I am currently working with an organization that intends to develop a climate survey tool for use with staff. The driver for this initiative was the connection with OHS (psychological injury/stress). The initial thinking was that the climate survey would help work towards a good working environment that employees would want to stay in.
However, the scope of our project has now broadened to include a "workforce planning" approach that addresses recruitment and retention issues in the context of business sustainability. It is evident that job satisfaction plays a crucial role in retaining staff.
I recently attended a seminar where the design of survey questions was discussed. Here is an excerpt from my notes:
Questions include:
a. Max 30 questions. Should only take 3-5 minutes online.
b. Location, Division, Classification, job group, or other.
c. Age at last birthday.
d. Cultural Profile - how important is this information and can it be used by management?
e. Impairment - put it into context - e.g., what work needs does this raise? It may be best not to use as it might create some liability for management.
f. Mobility patterns - How long have you been in the sector? Are you considering staying with us? Include unsure. Don't worry about breaks in service.
g. Working arrangements - type (part-time, full-time, etc.), number of hours worked (dropdown list) - are you interested in working more hours?
h. Why did you choose to work in [name of company]? Why would you leave? (flip questions)
i. Careful exploration of retirement intentions - inducements to stay.
j. Qualifications - only if used to consider training arrangements - what would interest you?
k. Do you have caring responsibilities?
l. Barriers to continued employment.
m. What do you think are good recruitment strategies - inducements - do people have accurate information about the industry?
n. How would you redesign your job?
Including questions about any issues people may have with management would be useful in identifying the "climate" of the organization or specific work groups. I hope this information helps spark more creative thoughts.
Progress Enterprise