There’s a relatively new buzzphrase that irks me. It’s “survey fatigue” and I believe it is an excuse being used to explain a weak response to a request to participate in an information-gathering exercise.
In my opinion it’s a poor alibi for an attempt to ask for something-for-nothing.
Sure there are hordes of surveys around us. It’s the information era, and that means people are always asking for information. But consumers are becoming information-savvy, and maybe they don’t like the idea of giving it away for free. If you keep asking people for their information, their opinions, their input into services or decisions, eventually they feel that this information deserves something in return. I know I’m fed up with surveys that don’t offer something to me in return.
It doesn’t mean you need to offer cash or prizes for every survey. Sometimes the quick return of survey information and some context around how the information will be used is good enough.
That is an important principle in our new survey initiative at the ROHCG. Ask simple questions. Give quick responses. Explain the context that makes it valuable to the organization. And give participants a chance to win a prize.
Our first survey in this series asked a very simple question; how are you spending your summer vacation? It seems irrelevant to the organization, but if we brainstorm around the results, we can develop some terrific ideas. For example:
- The survey tells us that about one quarter of the organization will be traveling outside Ontario. Do they know about the travel insurance benefits they possess as employees of ROHCG? Maybe there are opportunities to leverage our corporate travel agent to the benefit of staff leaving the province.
- Only 11% of staff are not taking summer vacation. That means roughly 90% of our workforce will be away at some point during these two months. How does this affect important projects. Can we use this information to strategically plan how we can best maintain productivity during this mass exodus of summer.
- Over one quarter of staff enjoy spending summer camping or at a cottage. There are many reward incentives that could be customized for this large sector of our organization.
I think you will see that when you develop a survey that delivers knowledge, context and reward, you will see a lot less of this “survey fatigue”.
