are able to provide a level playing field between the quieter and more vocal employees.

Being prepared to consulate with employees should not be seen as a sign of weakness, a confident manager will take counsel from all quarters before making a decision. By issuing a survey the employer is able to keep the initiative and tackle problems from a position of strength as opposed to waiting for problems to manifest and then possibly develop out of proportion.

If a small problem is left unresolved it could lead to a situation where a minor problem might just break the camel’s back and the mood of the employees change over night from positive to negative.

 

It is quick and easy

For the majority of companies online surveys represent a proactive and low cost solution. For the majority of organizations where most of the personnel have desktop computers, online surveys are quick to design and deploy direct to the individual.

If there are situations where individuals do not have personal access to a computer there are still options available to using the online survey solution such as through the use of a shared computer, operator input or, as a last resort, a hardcopy survey.

 

Job satisfaction

There are a number of elements that combined will provide an employee with job satisfaction, from company ethics, working environment, methodology and ethos to having good and effective management. Job satisfaction brings benefits through improved productivity and motivation from a workforce that feels that they are treated as individuals and not a commodity item.

 

Educate and inform

An online survey can also be used to educate and pass on to the workforce important information, the ‘message’ is consistently delivered and does not suffer from the Chinese whisper phenomenon where a message can be distorted as it is handed down.

An online survey can explain a difficult situation and get valuable feedback from the employees as to the best solution. It is rare in this situation that the workforce would appear negative; it is more likely they will feel informed and empowered and that might be enough to turn a potentially negative problem into a positive challenge that unites the workforce.

 

Exit surveys

Exit surveys are a good way for management to ensure that when people leave the organisation they are leaving for the right reasons and not due to reasons that if appreciated earlier could have been addressed and resolved. Identifying a problem may not be enough to prevent a person from leaving but it could lead to an unappreciated issue being resolved that may be all that is required to stop other key personnel from also deciding to leave.

 

Analysing the results

Having consulted with the workforce using an online survey the results are available for instant analysis. Common and specific problems can be identified and the senior management informed who then will have the chance to address the issues that have been raised.

 

Summary

Used regularly online surveys represent a simple and productive method of taking the pulse of an organisation and an easy way to establish a two way communication channel between employer and employee with the results providing management with vital, accurate and significant information.

For a Sample Employee Satisfaction Survey:- Employee Satisfaction Survey Template

For a sample Employee Exit survey:- Employee Exit Survey Template

The benefit of running an annual employee survey has for a long time been widely accepted but many organizations have been put off by the amount of effort that is required.

Many organizations who have conducted their own internal employee satisfaction surveys use word-processors to design and compile a survey, then go through the effort of printing and distributing the survey and invest time chasing and collecting the completed surveys and then more time transferring the survey response information into a meaningful management report.

Fortunately with the introduction of the Internet and hosted survey websites what was once a time consuming, resource hungry, long winded and cumbersome process is now slick, quick and easy.

Document here is a step by step guide to help implement a survey that will bring considerable benefits to any organization.

Step 1 – Identifying The Need

There are numerous reasons an organization might need a survey. Listed here are a few of the common reason why employee satisfaction surveys are conducted.

Event Driven

If your organization is about to embark, or is going through, a process reengineering program a series of employee surveys can assist in managing the change program, measure the effectiveness of the change, help to deliver a ‘message’ and gather valuable feedback throughout the change cycle.

For organizations that are experiencing rapid growth employee surveys can monitor internal communications and management structures to ensure that employees are aware of their reporting and management responsibilities.

Where an organization is suffering from poor moral brought on by either internal or external influences an employee survey can be used to identify the specific concerns of employees so those concerns can be properly addressed.

An employee survey can help an organization identify the underlying cause of employee unrest that may results in an increase of staff turnover and through the survey findings help find solutions.

Periodically

As part of a periodic assessment, surveys will help an organization review their personnel and monitor on an individual level job satisfaction, training and career development.

Employee surveys also offer senior management the opportunity to look at the soft underbelly of their organization to confirm that their ‘top down’ view of the organization matches the reality and ‘bottom up’ perspective.

Employee surveys will help an organization establish good employee/employer communication that will in turn bring direct and indirect benefits.

Step 2 – Management Buy-In

Management buy-in is always desirable for any initiative and many will argue that it is essential to ensure a successful employee survey, however, in some instances the findings of an employee survey can lead to kick-starting a management that has grown complacent and detached from their employees.

Some organization may be fortunate in that the senior management recognize and drive the need for employee surveys, while in others the management may need to first be convinced of the direct and indirect benefits an employee survey will bring.

The degree that management commit to an employee survey will have a bearing on the nature of the survey and to some extent will help determine what questions.

A management that is supportive of the initiative may have specific areas of concern that they require feedback on or they may give the go ahead simply because they have no reason to think that the level of employee satisfaction throughout the organization is anything other than high.

Ideally management will buy-in to the employee survey from the very start as they have the most to gain and they are in a position to effect any change that is later identified as being required.

Step 3 – Designing the Survey

Designing a good survey will take some time and effort but by following the basics of survey design and concentrating on the ‘need to know’ questions and removing the ‘nice to know’ a survey will rapidly take shape.

Deciding on what questions should be asked will be entirely dependent on the individual organization, its structure and the previously identified primary need and objectives of the employee survey.

At the same time as considering what questions to ask consider how the results are to be analyzed. For example there may be a desire to ask for individual comments but these types of answer formats can be very time consuming and cumbersome to analyze and should therefore be avoided or used sparingly.

With online surveys it is generally better to do a few smaller surveys than one very long survey as the longer the survey the higher the drop out rate will be.

Step 4 – Checking And Testing

Grammar, Spelling And Clarity

Before the survey is published carefully check that there are no spelling and typing mistakes or incorrect grammar. It is recommended that you always have a colleague who has not been involved in the survey design to proof read the survey with clean eyes before the survey goes live, if no colleague is available try to take a break before checking through the survey again.

Say What You Mean And Mean What You Say

When checking the survey you should consider the survey from the viewpoint of the respondent, will the employee interpret the question the same way that you intended them to?

Allow the Respondent to Answer Truthfully

Where the employee will be required to choose from a number of available responses, closed questions, have you allowed the employee to answer accurately? Make use of responses like ‘No Comment’, ‘Not Applicable’ or ‘Don’t know’ where you want to make the question mandatory so that it is not accidentally missed out but the employee may not be able to answer.

Consider allowing the employee to include an ‘Other’ answer but also appreciate that ‘Other’ answers will add to the complexity when analyzing the survey results.

Don’t Require A Response To Questions That May Not Have One

Check that for any questions that you have made mandatory you do require an answer, for example open questions such as asking for additional comments should be made optional unless you definitely require the respondent to write a comment.

Check you will be able to Analyze the Data

Check through the survey again but this time looking at how the results of the survey will be analyzed. Give consideration as to how you will want to analyze the survey data, have you asked the right questions to be able to perform the detailed analysis that you desire? For example if you want to be able to view the detailed response data from the perspective of the different departments, or maybe length of service, check you have asked the employee to indicate their own department and/or length of service.

Don’t Ask Anymore Questions Than You Need To

Consider all the questions in the survey and ensure that they are all ‘need to know’ questions.

Test The Link And Try Completing The Survey

Publish the survey and then send the survey’s link to a number of people who will be willing to test the survey. By completing the survey yourself you will get a feel for the survey from a respondent’s point of view. From your own and the feedback of your colleagues stop and fine tune the survey as required.

Continue to repeat this process until you are happy with the survey.

Check The Data

Take time to view the online summary results of the test data and confirm that the data is being collected in a manner that can be properly analyzed and that will give meaningful results.

Step 5 – Deploying and Promoting the Survey

Where all or the majority of employees have access to the internet or company intranet deploying the online survey is as easy as ABC, either via email or by establishing a link to the survey from your own website or Intranet.

Where there are some or many employees that do not have direct access to the internet there are a number of alternatives that can be used from issuing the survey in printed form, providing a shared terminal or giving them an incentive to complete the survey at home.

Anonymous Responses?

Respondents can be allowed to complete a survey anonymously. A survey where respondents are allowed to be anonymous may encourage employees to speak their minds promoting ‘a warts and all’ approach, in turn giving management an opportunity to address potentially serious problems before it is too late.

However, allowing anonymous comments also allows employees to be more flippant and cavalier with their responses. Some organizations would therefore only want to consider comments where employees are prepared to stand by their convictions and that will also provide an opportunity to follow up the specific concerns of individual employees.

Deciding to allow anonymous responses or not will mainly be down to the individual organization, the specific nature of the survey, the type of survey, the management style and the existing employee/employer relationship.

Step 6 – Monitoring The Survey

While the survey is in progress you will be able to view the summary results online and also monitor in real-time the number of surveys that have been both started and completed.

If after a few days the number of completed surveys falls short of any set target it is recommended to send employees one or more reminders to ask them to complete the survey.

Step 7 – Analyzing The Results

There are no hard and fast rules for analyzing the data. Much depends on the individual survey, the questions asked and the number of responses.

Most surveys will benefit from many of the results being displayed as a charts as well as tabular form.

When first analyzing survey data often a number of ‘headline’ results will immediately stand out that will provide you with a general overview and, providing the right questions have been asked, give you an instant assessment of the mood throughout the organization as a whole.

In areas where the results indicate areas of concern a more detailed analysis may be advisable. For example if employees were asked if they felt the organization provided equal opportunities to both genders and 25% gave a negative response it would be useful to know the gender split of the organization and also to look at what the gender split was of the 25% that answered negatively. Was any negative view shared by employees of both genders, consistent throughout the organization, or was it restricted to a particular gender and/or a particular department?

Reports can display the result data in tabular and/or graphical form allowing those who are interested in the results to view the raw data.

Often used as a complement to the first, another method is to interpret the results and provide an analysis of the data and offer a view as to what the meaning is behind the results, what circumstances may have contributed to the results being as they are and, where the results indicate a negative, what initiatives could be taken. Such analysis if done by a single individual is likely to be very personal, if done by a committee it is still likely to be objective and therefore open to interpretation.

Step 8 – Further Action

The most important step is probably the last. An employee survey will either confirm that the perfect organization exists or it will highlight areas that are less than perfect by identifying individual and common concerns.

It may prove necessary to conduct further, more detailed surveys, to target specific areas. For example the survey may reveal that negative responses are received from employees working in a particular department but the reasons for their negativity may not be clear. A smaller, specifically targeted follow-up survey may help reveal the root causes.

When employee surveys are periodically run an organization that has taken steps to address issues will see their efforts reflected in subsequent survey responses. Almost all organizations have problems and it helps an organization’s moral to see that a channel exists that will highlight problems that can then be addressed and resolved.

Summary

It is hoped that these guidelines will help an organization conduct successful employee satisfaction surveys, they are however, only a guide.

Each organization is different in style and structure and the organizations ‘personality’ will go someway to influencing the tone and nature of the survey and organizations will have many different circumstances and primary reasons for conducting a survey.

By utilizing existing technology and conducting surveys online you are now able to monitor the heart beat of an organization, quickly, easily and, by using websites like www.surveygalaxy.com, at minimal cost.

It is time to thing again if you have a perception that conducting surveys can be a useful exercise but are far too time consuming to prepare, unwieldy to deploy and require extensive resources to process the responses into a meaningful report.

Online surveys turn what was once a time consuming, resource hungry, cumbersome process into a low cost, quick, easy exercise that delivers real-time reporting.

Ease of Design

Out with the word-processor, now there is a quick and easy way for almost anyone to create surveys using a simple menu system that allows surveys to be created in minutes and with the ability to add additional questions and modify and move existing questions around.

Ease Of Delivery

After preparation a survey is deployed through the internet or if an internal survey, an organisation’s intranet, making it instantly available to anyone with access to the internet.

Ease of Promotion

Getting respondents to participate in a survey is achieved with ease by either sending an email that contains a link to the survey and/or linking to the survey from a suitable website.

Ease of Participation

Online surveys don’t just make it easy for the publisher, most respondents find that completing a survey online is quicker and easier when compared against the traditional pen and paper survey and from the publishers point of view a lot less prone to mistakes such as respondents missing out questions or multiple responses being entered against single response questions.

Ease of Survey Management

With an online survey the publisher can see in real-time the response rate and summary results.

The Ease of Analysis

At the end of the survey the response data is ready for detailed analysis, the information can be loaded into a spreadsheet or third-party analysis program where the respondent data can be sliced and diced.

Recognizing the Ease

Once business managers appreciate the ease of the total life cycle of conducting a survey online they will start to recognise the multitude of new opportunities that exist.

The costly annual employee satisfaction survey can now be done quicker and cheaper allowing the exercise to be conducted bi-annual or quarterly ensuring any employee problems are identified and dealt with early. There is now also an opportunity to conduct smaller and more targeted ad-hoc surveys on a departmental level or a niche area of the business improving communications between the employee and employer.

A survey can be central in allowing management to deliver a message and measure the employee support and concerns of introducing new initiatives, something that can’t be done using a simple one way memo style directive.

Survey’s can be used as a marketing tool as the survey explains the benefit of a product or service and gathers the response from potential customers.

ROI today

Technology can often deliver better efficiency but can require ‘investment’ first with the ‘return’ coming later. Many of the available hosted online survey services have not only turned a cumbersome task into a cinch, but reduced the cost down to a pinch, giving you a return on investment from day one and opening up a world of possibilities and further savings.

With the many opportunities that online surveys bring to a manager it is a tool that is always useful to have to hand in their personal tool box.

If you have a perception that conducting surveys can be a useful exercise but are far too time consuming to prepare, cumbersome to deploy and require considerable resources to process the responses into a meaningful report it is perhaps time to think again.

Online surveys turn what was once a time consuming, resource hungry, cumbersome process into a low cost, quick, easy exercise that delivers real-time reporting.

The Ease of Design

Out with the word-processor, now there is a quick and easy way for almost anyone to create surveys using a simple menu system that allows surveys to be created in minutes and with the ability to add additional questions and modify and move existing questions around.

The Ease of Delivery

After preparation a survey is deployed through the internet or organisation’s intranet making it instantly available to anyone with access to the internet.

The Ease of Promotion

Inviting respondents to participate in a survey is achieved with ease by either sending an email that contains a link to the survey and/or linking to the survey from a suitable website.

The Ease of Participation

Online surveys don’t just make it easy for the publisher as most respondents find that, when compared against the traditional pen and paper survey, completing a survey online is quicker and easier and from the publishers point of view a lot less prone to mistakes such as respondents missing out questions or multiple responses being entered against single response questions.

Ease of Managing the Survey

With an online survey the publisher can view in real-time the response rate, summary and detail results.

The Ease of Analysis

At the end of the survey the response data is ready for detailed analysis, the information can be loaded into a spreadsheet or third-party analysis program where the respondent data can be sliced and diced.

Recognizing the Ease

Once business managers appreciate the ease of the total life cycle of conducting a survey online they will start to recognise the multitude of new opportunities that exist.

The costly annual employee satisfaction survey can now be done quicker and cheaper allowing the exercise to be conducted bi-annual or quarterly ensuring any employee problems are identified and dealt with early. There is also now an opportunity to conduct smaller and more targeted ad-hoc surveys on a departmental level or a niche area of the business improving employer/employee communications.

A survey can help deliver a management message and at the same time measure the employee support and concerns of introducing new initiatives, something a simple one way memo style directive cannot do.

A survey can be used as a marketing tool by explaining the benefit of a product or service and gathering the response from potential customers.

ROI today

Technology often promises more efficiency but requires ‘investment’ first and the ‘return’ later. Many of the available hosted online survey services have not only turned a cumbersome task into a cinch, but reduced the cost down to a pinch, giving you a return on investment from day one and opening up a world of possibilities and further savings.

With the many opportunities that online surveys bring to a manager it is a tool that is always useful to have to hand in their personal tool box.

If you have a perception that conducting surveys can be a useful exercise but are far too time consuming to prepare, unwieldy to deploy and require extensive resources to process the responses into a meaningful report it is perhaps time to think again.

Online surveys turn what was once a time consuming, resource hungry, cumbersome process into a low cost, quick, easy exercise that delivers real-time reporting.

The Ease of Design

Out with the word-processor, now there is a quick and easy way for almost anyone to create surveys using a simple menu system that allows surveys to be created in minutes and with the ability to add additional questions and modify and move existing questions around.

Ease Of Delivery

After preparation a survey is deployed through the internet or if an internal survey, an organisation’s intranet, making it instantly available to anyone with access to the internet.

Ease of Promotion

Inviting respondents to participate in a survey is achieved with ease by either sending an email that contains a link to the survey and/or linking to the survey from a suitable website.

Ease of Participation

Online surveys don’t just make it easy for the publisher, most respondents find that completing a survey online is quicker and easier when compared against the traditional pen and paper survey and from the publishers point of view a lot less prone to mistakes such as respondents missing out questions or multiple responses being entered against single response questions.

Ease of Survey Management

With an online survey the publisher can view in real-time the response rate, summary and detail results.

Ease of Analysis

The response data is ready for detailed analysis immediately the survey publication has ended; the information can also be exported to a spreadsheet or third-party analysis program where the survey result data can be further analyzed.

Appreciating the Ease

Once business managers have appreciated the ease of the total life cycle of conducting a survey online they will then recognise the multitude of new opportunities that exist.

The costly annual employee satisfaction survey can now be done quicker and cheaper allowing the exercise to be conducted bi-annual or quarterly ensuring any employee problems are identified and dealt with early. There is now also an opportunity to conduct smaller and more targeted ad-hoc surveys on a departmental level or a niche area of the business improving the communication between the employer and employee.

A survey can be central in allowing management to deliver a message and measure the employee support and concerns of introducing new initiatives, something that can’t be done using a simple one way memo style directive.

A survey can be used as a marketing tool by explaining the benefit of a product or service and gathering the response from potential customers.

Return of Investment

Technology can often deliver better efficiency but requires ‘investment’ first and the ‘return’ later. Many of the available hosted online survey services have not only turned a cumbersome task into a cinch, but reduced the cost down to a pinch, giving you a return on investment from day one and opening up a world of possibilities and further savings.

With the many opportunities that online surveys bring to a manager it is a valuable tool that is handy to have in their personal tool box.

Left alone it doesn’t take long for a building with a single broken window to rapidly become a building with many broken windows. Addressing problems when they are small will prevent them from developing into larger problems.

The same is true when considering the level of employee satisfaction. Dissatisfaction can spread rapidly throughout an organization and before you know it you can have morale problems that can be hard to resolve.

To be confident that your employees are satisfied you need to be aware of any day to day problems and deal with them before they get out of hand. Keeping the initiative is important and it is nearly always better to give a little and often.

This turns out be just a vicious circle. Fixing the problem when it’s small is also when it’s easiest and when it’s cheapest. If management wait to introduce change until they are prompted by employees then they risk having to implement change from a weak position. Employees look for strong, confident management and having a proactive approach and taking time to understand the employees’ issues will gain the respect of the workforce.

Compare that with managers who are out of touch. Arriving late to a problem they are on the defensive, their credibility at risk as they may have to concede to demands which can lead to further and less reasonable demands. It’s not big and it’s not clever.

How then can an organisation monitor the morale of the employees without a big budget and an abundance of spare time?

Deploying online surveys would appear to tick all the right boxes. They offer a solution that is quick, easy and low cost. Surveys can be created in minutes and deployed in seconds, with the results compiled in real time; and by using email and websites they cost nothing to disseminate.

A corporate internet is the ideal delivery platform.

By linking through to an online survey website a company can regularly conduct surveys so they become part and parcel of the daily operations.

With the ability of an online survey to produce real-time results the mood of the workforce can instantly gauged, concerns highlighted both on a collective and individual level.

Companies can use survey results to highlight problem areas and then use follow-up surveys to target specific concerns. With good information managers are able to get to the root of specific problems and prepare a considered response.

Conducting regular surveys will allow organizations to address small problems in a timely manner and avoid ‘the straw that broke the camels back’ syndrome where a relatively insignificant incident unleashes a torrent of pent up frustration.

It should not be forgotten that most employees appreciate being consulted and asking their opinion is not seen as a sign of weakness but an indicator of good decision making.

Once in a blue moon a manager’s problem can be solved with something that is quick, easy and won’t break the bank; that looks like a blue moon.

If a single broken window is not repaired it won’t be long before more windows are broken. Problems that are fixed when they are small will stop them from developing into more serious problems.

When considering the level of employee satisfaction the same is true. Dissatisfaction can spread rapidly throughout an organization and before you know it you can have morale problems that can be hard to resolve.

To ensure that your employees are happy you need to understand what their problems and concerns are and it is important to deal with them early on. Keeping the initiative is vital and it is nearly always better to give a little and often.

This turns out be just a vicious circle. Fixing the problem when it’s small is also when it’s easiest and when it’s cheapest. And taking the initiative without being prompted puts the manager in a position of strength, which also suits the employees. Employees like strong, confident management and the management will gain the respect of the workforce if they take time to understand the issues.

Compare that with managers who are out of touch. They arrive late at a problem so they are on the defensive, and with their credibility eroded they have to concede to demands which in turn could lead to further and less reasonable demands. It’s not big and it’s not clever.

The issue, then, is how to go about monitoring the morale of a company without a big budget and without much spare time?

Online surveys would appear to tick all the boxes. They offer a solution that is quick, easy and low cost. Surveys can be written and deployed in seconds, using email, web links and social networks they cost nothing to disseminate and the results are collated and displayed in real time.

The ideal delivery platform is the corporate intranet.

By linking through to an online survey website a company can regularly conduct surveys so they become part and parcel of the daily operations.

With the ability of online surveys to produce real-time results the mood of the workforce can instantly gauged and collective and individual concerns highlighted.

Businesses can use survey results to highlight problem areas and then use follow-up surveys to target specific concerns. With good information managers are able to identify specific problems and prepare a considered response.

By conducting regular surveys companies are able to address small problems before they grow into much bigger problems that are then more difficult to address.

It should not be forgotten that most employees appreciate being consulted and asking their opinion is not seen as a sign of weakness but an indicator of good decision making.

Every now and then management problems can be solved with something that is quick, easy and won’t break the bank; enjoy.

Left alone it doesn’t take long for a building with a single broken window to rapidly become a building with many broken windows. Addressing problems when they are small will prevent them from developing into larger problems.

The same is true when considering the level of employee satisfaction. Dissatisfaction can spread like wildfire and in the blink of an eye you can have the type of morale problems that are notoriously hard to resolve.

Good employers will be tuned in to what their employees’ problems are and, importantly, will deal with them early on. It is important to keep the initiative and a good tip is to give a little and often.

This turns out be a vicious circle. Fixing problems when they are small is also when they are at their cheapest to fix. And taking the initiative without being prompted puts the manager in a position of strength, which also suits the employees. Employees look for strong, confident management and having a proactive approach and taking time to understand the employees’ issues will gain the respect of the workforce.

Compare that with managers who are out of touch. They arrive late at a problem so they are on the defensive, and with their credibility eroded they have to concede to demands which in turn could lead to further and less reasonable demands. It is not big and it is not clever.

How then can an organisation monitor the morale of the employees without a big budget and an abundance of spare time?

The most obvious solution is to conduct an online employee survey. Online surveys are quick, easy and low cost. Surveys can be written and deployed in seconds, using email, web links and social networks invitations can be sent out immediately and for free and the results are collated and displayed in real time.

The ideal delivery platform is the corporate internet.

By linking through to an online survey website a company can regularly conduct surveys so they become part and parcel of the daily operations.

With the real-time results that are a by product of online surveys the mood of the employees can be accurately gauged and individual and collective concerns highlighted.

Organisations can use survey results to identify problem areas and then use follow-up surveys to target specific areas of concern. With good intelligence managers are able to identify specific problems and prepare a considered response.

A major advantage of regular surveys is that it allows a company to address small problems in a timely manner avoiding ‘the straw that broke the camels back’ syndrome where a relatively insignificant incident unleashes a torrent of pent up concerns.

The majority of employees appreciate being consulted, asking their opinion is not a sign of weak management but an indicator of good decision making.

It’s unusual to find a solution to management problems that is quick, easy and won’t break the bank but here one is.