What this is.
An employee opinion survey is a confidential review of how your employees experience working for you.
It is not an engagement score and it is not a link sent to your workforce. Our consultants come on site, meet with employees in small groups away from their supervisors, and give them room to talk. Participants complete written questionnaires during the discussion. What comes out of those sessions becomes a report that tells ownership what is working, what is not, and what employees are asking for.
The engagement.
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Planning
We start with a conversation about your organization. Structure, departments, locations, recent changes, and anything management is already watching. We agree on scope, scheduling, and how the survey will be introduced.
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Announcement
Employees are told in advance that an outside firm is coming and that their participation is confidential. How this is communicated matters more than most employers expect. Employees who believe the survey is genuine give better information.
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On-site meetings
Small groups, organized by department or shift, in a round table setting. A short set of open questions covers what employees value, what they would change and how, working conditions, tools and equipment, and safety. Where one person raises a concern, others confirm it or add the detail that makes it fixable.
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Written questionnaires
Each participant completes a morale questionnaire covering stress, workload, recognition, respect, supervision, communication, job security, advancement, and pay satisfaction. Each also completes a manager review. Because the forms are filled out during the discussion, the written responses track the conversation rather than sitting apart from it.
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One to five days on site
Depending on the size of the organization and the number of locations. Sessions are scheduled around your operating hours so departments stay covered.
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Report and presentation
A written report goes to ownership, organized around the concerns that surfaced most consistently, with recommendations attached to each. We then walk your executive team through the findings and answer questions.
Why the findings hold up.
A single comment is one person's opinion. The same comment from three departments, supported by low questionnaire scores and echoed in manager reviews, is a finding.
We work from three sources rather than one. The discussions tell us what employees are experiencing. The questionnaires tell us how widely it is felt. The manager reviews tell us where it originates. When all three point the same direction, management can act instead of arguing about whether the problem is real.
Confidentiality.
Confidentiality is the foundation of this work, and employees are told exactly how it operates before any discussion begins.
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Forms never leave the room
Employees do not take questionnaires back to a desk. The forms stay in the consultant's possession, are transcribed, and are then destroyed. Management has never seen one.
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No names, ever
Participants do not write their names on anything. Findings are presented as themes, patterns, and department level observations. Management does not receive a list of who said what.
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Comments recorded verbatim
Employee comments go into the report in the words employees used. Where an account is detailed enough that the speaker could be identified, the consultant works with that employee to reframe it before it goes anywhere.
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The report does not circulate
Only ownership and executive management read it. We are direct with clients about this at the outset, because an employer who works backward from a report to identify individuals will not get a usable survey the following year.
Employers with several locations.
For multi location employers, a survey does something a single site review cannot. It separates what is local from what runs through the whole company.
When six of your eight locations raise the same complaint, that is a policy issue. When one location scores well below the others under identical pay plans and identical policies, that is a management issue. Multi location reports present findings by location alongside a company wide section, so executives can see both at once.
How often.
Most clients survey annually. A yearly cycle lets you measure whether the actions you took last year made a difference, which is often the most persuasive thing a report can show your employees.
Some employers survey a single location more frequently while working through a known problem. Others bring us in once, after an acquisition or a leadership change, to establish a baseline.
Employers we have served since 1986.
Single site operations through national organizations, across most industries where people work in departments under direct supervision. A partial list.
Manufacturing and industrial
John Deere. Dana Corporation. The Timken Corporation. Volvo Construction Equipment. LISI Aerospace. Ashley Furniture Industries. American Marazzi Tile. Weyerhaeuser. Sherwin Williams. Thermal Structures. Fireplace Manufacturers. Carson Trailer. K&K Custom Furniture. West Coast Laminating. 3 Day Blinds. Baghouse & Sheet Metal Industrial Services. H.J. Baker & Bro., Inc.
Food processing and agriculture
Boar's Head. Keystone Foods. Dean Foods. Mayfield Dairy Farms. McArthur Dairy. OK Foods. West Liberty Foods. Michigan Turkey. Pine Ridge Farms. GNP Company. Taylor Farms Pacific. Foothill Packing. Apio Foods. Cuisine Solutions. John B. Sanfilippo & Son. Goglanian Bakeries. Mission Foods. Super Store Industries. Baker Commodities. O'Neill Vintners & Distillers. Opus One. The Wine Group.
Transportation, logistics, and distribution
XPO, Inc. Hub Group. Republic Services. Waste Management. Comcar Industries. Roadlink Logistics. American Logistics International. PODS. Container Connection. MBM Corporation. Quantem Aviation Services. S.S. Skikos Trucking. EMCO Chemical Distributors Inc. Mobile Mini.
Hospitality and entertainment
Hilton Hotels & Resorts. Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts. Caesars Entertainment. Anschutz Entertainment Group. CasaBlanca Resort. Virgin River Hotel & Casino. Quixote Studios. Cinelease. Domino's Pizza. AMC Theatres.
Health care
American Medical Response. Providence Healthcare Group. North American Health Care. Garden Crest Rehabilitation Center. Citrus Nursing Center. Leisure Court Nursing Center.
Retail and automotive
Advance Auto Parts. Toyota. LKQ Corporation. Mossy Automotive Group. Smart & Final. Lynx Golf. Albertsons Companies, Inc. Amazon. New Car Dealers Association San Diego County. Safeway, Inc. VONS Companies.
Construction and security
The Brinks Company. Garda Cash Logistics. LAZ Parking. Capform. Metric Roofing. Balfour Beatty Communities. NPL Construction. Huff Lumber Company.
Public sector and other
Haines City, Florida. Imagine Schools of Imperial Valley. Anderson News Corporation. Frontier Communications.
Supervisory training.
Six part program, delivered on site in English or Spanish, built around your operation.
Most supervisors were promoted because they were good at the job they were doing. Very few received training on how to lead the people who now report to them. There is hardly an area of a business that untrained supervision does not reach.
Problem solving and listening
Setting and communicating expectations
Coaching to achieve expectations
Selection and interviewing skills
Corrective discipline
Handling employee complaints and concerns
The most common finding in this work is some version of the same sentence. I brought it up and nothing happened. That is rarely a policy failure. It is usually a supervisor who did not know what to do with a complaint, sat on it, or handled it in a way that made the employee sorry they said anything.
Training works best when it is aimed. A survey tells you which supervisors employees have concerns about and what those concerns actually are. Next year's survey tells you whether it worked.
Find out what is actually happening.
Tell us about your organization and what prompted you to look into this. Initial consultations are at no cost.