When your company commits to having a successful new hire onboarding survey project, you need to commit to having a strong internal communication plan around the ongoing survey. When running a new hire survey, you want to be able to hear as many voices as possible and communication is key to getting as many people to complete the survey as possible. We have seen organizations with participation rates over 80% when executing a great communication plan. To ensure the best possible participation possible, we recommend the following actions be taken:
Leverage Your Current Onboarding Process
Do new employees meet with HR at some point? If so, make the new hire survey known to the new employee. Inform them that someone from an outside third party will be reaching out to them via phone or email to complete a new hire survey. Emphasize that their opinions are valued and that changes within your organization are made based on employee feedback.
Ensure Managers and Participants are Aware
Arguably, the most vital part of the communication process is to make sure your managers know about the survey and that they are communicating it to their new hires as well. During those first few weeks of orientation, employees are given a lot of information and they may forgot about the conversation they had with HR at the beginning. We recommend managers remind employees of the survey shortly before they are to receive the invitation to participate. If your organization utilizes 30-, 60-, 90- day check-ins, this is a great topic to be brought up during those check-ins. Make sure your managers understand the value of the program to ensure they are emphasizing the survey with their new associates. Remember, managers are the people your new employees turn to when the have a question. Imagine the following situations:
- Employees from Company A receive calls from an outside third party (in this case we’ll use People Element) and have just had conversations in their 1:1s with their immediate supervisors about the survey process the previous week. They are expecting the call and take the survey right then or schedule a time that works for them to have People Element call them back. This process yields excellent participation!
- Employees from Company B receive calls from People Element whom they have never heard of. These employees go back to their managers saying “I got a call from a company called People Element. Do you know what it’s about?” Managers from Company B have also never heard of it and respond saying so. These employees then opt to not take the survey believing it is not a part of their organizational process. Obviously, this situation can lead to lackluster participation.
Actively Pull Lists from your HRIS
Additionally, as part of the new hire survey process, it’s a good idea to have a list pulled from your HRIS at a regular cadence and sent over. This list should include emails of all employees that will be sent the survey. Use this list and its email addresses to send out reminders to your new employees about the upcoming survey. This will also allow you to quickly find any incorrect email addresses within the file if they get bounced back to you giving you time to update the information before sending it to us.
Following the steps above will go a long way to ensuring a high participation rate on your new hire survey. People Element helps its clients at every step of the way to achieve high participation and a successful project. Are you ready to see these steps in action and experience the process first hand? Contact us today to learn more!
