Learning what workers think - employee attitudes

Learning What Workers Think A professional survey of your employees' attitudes about the company may point to problems, causes and cures.

When Lindsay Olive Growers, in Lindsay, Calif., decided it needed a clearer picture of its employees' opinions about the company, everybody on the payroll--managers included--got a chance to state anonymously what was on his or her mind.

The opinions were obtained through a professionally drafted questionnaire called an employee attitude survey. The replies were collected and evaluated by experts outside the company, and the results proved eye-opening for the Lindsay firm. The survey disclosed some complaints and problems that management then took steps to resolve.

"The survey findings helped us significantly," says Richard Vorreyer, director of industrial relations for Lindsay, a growers' cooperative. "It's amazing how they are able to zero in on the important areas. For example, we knew we needed to sharpen our employee communications, but the survey showed us where."

Vorreyer, impressed by the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of the survey used at Lindsay, says other companies could benefit from such examinations of workers' concerns. "Like good tools, attitude surveys are investments in the company's future," he says. "When you identify problems and then solve them, you make your company stronger and better able to compete."

Small and medium-sized businesses increasingly are turning to employee attitude surveys to help them identify and resolve chronic problems such as turnover and absenteeism, weak management-employee communications and inadequate training programs.

"An attitude survey is an anonymous, statistical examination of how employees feel on work-related issues," says Marlowe Volkening, product administrator at Science Research Associates, Inc., a Chicago publisher that produces attitude surveys. "An attitude survey allows for a detailed comparison of the attitudes held by the employees of the firm taking the survey with the attitudes held by employees at all the other firms who took the survey previously."

Typically, attitude surveys include core questions applicable to employees at any level and in any line of work. These questions are formulated to explore selected areas such as pay, working conditions and supervisor-employee relationships. The questions have been asked of thousands of employees at other firms in the past, and the responses of all previous survey participants form a baseline against which all new responses are measured. The new responses later become part of the baseline.

For example, the SRA core survey evaluates 14 subjects such as pay, benefits, working conditions, relations between supervisors and employees, and confidence in management. Employees are asked 78 questions, to which they respond by choosing "agree," "?" or "disagree." Add-on surveys ask openended questions that provide information beyond the core survey; another category asks about the survey itself.

Michael Schroeder of Stanard & Associates, Inc., sole licensee of the SRA Attitude Survey System, says, "The employee attitude survey is a highly efficient means of clarifying issues and learning where employee-related problems lie."

Typical of how a survey can help a company is the experience of A.C. Nielsen Company of Northbrook, Ill., known for its TV ratings services. The company enjoyed steady growth for many years, but about 10 years ago, says Ken Kempka, vice president of employee relations at Nielsen, "there seemed to be a loss of corporate identity among employees. There was some confusion about who we were and what the company was trying to accomplish."

In addition, he says, there was a troublesome breakdown in communication between management and nonmanagement. "We were losing touch with each other. There was a sense that our relationship had become impersonal."

Nielsen turned to SRA's attitude survey to determine how employees felt on key issues. Responses showed that the communications breakdown was largely responsible for the "identity crisis."

An attitude survey's ability to isolate problems often surprises first-time users. Kempka says the survey helped Nielsen define some difficulties narrowly, "even department by department, and, once that was done, we were able to formulate corrective programs. The `identity crisis' melted away, too."

Attitude surveys identify general problems, not specific causes. A survey may reveal, for example, that most employees in a manufacturing plant dislike their working conditions, but it would not pinpoint the reasons for the dissatisfaction. The plant management, through on-site inspections or other investigations, would have to determine the specific reasons, such as poor lighting or excessive noise.

Companies usually buy attitude surveys from psychological- or management-consulting firms. Byron Harless, Reid & Associates, Inc., a psychological-consulting firm in Tampa, custom designs surveys for clients and administers them to employees.

Generally, companies are capable of administering attitude surveys through their own human-resources departments. But if the management's relations with its staff are not good, it may be advisable to have an outside firm administer the survey to ease any employee suspicions about confidentiality. Regardless of how the survey is given, the survey firm processes and analyzes it.

While SRA's attitude survey may be used for all types and sizes of businesses, some surveys are specific to certain industries. The attitude survey marketed by the Bank Administration Institute, in Rolling Meadows, Ill., has been designed for use only in the financial-services industry, which includes banks, savings and loan associations and credit unions.

A principal difference between the two surveys centers on the norms for evaluating the results. BAI's norms are derived exclusively from financial-services organizations; SRA's norms come from a variety of industries, such as finance, manufacturing and health care. The 12 work-related areas in BAI's core survey parallel those of the SRA survey, since these areas are important to workers in almost all jobs, and the core questions are similar in wording.

Attitude surveys may deal strictly with concerns that employees might have at a number of companies, such as whether the parking is satisfactory, the restrooms are clean, or the cafeteria food is good. Surveys also can ask about matters relevant to only one company, as in "The proposed merger with Smith and French is a good idea," or "The pay raise granted in May was satisfactory."

The consulting firms compile and analyze the data from the computer-scanned answer forms and give written conclusions to the client.

"The value of this information--that 42 percent of a firm's employees feel overworked or that 75 percent feel that the working conditions are satisfactory--lies in the comparison which can be made with all the other responses given previously by employees at other firms," says Sharon Pappas, a consulting psychologist with BAI.

"All of the previously compiled information is known as norms," she says. "When new responses are compared with the nationally established norms, differences indicate either positive or negative findings, depending upon the exact circumstances."

Suppose, for example, a company's sales are declining, management suspects the cause is employee dissatisfaction with pay--a frequent complaint--and uses an attitude survey to test that suspicion. The survey shows that 55 percent of the employees are dissatisfied with their pay. But instead of confirming management's suspicion, the percentage tends to eliminate "dissatisfaction with pay" as a cause. The reason is that the figure is below the norm--below the earlier findings that 60 percent of all employees at other firms surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with pay.

Suppose further that just 35 percent of the company's employees are satisfied with working conditions in the plant. This is about 25 percentage points below the national norm on this issue and indicates a problem. Only a detailed investigation will confirm or eliminate working conditions as a cause of the company's declining fortunes.

After an attitude survey has been administered, experts contend, it is crucial that the results--good and bad--be told to employees, that causes of any problems be investigated and that corrective measures be formulated. If these steps are not taken, it is likely that the problems will worsen.

To ensure that progress is being made, follow-up surveys should be taken every three to five years, according to Theodore Kunin, senior vice president of Psychological Consultants to Industry, in Pittsburgh. "That provides an internal norm, a baseline of the firm's own results from previous surveys," he says. "That can be extremely valuable. If, for example, a firm's employees were 70 percent dissatisfied on an issue six years ago when the first survey was taken, 55 percent dissatisfied three years ago on the second survey and just 30 percent dissatisfied in the most recent survey, it seems clear that progress is being made, regardless of what the national norm is on that issue."

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