<p>Electronic surveys are becoming commonplace in my profession. Many of them are facilitated by my superiors and seek opinions on things such as how things are running in our work environment, things that should be improved, etc. The most recent one was generated by one of the people I report to. The questions, to put it succinctly, assess our satisfaction with the way that he is running things. We are told that these surveys are anonymous and that the facilitator will not know who the responses came from. I don’t buy it but part of me feels that if they ask a direct question, I should give them a direct answer.</p>
<p>Has anyone else been in this situation? How do you handle this?</p>
<p>Our school district did a survey at the end of every school year. I was VERY honest every year. I can’t see any reason not to be. They are asking…after all!</p>
<p>Assuming there is no way they can electronically determine that you answered in a certain way – a big assumption nowadays – I’d answer honestly.</p>
<p>I am pretty forthright. However, the concern with some others is that our administrator will know who answered with negativity concerning his performance (he’s new) and it will be held against them. Some of these people don’t have professional status and could be let go for no particular reason.</p>
<p>I understand their concerns and yet, I feel that it is an opportunity to express our frustration and disappointments in the way that the year has gone.</p>
<p>I’m just curious if people in other professions are put into this situation and if they have concerns about the anominity of these surveys.</p>
<p>I am always very honest on those.
This year, we had a horrible ditrict manager. People were ready to quit, etc. We skewered her (though I was honest) on the survey. Once the regional manager received the initial feedback, she began a serious investigation. That manager is gone now. </p>
<p>I have always worked for companies that shared this information with several layers. So if there is negative feedback it isn’t easy to directly retaliate. Some new managers are given leeway (though in the best places I have worked, it is followed up by mentorship, etc). </p>
<p>I did work in one department that had 3 employees. I will admit that I was kinder on that survey since it was impossible to be anonymous.</p>
<p>I’m pretty certain that this survey isn’t really anonymous. I think the programs can be set up so that they link the participants to their emails. If I thought that the results were going to be shared with the higher up administration I would certainly be 100 percent honest but I see no indication that it will. </p>
<p>This new person is not popular with the department and it would be great if the results could go over his head. I don’t see that happening.</p>
<p>You have three options:1. ignore the survey, 2. answer all positive and lie, or 3. be honest and risk being identified. I have done all three. lately I do #1.</p>
<p>I think there’s also #4 – do what supervisors are supposed to do in performance reviews. Tell the truth about the issue that is causing difficulties, but also mention as many positive things as you can.</p>
<p>We have these a lot, and I am honest on the ones that are company wide. I assume they are not really anonymous since I usually have to log in to take them, but there are too many responses for me to be too worried about retribution as one responder. I would not take one that was specific to my department or team at all.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, HR sits us down together and asks us point blank, and will pry responses out of us if we don’t want to participate in the conversation. It has helped us work together better but is scary, I don’t like being put in that position.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m just cynical, but I usually just put down what “they” wnat to hear - nowadays, is anything ever really anonymous?</p>
<p>My previous employer made us answer the Gallup Twelve survey every six months as a way to measure our corporate climate and employee engagement. The results of the survey were really bad - rampant employee dissatisfaction, very low morale, etc. Instead of actually addressing those problems, manangement told us that everyone WOULD participate in every survey and that the results WOULD improve “or else.”</p>
<p>Surprise, surprise…a dramatic improvement during the next survey period.</p>
<p>I would not complete electronic surveys in my last place of employment because they were not anonymous. You need a password and ID number to log on to the computers. The administrator monitors who is logged on to what computer, how long and what you are looking at.</p>
<p>At my last job, one component of our bonuses was based on improvement on scores on the “anonymous” surveys.</p>
<p>Big surprise, they improved!</p>
<p>The surveys we took all had unique access links, so someone somewhere knows who fills out each survey. Whether this gets back to management or is truly anonymous, who knows? And who wants to take the risk.</p>
<p>It’s easy to be honest when you have tenure or are protected by some sort of seniority system, but when you are an at-will employee and your company continuously lays people off…</p>
<p>Your first concern on the survey could be that you don’t feel the survey is anonymous.</p>
<p>It sounds like the survey is being set up by the manager. Usually the person is not getting the information directly but it’s being distilled thru the survey company so he should not have a method of knowing who said what.</p>
<p>I would look at it as an opportunity to help train your new boss. It’s not a b***h session, but put down a few constructive things that this manager could improve.</p>
<p>We’ve had a few surveys and our company took great pains to make sure people were comfortable that is was anonymous. I was conerned since they also asked questions about year of service and area worked, which could pinpoint certain people, but they said that information was not being passed on - but was used for other metrics.</p>
<p>If he says its anonymous and you don’t believe him…well that points to a problem right there.</p>
<p>We have to answer several surveys like this each year. They say its anonymous however the reporting goes by team and I have a small team. So anything that we put down they have say a 1/6 guess of who it is. Obviously as these results roll up higher, you become more and more of a questoin mark in regards to who answered what. </p>
<p>I’d answer then hoestly. If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t ask. Many companies are trying to figure out what they can do better to retain people because its so expensive to hire and train new people. Also one thing I’ve seen that as people quit they aren’t being replaced, so places really do want to keep the folks they have (usually).</p>