HR departments are among those that are beginning to appreciate the value, in these straitened times, of free or cheap DIY online market research packages. The aim of this article is to provide a few pointers to getting the most out of DIY online research; first a couple of caveats, and then some practical hints and tips. Do consider balancing the undoubted cost savings (from not involving a professional market researcher) against what you may be losing by carrying out a particular piece of research in-house.
The first question is about time: do you have the time to design, monitor, analyse and present this research, alongside everything else you need to do? The second question relates to the anonymity of survey findings: if you want to carry out sensitive research, but you don't involve a third party, will your potential respondents really believe in that promise of anonymity?
And, if not, will they want to respond? We recommend that sensitive employee research (such as surveys which ask questions about managers and colleagues, job satisfaction or morale) should always involve a third-party researcher. This leaves plenty of other potential uses for DIY research: for example, asking for feedback on a training day or away-day; views on potential tailored benefits packages; ideas for the summer party; finding out how people get to work (for example, are showers needed for cyclists?) and so on.
Then, think about whether online research is the right method. If most of your employees aren't online, don't have easy access to a computer, or aren't comfortable with them, then online isn't the way to go. In that case, consider one of the more traditional methods such as paper questionnaires (on their own or in combination with online).
Remember the 'political' (with a small 'p') aspects of any survey. To maximise response (because, all other things being equal, the more responses you get, the more reliable the findings will be), you need 'buy-in'. Give the survey advance publicity (on staff notice boards, by e-mail – whatever works for your organisation), explaining what's happening, when, and how the findings will be used. Ideally have a covering 'letter' from a senior stakeholder when you send out the survey itself, again explaining clearly the rationale for the survey.
Then there's the task of writing the questionnaire, which should be designed to collect information that you can compile into statistics. Think carefully, as you write the questionnaire, how you are going to present the findings from it. Will it give you all of the information you need? You will, of course, need to decide who to send a particular survey to. If it's to all employees, that's straightforward, but if it's to only a proportion of employees, then you need to have a sampling strategy. Then, there's the crucial task of analysing and reporting the findings effectively. When preparing a report of any kind, bear these questions in mind and you can't go too far wrong:
• Why was the research done? What does your audience really want to know?
• Who was surveyed, and who needs to know the results? We recommend that findings of employee research should be shared (promptly) with employees.
• When do they need the results?
• How best to report the results? (Talk to the people you'll be debriefing about what they'd prefer).
Finally, always provide recommendations to management as to what should happen next, and when you're presenting to employees, tell them what actions will be taken – and make sure they are!
Chris Brookes is founding director of Start-up Research
