How to Use Surveys to Improve Corporate Communication

Surveys are one of the most effective tools to provide you with the feedback needed to improve corporate communication. But for surveys to work, they must be created the right way, focused on simplicity and targeted for direct purposes. An effective survey leads to actionable results, and when you gather data from your people you can use it to create a stronger workplace. 

By providing surveys, you can jumpstart multiple areas of the business, including: 

• Corporate communication
• Employee engagement 
• Better customer service and client relationships
• Improved pipeline for innovation
• Healthy workplace culture and brand DNA
• Effective synergy and teamwork

Here are ways you can use surveys to benefit your team communication. 

Increase Your Feedback: Make it Easy to Respond

The most common barriers to entry for surveys is the difficulty in completing them and people worrying about their feedback could result in repercussions. How do we solve these issues?

When we use platforms that make it very easy to respond, people are more than willing to provide their input. What does that look like? Employee surveys should be the following:

• Convenient (like on their phone or computer)
• Easy to understand
• Quick to complete
• Clear and straightforward

When these points are met, you encourage people to complete their surveys as soon as they have access. If the survey is easy, you’ll get more responses more often. 

Another reason why employee surveys don't reach their potential is that people are worried there’ll be consequences. Can they truly be candid about their workplace if management knows who the feedback is from? By providing an avenue for anonymous feedback, people will be free to provide honest, unfiltered input for authentic and reliable responses. 

When companies make it easy to respond to employee surveys, they improve communication. 

Get Unfiltered Feedback by Asking the Right Questions

Creating a powerful employee survey is all in asking the right questions. By crafting targeted, purposeful questions, you’ll cut down on the amount of time people spend on the survey and get the answers you’re looking for. If there are too many questions, you’ll deter your team from finishing the survey. When you provide the right questions, you’ll get more results with valuable data.

So, what are the right questions? It’s important to break up the goals and information you’re looking to achieve. Let’s assume you’re in the toy manufacturing business. Instead of creating a long survey that includes questions such as “How can we improve operations?”, consider being more specific, asking something like “How can we make the color/dyeing process more efficient?” Do this and you’ll get strategic results with actionable data.

At Olumo, for instance, we provide short weekly employee surveys of 1-2 questions each via text message. As an employer, you may choose from over 400 questions regarding 10 workplace experience topics.

The Harvard Business Review reported how International Truck and Engine Corporation changed the way they do employee surveys. They doubled their response rate from 33% to 66% when making a change to ask questions which focus on content, format, language, measurement, and administration. By asking great questions, you have the potential to see similar results.

Convert Responses into Actionable Data

Surveys are only as effective as what you do with the results. Implement a process that converts responses into actionable data, and you can begin changing your company’s communication for the better. 

By creating surveys that are specific and targeted, you can categorize responses to identify emerging trends. Matching those common answers will help you interpret the data, leading you in the right direction to take action. 

Today, there are great tools to turn responses into action. The Olumo platform gathers responses and builds the data into a beautiful interface that’s easy to understand and act on. When everything is in one place, it makes it easy to grow your business and team. People receive simple text-message surveys and managers can monitor 100% anonymous feedback in real time. 

Gather real-time feedback data and quickly view actionable results. Pinpoint exactly where your weak points lie so you can make better choices to improve engagement. Protect the identities of your people with anonymity so there’s no fear of consequences. 

Converting anonymous feedback into action requires the following steps: gather relevant responses, review the data, interpret the data, identify areas of opportunity, establish an action plan, and evaluate improvements with a new survey.

In the contemporary workplace, you simply can’t improve company communication if you don’t actively engage with your people. With technology that allows you to tap into the mindset of your people, you have no excuse.

Grow Your Culture and Value (Increase Engagement)

A healthy corporate communication environment starts with a great culture. Employee surveys that provide anonymous feedback create a transparent environment for a stronger workplace experience. If your people feel empowered working for you, they’ll communicate more effectively. 

Employee surveys allow you to dig deep into the workplace experience to uncover the strengths and weaknesses that should be improved upon. Asking about your people’s motivations, passions, and frustrations can generate valuable data to create a better, active culture.

The best way to increase employee retention and innovation is by providing a culture that people love. When you work to build a workplace experience that people actively enjoy, you’ve created a culture that people believe in. A happy culture filled with like-minded individuals creates a healthy company positioned for growth.

A powerful culture puts people first, so find ways to add value to the people in your company. If you see employees as people with their own dreams and passions, you’ll learn to connect with them. Find what empowers them to increase their productivity and creative output.

Improve Your Company’s Communication Today

Effective communication starts with creating ways your people can freely provide input about the business. Employee surveys provide this opportunity and equip managers and owners to use that data for action. By using effective surveys, businesses can continue to grow and become a stronger brand that represents value for its customers and its team.

At Olumo, we offer user-friendly tools that provide an easy way for people to offer anonymous feedback on your organization. With our employee surveys and assessments, you can request honest feedback specific to your concerns.

Test out Olumo for free today and discover the plethora of data you can gather via our simple platform alone. Yet, remember that data has no value if you don’t use it. Take action from the insights you gather and watch your company improve its communication.