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Posts Tagged ‘management’

Productivity Tools

While technology is at its most advanced state today, there remains to be a lot of things to juggle for a typical friends-oriented man. For most family-oriented persons, there is the burden of juggling work, job, family and other factors involved in one’s social life.

You can read more on Time Management & Goal Setting

The answer is Time Management. Most successful women are often asked about what their secret to success is. And more often than not, they have the same response, and that is Productivity. However, although this is almost an expected response, many are still surprised at how Time Management really works.

Productivity is simply the proper allocation of time for certain tasks. First, the tasks have to be arranged in a certain way where it is clustered into sectors and listed according to urgency and importance. For example, the important parts of your life are friends, your son, your home, your art, and your family. You have to know which one to drop first whenever you need to do something.

After that, you will need help from some Time Management & Goal Setting Tools designed to aid you in the correct process of prioritization AND remembering that order.

Quick-and-Easy Reminders

Goal Setting Tools & Time Management Techniques

There are a lot of men who need lots of reminder when it comes to taking care of small businesses. Often, they are too medium sized that they are disregarded as unimportant. If you are one of them, buy some quick-and-easy Reminders. What’s good about technology is you can probably put a reminder just about everywhere! Mobile phones nowadays have built-in organzing device of your choices, post-its are available in different variants, and even the good old refrigerator door magnets have come in a lot of forms.

What is important is that the frequency of the reminding is now being increased. This is good for Time Management & Goal Setting because it keeps you aware of the things which you have to do especially if they’re urgent.

The organizer + Watch Tandem

These are staples for just about every busybody from the college beadle to the corporate leader. The organizer is something that holds your appointments and it’s also a tiny little space for some writing. People who are busy all the time usually have contact numbers of random people they meet, gifts for a not-so-relevant birthday party that he has to go to or some sudden brilliant ideas that come to mind. For these and more, you will need an organizer. It has to be a little notebook, just enough to fit in a handbag, and should be made of durable material. You must bring your organzing device of your choice with you every day, in case you need to list something down as a reminder.

And indeed, the perfect addition to an organzing device of your choice is a good working watch. Just because your watch didn’t work well You may have experienced running late for an appointment.  What’s worse is that the person you’re meeting wouldn’t even believe you. This blunder can easily be avoided. Just get a quality watch that does not even have to be that expensive. Having a good sense of time is practically the first step in Goal Setting.

The Perfect mindset

It’s pressuring to know that you have a lot of things in your hand and it seems like you can’t even do anything about it. Don’t tip over.

Moreover, keep a be on your toes kind of manner of thinking as you maneuver your way into your busy life. Sure, there are times when you distance yourself from your organizing device of your choice. For some, it is a painful reminder of the busy life they lead. It’s perfectly alright to feel some form of eternal urgency but take some time off once in a while. You must never neglect yourself in your list of priorities.

More on how to get more done

The fact that you are reading this says that you, an influencer – coach, entrepreneur, leader, small business owner, or salesperson – are probably NOT in the category of ‘no ownership,’ which means you take no responsibility for your results. That leaves two choices: ‘Some responsibility’ or ‘total responsibility.’

Most people have been conditioned to take only “some ownership” over our performance. You may notice that whenever a controversial political, economic or social issue crops up, people are quick to blame everyone else. But remember, blame is a low intelligence concept.

In the 1950′s, Earl Nightingale said, “To be successful, we must look at what everybody else is doing and consider doing the opposite.” Look at those who blame others. Look at those who blame the economy. Look at those who blame their service, their circumstances, their family, their history, their lack of talent, the weather, Britney Spears and everything else they can think up, for bad consequences.

Consider choosing to do the reverse. Consider becoming one of the few who really do choose to take total ownership over their results. You will be given the prosperity that the many who only take “some ownership” will never find. Be willing to own ALL your results, good and bad. Great presenters succeed by deliberately designing their messages and when they don’t succeed, they shift objection and rejection into a great chance to redraft their message. They own the result.

Be willing to own ALL the results of your team, as a leader, great or awful. Great leaders look across the hall when things go well and tell their team “you made it happen” and look inside when things don’t go well and tell themselves “I did it.” They own the result, especially when things go poorly. Bottom line, as my great friend Hal Elrod (also a contributor to my book Cutting Edge Sales) taught me, to the degree that you take responsibility for everything in your life, you will be able to improve anything in your life.

Great influencers settle for nothing less than total responsibility.

Jon Berghoff

If you or you company are in the development stages of a beginning online business venture, you are probably amazed at the number of decisions that you must reach. One you should not fail to consider in your business plan relates to website size. Should you build a small website, a mini-site in the beginning, with the plan of building a virtual empire of such sites? Should you, instead, build the structure for a large website, although you would allow it to grow slowly?

Before I get into the advantages of each side of this dilemma, I should let you know what this decision is not. The question is not directly related to how big your business will ultimately become. Companies that follow either model can ultimately become large and successful. It also is not necessarily impacted your target niche. The planned size of a website in the beginning can lead to ultimate growth and financial success of the business as a whole.

I should alert you that reading this article will not automatically give you the right answer to this particular question of size. Instead, what I hope to provide is a set of some things for you to consider so that whether you build a small website immediately or lay the groundwork for a mega-site, you’ll understand that decision’s impact upon key variables now and in the future.

Small, mini-sites are focussed upon one narrow sub-niche. Generally, they concentrate upon dominating a relatively small number of keyword, often long-tailed phrases. Often the business model of such sites calls for the generation of traffic through means other than organic search engine optimization, although this is not always the case. Indeed, sometimes a mini-site becomes remarkably well optimized for those particular targeted keywords.

On the other hand, sites that begin with the ultimate design of growing very large are often focused simultaneously upon beginning with highly targeted long-tail keywords and also beginning to build a reputation for those shorter, high traffic search terms (the “parent” keywords, if you will). While the traffic model may begin with approaches other than organic search, the business will consciously focus from the beginning upon eventually relying increasingly upon traffic from organic search results.

The growth models of the two are very different after each has satisfactorily mastered the beginning, narrow sub-niche. Businesses that begin with a large site as the eventual goal, with fully develop one small sub-niche, then gradually add new sections dedicated to other sub-niches onto their original site. Those who initially built a small site, with intention of always leaving it small, will take a “duplication of success” approach, as they gradually add more an more individual sites to their virtual empire of tiny websites. Thus with each new department in the mega-site model, there is a new set of search phrases upon which to focus. These sites are built upon what is often called the “silo” structure. As the large site grows to twenty departments or categories, the business with small sites might grow to twenty or more individual websites.

Positive cash flow can be established sooner with the small site approach. This is partly due to such a business not investing resources into those most competitive, high level keywords. In the long run however, over the course of many months or even years, the mega-sites can become competitive for the high traffic keywords and might even become recognized as an authority in the broadly based market.

I’ll point to three practical ramifications of how you decide to approach this business decision.

The first has to do with start up cost. Although you’re still beginning relatively small with the site that you plan to become large, the foundation for a larger site must be laid. That means that the site’s eventual architecture must be created and the systems put in place that will eventuall become necessary for operation. Consequently, although the mini-site and the eventual mega-site may be the same size at launch, the model for the larger site costs more at start-up. Laying the foundation for silo sites is inherently costlier than the smaller, less expensive mini-site.

The ways in which you think about your keywords is another important difference. Your keyword research for a small site will be much more tightly focused upon the long-tail terms, especially those that show commercial intent (thus more likely to convert sooner rather than later). If you opt for the silo site, you will be splitting the focus of your keyword research. In one way, you will be imitating the search of your small site competitors by looking for those longer tails that are higher converting, but you must also identify all of the high traffic keywords so that you can begin to attract visitors who are gathering information rather than ready to make a decision to buy or sign a contract.

Issues pertaining to page rank is the third practical ramification of your large vs. small decision. The number of pages in a site is one of the variables that is part of the page rank algorithm, assuming the internal linking structure of the site is well optimized. Thus, it is more difficult to achieve a high page rank than it is for a large site because of its inherent value on that variable.

So I hope I have given you some food for thought, even though I haven’t provided a clear cut answer to you. Perhaps, though, these considerations provide you with an inclination as to which approach you should take given your own unique business circumstances.

In this part of our guide to organizational management we cover decision making…

Decisions, big and small, need to be made every day, and for an organization to be effective, its managers need to be able to constantly solve problems and make decisions that are of benefit to it.

The first step in doing so is to prioritize problems according to the effect they have on the organization, ensuring that decisions are made first on the ones of most significance to the organization. Having prioritized, each problem should then be worked through systematically before a final decision is made on it.

Jumping to conclusions should be avoided as first impressions rarely give the whole picture – obtaining and assessing all the information available being the best way to prevent doing this. Such information should ideally be from more than one source to prevent bias and should be verifiable in some way.

Brainstorming possible solutions with one or more individuals, after receiving all relevant information, can provide a few different perspectives, which can be beneficial to coming up with an elucidation that will work. Potential options can be wide-ranging in the beginning and narrowed down and tweaked until the best possible fix is determined.

Having identified a set of options and solutions, feedback and suggestions on them, along with alternatives, should be sought from consultations with others. For the most part, group decisions (particularly where the group contains people who the end decision will affect) are preferable to those made by individuals as a pool of knowledge, skills and experience can be drawn upon.

Available assistance in the decision-making process can come in the form of Pareto Analysis, Paired Comparison Analysis, Grid Analysis, PMI, Six Thinking Hats, Starbursting, and Decision Trees, to name but a few. These techniques should not be relied upon solely to make a decision, but should be used to guide the process and offer a more scientific-approach. This is of particular importance where the decision-maker is a little too close to the issue to see the bigger picture.

Then comes the time to weigh the pros and cons of a decision. Which option or solution gives most to the organization whilst taking least from it? Few decisions will be as clear cut to hold no drawbacks. Negatives are acceptable though, so long as the positives sufficiently outweigh them.

In this part of our guide to organizational management we cover organizational planning…

An organization must engage in proper planning in order to meet its goals and objectives, and such planning must continue through all developmental phases. An initial plan should encompass expansive organization-wide goals, which will need to get more specific as they drill down into the organization, so that there are clear expectations for each member thereof.

It begins with the highest authorities in the organization assessing where the organization currently is, where it needs to be and what work, programs, and organizational growth (over a period of time (six months, a year, a five years, etc.) are necessary to achieve where it wants to be.

Each division within an organization (e.g. sales, finance, human resources, etc.) is then looked at separately and split into sub-divisions if appropriate (e.g. international sales, payroll, recruitment, etc.). Clear goals are set for each, based on past performance, natural growth, external trends, and comparisons with other, similar organizations. For example, Increase sales by 15%, Reduce 4th quarter costs, Improve employee retention, etc.

Once the goals and objectives have been determined, it is necessary to craft a list of the tasks specific to their completion. These need to be laid out in a very linear fashion (step 1, step 2, etc.), and evaluated to determine the length of time each should take. The task list is assigned to a department or individual who has the responsibility for seeing that they are completed, along with the expected time frames for completion, the performance management plan under which they will be assessed and relevant procedures necessary for achievement communicated.

If properly and thoroughly completed, organizational planning will result in providing employees with a clear-cut expectations and an understanding of how their individual contributions can directly and indirectly affect the achievement of system-wide goals. Taking care to provide employees with enough work to keep them challenged is important, as is not giving them such an overwhelming workload that they become discouraged.  Success never comes with a guarantee, but proper planning can increase the odds of success and decrease the chances of an organizations failure.

You are the owner of a new online business, and the last thing that you need is one more decision to make. I’m sorry, but I have one more thing for you to consider: How big should your first website be?

There are two schools of thought on this issue and both have data to support them. Obviously, if we automatically knew which was the preferred way to proceed, there wouldn’t be a choice to make.

I should emphasize that this decision is not related to the size that you want the business to ultimately become. Businesses that operate a number of small sites can grow as well as those that concentrate on one major “money site.” Neither should your decision be based upon some preconceived notion of your target market or your niche. Both small sites and large sites can succeed in any niche.

In other words, the answer to the question is not automatic, and I’ll warn you right now that I’m not going to recommend the “one magical size fits all” approach.

Small websites should be concentrated on a narrow sub-niche built around a cohesive, limited set of relatively long-tail keywords. Sites that are designed to become quite large eventually will develop most of their content in the same focused way, but they will also begin search engine optimization on the shorter, very high competition keywords at the same time.

The two approaches call for different models of long term growth, although both may begin largely concentrating upon a relatively narrow slice of the market. Those who have taken the mini-site approach, will begin to duplicate their success by building a new, small site in another sub-niche with a new set of long-tailed keywords. Large site businesses will instead build another section onto their growing original site. This new section, over time, is joined by others (think of new departments being added to a sporting goods store, for example). Each new section takes on a new sub-niche. Thus with each new department in the mega-site model, there is a new set of search phrases upon which to focus. These sites are built upon what is often called the “silo” structure. As the large site grows to twenty departments or categories, the business with small sites might grow to twenty or more individual websites.

Positive cash flow can be established sooner with the small site approach. This is partly due to such a business not investing resources into those most competitive, high level keywords. Conversely, the silo sites will take longer to mature, but they can eventually become competitive for the top level keywords as they simultaneously enter the fray for the more tightly targeted words and phrases. Eventually, the silo site might become recognized as an authority in the broader niche.

Let me move now to some of the important practical matters that are impacted by your decision on this important matter.

One of these pertains to the amount that needs to be invested into the site itself in the beginning. Although you’re still beginning relatively small with the site that you plan to become large, the foundation for a larger site must be laid. That means that the site’s eventual architecture must be created and the systems put in place that will eventuall become necessary for operation. Consequently, although the mini-site and the eventual mega-site may be the same size at launch, the model for the larger site costs more at start-up. Laying the foundation for silo sites is inherently costlier than the smaller, less expensive mini-site.

A second practical difference pertains to your approach to keywords. Your keyword research for a smaller site will be undertaken to locate a limited number of closely related long term keywords. Special attention will be given to those keywords that are likely to convert immediately With the large site plan, you will conduct your research with two focal points: the lower competition but more targeted long-tails and the highest level, most competitive short tails (which are less likely to convert immediately, but the users of which might be nurtured into eventually becoming customers.

The last practical ramification has to do with page rank. Page rank is impacted by a number of variables in search engine algorithms (formulas), but one of those is the number of pages that a site has (assuming that the site has a search engine friendly linking structure). Consequently, it is easier for a large site to achieve a high page rank than for a small site, although you must remember that other variables are even more important in maximizing the total page rank.

So I hope I have given you some food for thought, even though I haven’t provided an actual answer for you. Perhaps, though, these ideas provide you with an inclination as to what you ought to do considering your own unique business circumstances.

25 years ago, starting a retail store was much easier. Consumers were regularly buying staple items they required. stores were easy to run and the economy was good. Store owners often saw themselves as shining examples of individuals living the American dream. The neighborhood kids knew if they ever needed a job, it could be found at one of the different neighborhood stores; candy store, drug store or local men’s shoes store business. Some of these stores had been owned by the same family for generations. However, in the current economy most of these mom and pop stores are closing their doors. They’re struggling in keeping their businesses afloat.

See also:  comfortable boots

Over the years, most of these local businesses had survived competition by large department store chains. They managed to compete because they provided individual customer service. That personalized service enabled them to establish a constant flow of loyal customers. The neighborhood shoe store, for example, would let customers return a pair of shoes without a receipt, a gesture based on personal acquaintance with the customer and had faith that they would be back in the future. Sometimes developing strong good customer service bonds were better for business than just offering a 10% off coupon. The ability to offer this type of personal customer service is one of the main tactics small retail outlets were able to use to gain leverage over and compete with large department stores.

Since the development of the internet, small retail stores have had to compete not only with their local competitors, but they now have to compete with online stores. The impact of these cyber-stores may not have been clear at first, but gradually increasing numbers of and more people started to use the internet, they started making more purchases online; i.e., online shoe stores. There’s no more going to your neighborhood shoe store; people started buying shoes online. As online retail stores started to see an increase in business, your local merchants started to see a sharp decline. What is convenient for customers, this is taking a toll on once-prosperous local shops.

In today’s economy, small merchants are now facing an even bigger challenge in order to stay in business. With the banks in their current state, they’ve in turn pressured local businesses, decreasing the lines of credit that merchants depend upon. This credit crunch has cause local merchants to resort to drastic measures. For instance; your local comfortable mens shoes store owner may have to dip into his retirement fund to purchase inventory or fund the marketing campaign. The merchant simply doesn’t have a large funding base to draw on. However, with banks decreasing credit limits, they have fewer funds to work with. The overall decline in business they are looking at the strong possibility of having to restructure their lives.

Use The Wall Street Journal or by searching within Technorati for related stories related to this.       

We all have lots of appointments every day, hundreds of chores to do, dates to keep in mind. It is almost impossible to keep track of everything, to remember every telephone number you might need. It might not be a tragedy for some of us, but for others, it could be vital, and a missed appointment could turn out to have been essential for your future.

A secretary could solve all these problems, but not all of us can afford one. The other choices would be to note everything down, or to keep it in mind. While the human mind is a wonderful thing, I don’t know anybody that could remember everything. So we still depend on that notebook, that we need every minute.

Of course, that notebook is made of paper, and it tends to rip after a while, the handwriting gets blurred, so every year you have to spend time to copy everything to a new one. It might not seem a big deal, but it is time consuming, and you would like to find something more reliable than that.

 A Personal Digital Assistant would be the solution to this problem, and the hp ipaq 111 classic handheld is the best on the market. You won’t have to remember everything anymore, the HP PDA will. All the important or less important appointments, telephone numbers, dates, will find their place in its memory, and it will take care to remind you everything you need to know.

You don’t have to be a tech-wiz to learn how to use it; in fact it is quite easy. Throw away your old notebook, say goodbye to the times you forgot about a date or a red-letter day. Your PDA will take care that you would never miss an important appointment, it will keep track of every point on your busy daily schedule, if you’re not too busy to charge it, from time to time.

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.

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.