“What Are My Employees Thinking?”

by Richard P. Dacri

It is tempting to argue the importance of employee attitudes and expectations in terms of consequences of job satisfaction and poor employee morale and their cost upon the organization. You could cite the cost involved in human resource problems such as absenteeism, turnover, poor job performance, high workers’ compensation costs and morale issues. Such problems underscore the need for management to be aware of and informed about their employees’ attitudes and expectations. This information can be very helpful in running the organization.

A number of terms have been associated with employee attitudes. What is important is to understand is what is an attitude. An attitude can be defined as a predisposition, inclination, or tendency in relation to a situation, event, or object. Attitudes are not motivators or causes of specific behavior-they are a more general set of feelings. They may indicate how a person is likely to act in certain situations.

The best way to find out about a person's attitude is to ask them--and one method of doing this is through an employee attitude survey. Attitude surveys are probably one of the best tools managers have for taking a barometer reading of what is happening in the workplace at any given point. However, if improperly administered, it can be a source of employee discontent.

If an employer should decided to conduct a survey themselves, the following considerations should be weighed.

The in-house survey team should be experienced and knowledgeable in (a) developing survey questions (b) administer the survey, (c) analyzing the results, and (d) establishing rapport with all levels of the company's employees from top level management to the hourly employees. Lack of rapport with the hourly employees is likely to distort results; lack of rapport with upper level management can make implementation of identified needed action or change problematic. Given available, qualified personnel in the organization, a projection of the cost of doing the job in-house must be compared with the cost of hiring an outside consultant or agency for a job of the same size, that is, to produce a comparable amount of information.

If you should still decide to do it in-house, the following points must also be considered:

1. Survey instruments already developed should be reviewed for appropriateness for use in the organization.

2. A potential problem in conducting an attitude survey in-house may arise from the reluctance of employees to disclose their real feelings. This reluctance may be eased by ensuring anonymity of response through such techniques as (a) the use of a secret ballot and ballot box; (2) use of broad categories in asking for personal demographic information, eliminating all categories where there is a small number of employees; and (3) having one or more employee representatives as part of the data processing/data analysis team.

3. A survey of attitudes should be preceded by an orientation session in which the survey's purpose, procedure and payoff are carefully explained and questions from employees are entertained. The survey should be followed by another session during which a report of the survey is made and the results are presented and discussed. If improving employee satisfaction is the purpose of the employee attitude survey, it would be ironic if the survey itself became the cause of employee fears, anxieties, distrust, and dissatisfaction. Involving employees in the pre and post-survey briefings is one way of preventing this unwanted outcome from occurring.

In-house surveys are suspect as potentially self-serving, and there is some evidence that a survey administered by an employer produces a more inflated picture than a survey conducted by an "outside" administrator. Hence, the hiring of an outside consultant with experience in survey feedback should be given serious consideration.

Whatever you choice, the use of attitude surveys remains one of the most powerful tools employers have in determining what their employees are thinking.

Rick Dacri is an organizational development consultant, coach and featured speaker at regional and national conferences. Since 1995 his firm, Dacri & Associates has focused on improving the performance of individuals and organizations. Rick can be reached at 1-800-892-9828, or rick@dacri.com