Can you really combat survey fatigue?
Employee surveys are an essential tool to help organisations capture their employee's views and experiences across a range of issues. The assessment industry has exploded with new technology and increased accessibility, meaning there is now a multitude of ways to gain measured feedback from employees that are quick to deploy and cost-effective.
However, whilst rolling out surveys may be quick and easy, survey fatigue is real and a challenge that must be addressed. In this article, we will explore what survey fatigue is, how it can be addressed, and actionable next steps to take before launching your next survey.
What is survey fatigue?
So, for those who aren’t familiar:
“Survey fatigue refers to a lack of motivation to participate in assessments—and has the potential to impact response behavior” - McKinsey (2021)
For example, employees who experience survey fatigue may choose to not participate in a survey or could select false answers due to poor engagement, which can lead to inaccurate results.
Whether you’re trying to assess levels of staff happiness, engagement with a new initiative or gather feedback on a training session, the ability to achieve a healthy survey response rate and accurate data is critical to your success.
It’s therefore understandable that “survey fatigue” is a common fear for organisations who are considering implementing a survey. It would be a waste of resources if survey fatigue is high and they do not get a complete data set as a result.
What causes survey fatigue and when can it occur?
Survey fatigue can appear at two different points in the process:
Firstly, when the person receives the invitation to complete the survey. Often employees have lots of tasks to complete and many things competing for their time. Completing a survey might not seem particularly important or time-sensitive, so they forget about it or it gets put on the bottom of their to-do list.
The other point survey fatigue can show up is during the completion of the survey. It might be that there are too many questions or the survey is poorly designed. As result, the survey may fail to keep the respondents' attention resulting in drop-off, incompleted surveys or false answers.
To give you a steer on what not to do when you implement a survey within your organisation, consider these 4 different types of survey fatigue:
Question Fatigue - occurs when the survey includes challenging questions
Insincere Survey Fatigue - occurs when employees don’t believe their insights are helpful or that they will be acted on by management
Over-surveying Fatigue - occurs when employees are asked to take surveys repeatedly
Long Survey Fatigue - occurs when employees are asked to do very long surveys
The number 1 cause of survey fatigue?
A common belief is that survey fatigue is driven by the number and length of surveys deployed - but this is a myth! McKinsey (2021) reviewed results across more than 20 academic articles and found that, consistently, the number one driver of survey fatigue was the perception that the organisation wouldn’t act on the results. This was often informed by past experiences, where employees had not seen any communications or action due to previous surveys.
They found when organisations share and act on results, research suggested that employees were much more likely to participate in future surveys— and even respond more favorably.
>> DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE: Getting started with your racial equity strategy
What are the effects of survey fatigue?
1) Low-quality data - If employees don’t enjoy the survey experience, chances are they won’t give the survey their full attention. Their answers may be rushed and consequently not truly accurate. This can lead to unrepresentative data.
2) Negative employee perception - If employees are bombarded with survey requests, then there’s a strong chance they’re going to be irritated before they even start.
3) Results bias - There might be a divide in the workforce. Employees who are passionate about getting their voices heard will take the survey, whereas those more apathetic employees will avoid participating, which can cause skewed data.
How does FLAIR help clients overcome survey fatigue?
Data collection using surveys is at the core of our process. We deploy surveys across sectors and organisations of all shapes and sizes to map cultures and measure racial equity. Using this expertise, we deploy the following best practices to achieve industry-leading response rates:
1) Survey design - FLAIR’s survey is short and to the point. On average, it takes between 10-15 minutes to complete. There are only 25 questions in the survey, only one of which is open-ended, so employees don’t have to spend a long amount of time completing it.
2) Survey frequency - FLAIR’s survey is conducted only once a year, as the behaviours we measure tend to change fairly slowly. This means our clients only need to add one additional survey to your annual survey calendar, which is manageable in the majority of cases.
3) Survey uniqueness - A racial equity survey is unlikely to be something most employees have participated in before. This novelty sparks employees’ interests and often leads to higher engagement. This isn’t a typical employee engagement survey, which they have been asked to do annually since joining the workforce and are probably tired of or have preconceptions about.
5) Pre-launch communication materials - FLAIR provides pre-written emails and a video that clients can share with their employees to highlight: why the survey is happening, who it is aimed at, what to expect in the survey, who is administering it, and how anonymity is achieved. These pre-written comms are tailored to each organisation.
6) Post-close communication materials - FLAIR provides clients with a presentation highlighting key findings. This can be shared in totality or in part with employees to help them understand the results of the survey. Few things are more frustrating than completing a survey and never hearing what the results were.
7) Flexibility on the timeframe - Once you sign up to FLAIR, our clients can roll out their survey during any month across the year. This allows clients to plan when to launch the survey within their annual calendar, so it doesn’t fall too close to another organisation-wide survey or can be tied in with internal initiatives or events.
8) Implementable action items - FLAIR provides a prescriptive Racial Equity Roadmap with several action items that can be implemented quickly upon completion. This helps employees to see that a difference is being made and helps them to understand the value of participating in the repeat survey the following year.
What additional steps can be taken to help avoid survey fatigue?
1) Time your survey sensibly - Try to make sure that your survey is not rolled out too close to another organisation-wide survey.
2) Have a plan to raise awareness - Embedded in FLAIR’s survey launch timeline is a two-week awareness-raising window. This is your opportunity to drive engagement. We have found that getting a senior leader to communicate why the survey is being rolled out helps to drive engagement. We encourage clients to leverage FLAIR’s pre-launch comms materials to help employees buy into the idea and therefore into participation.
3) Have a plan to share feedback with employees - Decide on when what and how you will share feedback with employees and ensure you don’t wait too long to do so. Again, FLAIR’s visual results presentation can be used to bring the results to life for your employees.
4) Pre-communicate that this is a multi-year engagement - This helps to set expectations in advance that the survey will be repeated in years to come. Hence it’s less of an annoyance when employees are asked to re-participate a year later.
Want to launch a survey? Your next steps
There is no doubt that survey fatigue is a real phenomenon. It can prevent organisations from gaining accurate data, which ultimately leads to a waste of resources. However, as we’ve explained, there are many actions you can take regarding the design, messaging and communication around the use of the survey, to mitigate the risk of survey fatigue and ensure survey success.
It’s crucial to set a clear rationale for your survey and communicated this clearly to your employees. This will help to improve the quality of the data and the number of responses you receive. The leaders within the organisation must then disseminate the information to their employees and take action on the feedback.
Using the tips we’ve outlined, you can help to combat survey fatigue and gain valuable insight. If you want FLAIR’s help in rolling out a Racial Equity survey to achieve lasting change, let us know. We’d love to help.