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Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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Every year about this time, my employer hires an outside firm to create an employee survey for feedback about our jobs, immediate supervisor, etc. Of course, everything is confidential Does anyone actually do these things? Or believe that they're confidential?
I once worked at a company that hired someone to do the survey. I absolutely filled them out. This is your chance to be honest without anyone knowing it is you saying it, good or bad. It was always amazing to see the patterns that came from these surveys, managers who needed extra training was the most obvious. If your employer cares enough to spent the $$$ to have one of these done they most likely are willing to take action when things are uncovered.
Yes I fill them up...they know who hasn't and they pester you with e-mails. My manager is being provided a list of those who have not completed it yet. They'll know if you filled it up or not (tracking it from your work computer address), but they won't know who you are from your answers.
My department coordinates annual employee satisfaction surveys, and I'm the one who oversees the whole process and reports the results. We encourage people to disclose their name and "own" their criticisms and suggestions, but they also have the option to remain anonymous.
It's usually about 1/3 who provide their name, and they have given both positive and negative feedback. About 2/3 choose to be anonymous, regardless of whether they are giving positive or negative feedback.
My personal opinion is that when people identify themselves, they present their opinions in a much more constructive and professional manner, and they are much more likely to have their suggestions acted upon.
A small number who choose to be anonymous submit gripes and complaints in a non-professional and even childish manner. They are not likely to have their ideas taken seriously.
I have a system set up so that even I cannot tell who sent in the online survey; I can only tell what regional office they are from.
I don't know about other types of companies, but mine is a non-profit organization that serves many people, and we have an almost unlimited pool of potential clients (waiting lists, people stuck in state facilities). So we really have no "competition" to speak of with regard to "customers." All the other similar agencies also have all the clients they can handle.
We do, however, recognize that we are in competition with other agencies for good staff. So we are invested in making improvements in staff satisfaction wherever possible and prudent. So yes, in my situation, I think employee surveys are valuable, and my company takes them seriously and has made changes based on the data gathered.
Ours is outsourced and submitted electronically with no identifying characteristics. I fill one out every year. Management shares the results with staff and it's a great tool to find out what's on the minds of all employees. Any comments directed at one employee in particular are omitted from the printed results before they're distributed to the staff. The employee to whom the comment was directed, will be informed about the comment by his/her supervisor.
If you dont mind me asking what is the company that you work for? The company I work for currently conducts employee surveys by touch screen computers and web surveys. It is more accurate and efficient.
Yes, I worked 15 years for UPS and every year they forced us to complete such a survey. You had to log into the computer employment survey with your social security number. There's some confidentiality right there.
The survey results were published within the company about 10 months later. They never seemed to reflect any of the concerns that employees talked about daily. It was a table of statistics and comparisons with previous years and every year the conclusions were the same--generally the company and management were found to be doing a brilliant job. Whatever......
One year I couldn't be bothered to fill out their stupid manipulative survey again. I told my supervisor I didn't have time and he should do it for me. He did. So much for truthful input from the employees.
Employer surveys are a joke. Just check the boxes and keep on moving. They will manipulate the answers to reflect their own best interests no matter what you do.
Any kind of promise of anonymity on a computer survey is a lie. They can absolutely track that stuff.
Yes, I worked 15 years for UPS and every year they forced us to complete such a survey. You had to log into the computer employment survey with your social security number. There's some confidentiality right there.
The survey results were published within the company about 10 months later. They never seemed to reflect any of the concerns that employees talked about daily. It was a table of statistics and comparisons with previous years and every year the conclusions were the same--generally the company and management were found to be doing a brilliant job. Whatever......
One year I couldn't be bothered to fill out their stupid manipulative survey again. I told my supervisor I didn't have time and he should do it for me. He did. So much for truthful input from the employees.
Employer surveys are a joke. Just check the boxes and keep on moving. They will manipulate the answers to reflect their own best interests no matter what you do.
Any kind of promise of anonymity on a computer survey is a lie. They can absolutely track that stuff.
I agree with this poster. You cannot trust these people. I worked for a place that conducted a handwritten survey each year, and you had to fill it out. At the end, you had to list department, male/female, management/non-management, and a few other seemingly anonymous questions. Yah, right. My department was two people, me and my male boss. Gee I wonder if they could tell!
Some of the questions were very nosy. Like, how much longer do you plan to keep working here???
My advice...do the survey, mark everything excellent or 5's or whatever the highest score is. Put in the comments that everything is great, dandy, super.
If you have ideas to improve the company, don't wait for a random survey. Speak up with ideas in meetings or one-on-one with your boss. Or if it's a place that doesn't want your opinion, just do the job and go home. But don't put your true feelings on a survey.
i recently retired. it was mandatory for us so yes i did. however there they are used more to take the pulse of workers than to facilitate change. other than to calculate their next move, they were clearly not interested in employee opinion or morale. most change was imposed without any worker input whatsoever.
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Does anyone actually do these things? Or believe that they're confidential?
