The e-Line #7
Online Surveys

Chances are that you have participated recently in one of the most popular business tools today: an online survey.

I first began administering web-based surveys two years ago. Since then, online surveys have become such a core component of my consultant's toolkit that I can't imagine working without them.

Of particular interest to HR professionals is the issue of employee trust and how this impacts survey responses. Palmer Morrell-Samuels, author of "Getting the Truth into Workplace Surveys," stated recently in a Harvard Business Review article that "poorly designed Web surveys usually produce implausibility favourable responses [when respondents rate questions more favourably than they truly feel]. In many cases, the problem stems from employees' reluctance to complain because they're not confident that their identity will be protected."

This insight provides validation as to why sensitive surveys, such as those dealing with employee climate, have traditionally been conducted externally. As more HR departments add online surveys to their internal toolkit, this is an important caution to keep in mind.

When you decide it is appropriate to administer an online survey internally, consider the factor of good and bad design. A well-designed online survey can be extremely effective; a poorly designed one will not only skew your results, but might cause other problems as well.

Seven online survey tips

In general, all the same principles that apply to good, paper-based surveys apply online. Here are some helpful tips to make your online survey successful:

1. Take time to study survey how to's before creating your first online survey; this will undoubtedly save you some grief.

2. Use a simple interface with minimal graphics - less works best. Research shows that more people respond to simple online surveys, rather than fancy ones.

3. Intersperse comments boxes throughout the survey. This makes adding comments easier for the respondent and also facilitates reporting afterwards.

4. Be selective about making questions mandatory. It's helpful to include "don't know" or "choose not to answer" options.

5. Send reminders -- they're a great way to boost response rates. (With Web-based surveys, the greatest number of responses comes in the first few days after the initial invitation, then again after a reminder notice.) If you have access to an automated reminder function, consider using it. This will ensure that reminders go only to those who have not yet responded.

6. To benefit from the reminder function, send the initial survey invitations using the program's email function; this allows automated tracking of who has responded. The alternative is a generic link, which works fine for accepting responses, but cannot cross-reference respondents. A generic Web link is usually used for a survey placed on a Web site or intranet.

7. Test your online survey rigorously before launching it. Test it yourself by responding to the survey several times using different types of responses. Send a link to a few stakeholders to check and ask them to do the same. Does the survey work as you intended?

These are just a few considerations. You will discover a number of other design options, such as whether to use a single page, which requires scrolling, or multiple pages; both have their pros and cons. Start small initially and keep it simple.

Remember: anything that frustrates your respondents might cause them not to complete the survey.

Popular survey tools

I have used Zoomerang (www.zoomerang.com) as my primary survey tool for more than two years. Another popular one is Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com), among plenty of others. These types of tools operate on a subscription basis; the provider's server hosts your surveys and you pay an annual fee for a certain number of survey responses. These simple and functional tools serve well in the bulk of survey situations.

Should your survey require gap analysis (a comparison between two different measures), you might require a more sophisticated tool. In such cases, I turn to Perception by Questionmark (www.questionmark.com), a leading online assessment tool that also has online testing capability.

RESOURCES

"Web Surveys' Hidden Hazards"
Palmer Morrel-Samuels
Harvard Business Review, July 2003
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu

Principles for Constructing Web Surveys
Don A Dillman, Robert D. Tortora, Dennis Bowker
http://survey.sesrc.wsu.edu/dillman/papers/websurveyppr.pdf