Surveys have a reputation for being too long or dull, meaning that respondents often don’t see surveys as being worthwhile. Traditionally feedback has been collected using paper questionnaires or 'a show of hands' straw poll but both of these methods lack effective means to get reliable and actionable data that is instant and easy to report on.

When gathering feedback from employees in internal meetings, internal comms managers are increasingly using digital methods as there is better control of anonymity and it requires less time and money to create, print and distribute in digital format than it is compared to paper forms. From the employees perspective, digital methods are quick and easy to use, and they may feel more able to give honest, uninhibited responses.   

This blog will give you some insight in to how a digital feedback tool like Vevox can help you in collecting valuable employee feedback and our 4 suggestions as to how to get the most out of your digital surveys.  

1. Engage and Explain

Encourage your employees to take part in your survey, explaining the importance of it and how the data will be used or actioned. There is no better way than the host of the meeting verbally explaining the significance of this feedback. This encourages a higher response rate from your employees as they can clearly understand the benefits in taking part. The survey feature in Vevox allows you to give a description of the survey so use this as a way to give them a short overview and remind them of the purpose of this feedback survey.  

Vevox surveys can be self-paced, meaning that participants can answer questions in their own time and go back to the survey at any point to review their answers or change them. This is a great way of increasing engagement outside the meeting room, but it also overcomes the barrier of forcing participants to fill in their answers quickly at the end of a meeting, which can either lead to poor quality or a complete lack of responses. Looking for more tips on how to encourage participation in employee surveys and to get instant feedback? download our guide here. 

2. Remove barriers

Make sure you have chosen a digital survey tool that is user-friendly and convenient for employees to take part in. If respondents perceive participating as a challenge or an inconvenience this will impact your response rate. 

Keep your feedback survey as short as possible, and think carefully about how you compose your questions, avoid asking too many questions that sound the same. If your survey is jam-packed with lots of questions, keeping respondents focused becomes a challenge and it could ultimately put them off. Remember to keep your language simple, don’t use complicated abbreviations or jargon to avoid any confusion or misinterpretations which might affect the quality of your survey response data. 

Vevox surveys displays a title progress bar. This is great for participants to see how many more questions they have to complete. This helps with setting their expectations from the outset, helps with time management and in doing so, positively impacts feelings around completing the survey and can lead to better quality responses. 

3. Anonymity 

Anonymous surveys can be highly effective in getting honest answers. Employees can sometimes feel like they are being influenced or intimidated when their answers can be identified by individuals. Vevox offers the option of anonymous surveys with a click of a button and this is an easy way to avoid any barriers to uninhibited feedback. By providing an anonymous feedback channel, businesses can make decisions faster and more effectively as the data they are basing them on is more reliable. Conducting surveys that are open to bias or false opinions is costly and with tools like Vevox, completely unnecessary.

Google's all hand meeting last year sparked controversy because it was not truly anonymous and some individual responses had been shared in the public eye. The meeting was subsequently cancelled in order to protect Google employees. Read more about the story here and why the guarantee of anonymity in meetings is crucial. 

4. Reporting 

Once you have closed off your feedback survey, you can further inspect this data to analyze any patterns or trends and decide if any follow up actions are required. Make sure that the questions in your surveys are asked with an objective in mind and are not just 'nice to ask'. 

Vevox survey responses are updated dynamically meaning you can see results instantly in the dashboard in real-time. This allows you an overview of how many are engaging with a survey, how much time is needed for participants to respond and gives you insight as to when to close off the survey. This allows you to react to your data quickly and to encourage any respondents that have not yet completed the survey. If appropriate share some of these results with your participants to show that it was worthwhile and to encourage engagement for any future feedback surveys.

Want to try Vevox surveys and get valuable, uninhibited feedback in your internal comms meetings? Then create your free account here.