Services - Organization Data Gathering and Analysis

Interviews
Interviewing key directors, managers, employees and clients is a helpful method in gathering initial data. When the problem is ill defined or ambiguous, interviewing can reveal issues that critical to the organization performance. Interviews are loosely structured in the early phase to give respondents the freedom to describe the situation as they see it. Later interviews are more structured as the problems come into focus.

Interview notes are content analyzed to distill key areas of organization concern. These key areas of concern or organization issues can be further researched to gain better understanding and potential solutions for organization development.

Employee Surveys
While interviews give the respondent the freedom to talk about whatever he or she feels is of concern in the organization, surveys are tailored to gather data on specific issues that are common to organizations. What is lost in interview flexibility is gained consistency and validity. Employee surveys have been performed for numerous organizations (see client lists) that typically measure job satisfaction, evidence of harassment, intent to leave, satisfaction with leadership, communication and group effectiveness, organization culture, and satisfaction with organization benefits and policies. Organizations that administer their own surveys run the risk of making several fatal flaws on the road to obtaining valid organization information. Several factors are critical to assuring a successful survey.

Valid Measures - Hill-Weston & Associates is always careful to administer surveys that use validated measures. Care in tailoring a survey to the client’s needs is always taken while assuring validity and reliability are not compromised. Without valid and reliable measures one cannot be sure the survey has actually measured the organization issues it wants to measure. Hill-Weston & Associates has the expertise to develop survey items that are clear to the respondent and utilize the latest understanding of survey psychometrics.

Survey Administration - In addition to using valid measures, the administration of a survey is carefully handled to assure the respondent anonymity and confidentiality in the handling of the data. A third party can provide this assurance to the employee or manager and can keep data secure and independent of the organization. Also, the administration setting is controlled to be sure supervisors and their subordinates are not commingled in the survey taking room. The respondent is also given assistance by an independent third party so they have the help they may need without compromising anonymity and confidentiality.

Data Analysis - Lastly, Hill-Weston & Associates uses expert software programs to statistically analyze the data for maximal interpretation. Obtaining the most from the data can often lead to new revelations and innovative solutions for the organization.

Report – The results of each survey are presented in a comprehensive report to management. Reports not only include what was measured and how it was measured, but initial recommendations on actions to take.

Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Using very similar techniques to those described in the employee survey section above, customer surveys are administer to determine how better to meet customer needs. Depending upon the setting and type of industry, surveys are tailored to help the organization meet strategic management goals.

In the elder care industry, resident surveys have been used to give department heads feedback on their specific areas of responsibility. Given this feedback, a strategy for service improvement is developed and implemented. Follow-on surveys given periodically are then administered to track progress on specific department actions. In some cases, department head bonuses have been tied to improvement in survey scores. This is an effective tool in directly linking department and team performance to organizational outcomes.

Survey Technologies
Organization surveys have been administered both utilizing paper and pencil technology and more recently online technology via the Internet. Each technology has its advantages, but where appropriate, using the Internet has been found to be more administratively and cost effective. Surveys are usually developed in at least two languages, English and Spanish.

Paper and Pencil Surveys – Traditional survey technology is used for smaller sample sizes and where access to the Internet is not practical. Where small sample sizes are the case, as in resident surveys in elder care facilities, survey forms are developed to meet the needs of the survey taker often using large type, items are limited and the survey is often administered by a facilitator who fills out the survey at the respondents’ directions.

Paper and pencil surveys can be hand keypunched into the data base or scanned depending on the budget and sample size.

Online Surveys – Surveys administered over the Internet have several advantages over paper and pencil surveys where appropriate. Using the Internet, surveys are more often complete because the technology reminds the respondent to complete all required items. The online survey is more error free because the technology will not permit multiple responses to a single item and responses must be within an appropriate range (not allowing someone to input an age of five for example). And the Internet survey is more cost effective by eliminating printing and keypunching costs.

Online surveys are also faster to complete. Clicking with the mouse on the desired response is faster than darkening a circle on paper. Correcting an error is accomplished with just the click of the mouse online, while the paper and pencil respondent must erase the error completely before marking the correct response.

Online surveys have been administered to employees who have never used a computer before. With just a little assistance for the facilitator, employees were able to move through the online survey with ease.