Paid Surveys

Martin Day asked:


nefit of running an annual employee survey has for a long time been widely accepted but many organizations have been put off by the amount of effort that is required.

Many organizations who have bit the bullet and conducted their own internal employee satisfaction surveys have often relied on word-processors to allow them to design and compile a survey, then gone through the effort of printing and distributing the survey and spent time chasing and collecting the completed surveys and then even more time transferring the survey response information into a meaningful management report.

Fortunately with the introduction of the Internet and hosted survey websites like http://www.surveygalaxy.com/ what was once a time consuming, resource hungry, long winded and cumbersome process is now slick, quick and easy.

This document provides a step by step guide to help implement a survey that will bring considerable benefits to any organization.

Step 1 - Identifying The Need

The reasons an organization would need a survey are as wide and they are long. Listed here are a few of the common reason why employee satisfaction surveys are conducted.

Event Driven

If your organization is about to embark, or is going through, a change management program employee surveys can assist in managing the change, measuring the effectiveness of the change, help to deliver a ‘message’ and gather valuable feedback throughout the change cycle.

For organizations that are experiencing rapid growth employee surveys can monitor internal communications and management structures to ensure that employees are aware of their reporting and management responsibilities.

Where an organization is suffering from poor moral brought on by either internal or external influences an employee survey can be used to identify the specific concerns of employees so those concerns can be properly addressed.

Where there is an increase in turnover of staff employee surveys can help an organization identify the underlying cause of employee unrest and through their findings help find solutions.

Periodically

As part of a periodic assessment, surveys will help an organization review their personnel and monitor on an individual level job satisfaction, training and career development.

Employee surveys also offer senior management the opportunity to look at the soft underbelly of their organization to confirm that their ‘top down’ view of the organization matches the reality and ‘bottom up’ perspective.

With the help of employee surveys an organization can establish good employer/employee communication that will in turn bring both direct and indirect benefits.

Step 2 - Management Buy-In

Management buy-in is always desirable for any initiative and many will argue that it is essential to ensure a successful employee survey, however, in some instances the findings of an employee survey can lead to kick-starting a management that has grown complacent and detached from their employees.

Some organization may be fortunate in that the senior management recognize and drive the need for employee surveys, while in others the management may need to first be convinced of the direct and indirect benefits an employee survey will bring.

The level of management commitment to an employee survey will have some bearing on the nature of the survey and to some extent will help determine what questions are to be asked and the manner they are asked.

A management that is supportive of the initiative may require feedback on specific areas of the business or they may give the go ahead because they feel confident that the results will only confirm that the level of employee satisfaction throughout the organization is high.

In nearly all cases it is good practice to at least try and get management to buy-in to the employee survey from the very start as they have a lot to gain and are in a position to effect any change that is later identified as being required.

Step 3 - Designing The Survey

Designing a good survey will take some time and effort but by following the basics of survey design and concentrating on the ‘need to know’ questions and removing the ‘nice to know’ a survey will rapidly take shape.

Determining the exact questions that should be asked will be entirely dependent on the individual organization, its structure and the previously identified primary need and objectives of the employee survey.

When considering what questions to ask consideration should be given to how the results are to be analyzed. For example there may be a desire to ask for individual comments but these types of answer formats can be very time consuming and cumbersome to analyze and should therefore be avoided or used sparingly.

With online surveys it is generally better to do a few smaller surveys than one very long survey as the longer the survey the higher the drop out rate will be.

Step 4 - Proof Reading And Testing

Grammar, Spelling And Clarity

Before publishing the survey make a careful check for spelling and typing mistakes and incorrect grammar. If available it is always better to have someone who has not been involved in designing the survey to proof read the survey with clean eyes, if no one is available try to take a break before checking through the survey again.

Say What You Mean And Mean What You Say

When checking the survey you need to consider the survey from the viewpoint of the respondent, you may know what you mean by each question but will the questions be clear to the employee?

Allow The Employee To Answer Truthfully

For closed questions where the employee will be required to choose from a number of available responses have you allowed the employee to answer accurately? Make use of responses like ‘Don’t know’, ‘No comment’ or ‘Not Applicable’ where you have made the question mandatory but the employee may not be able to answer.

Consider allowing the employee to include an ‘Other’ answer but also appreciate that ‘Other’ answers will add to the complexity when analyzing the survey results.

Don’t Require A Response To Questions That May Not Have One

Check that for any questions that you have made mandatory you do require an answer, for example open questions such as asking for additional comments should not be mandatory unless you definitely require the respondent to write a comment.

Check You Will Be Able To Analyze The Data

Check through the survey again but this time looking at how the results of the survey will be analyzed. Consider how you are likely to want to analyze the survey data, have you asked the right questions to be able to perform detailed analysis? For example if you wanted to view the detailed response data from the perspective of the different genders, or maybe departments, check you have asked the employee to indicate their own gender and/or department.

Don’t Ask Anymore Questions Than You Need To

Consider all the questions in the survey and look for questions that are not ‘need to know’.

Test The Link And Try Completing The Survey

Publish the survey and then send the survey’s link to a number of people who will be willing to test the survey. By completing the survey yourself you will get a feel for how the respondent will view the survey. From your own and others feedback stop and make adjustments to the survey as required.

Repeat this process until you are happy with the survey.

Check The Data

Take time to view the online summary results of the test data and confirm that the data is being collected in a manner that can be properly analyzed and that will give meaningful results.

Step 5 - Promoting And Deploying The Survey

Where all or the majority of employees have access to the internet or company intranet deploying the online survey is as easy that ABC, either via email or by establishing a link to the survey from your own website or Intranet.

Where there are some or many employees that do not have direct access to the internet there are a number of alternatives that can be used from issuing the survey in printed form, providing a shared terminal or giving them an incentive to complete the survey at home.

Anonymous Responses?

There is a choice to allow all surveys to be completed anonymously. Allowing a survey to be anonymous may encourage employees to speak their minds enabling the survey to provide ‘a warts and all’ report, in turn giving management an opportunity to address underlying problems before they become serious.

However, allowing anonymous comments also allows employees to be more cavalier and flippant with their responses. Some organizations would therefore only want to consider comments where employees are prepared to stand by their convictions and that will also provide an opportunity to follow up the specific concerns of individual employees.

The decision to allow anonymous responses or not will, among other factors, be down to the individual organization, the specific nature of the survey, the surrounding circumstances, the management style and the existing employer/employee relationship.

Step 6 - Monitoring The Survey

While the survey is in progress you will be able to view the summary results online and also monitor in real-time the number of surveys that have been both started and completed.

If after a few days the number of completed surveys falls short of the expected target it is advisable to send periodic reminders to employees asking them to complete the survey.

Step 7 - Analyzing The Results

There are no hard and fast rules for analyzing the data. Much depends on the individual survey, the questions asked and the number of responses.

Most surveys will benefit from many of the results being displayed in graphical as well as tabular form.

When first analyzing survey data often a number of ‘headline’ results will immediately stand out that will provide you with a general overview and, providing the right questions have been asked, give you an instant assessment of the mood throughout the organization as a whole.

Where the results give areas of concern a more detailed analysis may be advisable. For example if employees were asked if they felt the organization provided equal opportunities to both genders and 25% gave a negative response it would be useful to know the gender split of the organization and also to look at what the gender split was of the 25% that answered negatively. Was the negative view shared by employees of both genders, evenly spread throughout the organization, or of a particular gender from a particular department?

There is a method of reporting that presents the result data in tabular and/or graphical form allowing those who are interested in the results to view the raw data.

Often used as a compliment to the first, another method is to interpret the results and provide an analysis of the data and offer a view as to what the meaning is behind the results, what circumstances may have contributed to the results being as they are and, where the results indicate a negative, what initiatives could be taken. Such analysis if done by a single individual is likely to be very personal, if done by a committee it is still likely to be objective and therefore open to interpretation.

Step 8 - Further Action

Probably the most important step is the last. An employee survey will either confirm that the perfect organization exists or it will highlight areas that are less than perfect by identifying individual and common concerns.

It may be that further more detailed surveys are required that target specific areas. For example the survey may reveal that employees working in a particular department are collectively unhappy, but the reasons for their dissatisfaction may not be clear. A smaller, specifically targeted follow-up survey may help reveal the root causes.

When employee surveys are periodically run an organization that has taken steps to address issues will see their efforts reflected in subsequent survey responses. Almost all organizations have some problems and it helps an organization’s moral to see that a channel is available that will allow problems to be highlighted, addressed and resolved.

Summary

These guidelines are intended to help an organization conduct successful employee satisfaction surveys, they are however, only a guide.

Each organization is different in style and structure and the organizations ‘personality’ will go someway to influencing the tone and nature of the survey and organizations will have many different circumstances and primary reasons for conducting a survey.

By utilizing existing technology and conducting surveys online you are now able to monitor the heart beat of an organization, quickly, easily and, by using websites like Survey Galaxy, at minimal cost.

GREGORY

Mei Lynn asked:


Paid online surveys are good work at home opportunities because it is an easy and free way to make extra money online. But with so many scam and spam sites popping up everywhere these days, oftentimes it is difficult to determine what is real, especially for beginners. To give a real picture of paid online surveys, I have outlined some of most basic facts about paid surveys in a questions and answers manner.

1. Are paid surveys for real?

Yes, paid online surveys are for real! A good number of legitimate survey companies will pay you just for your time and opinion. They pay you for your feedback on products and services of manufactures and businesses.

2. Do I have to pay to take surveys and get paid?

Absolutely NOT! Legitimate surveys companies NEVER ask you to pay to take surveys and get paid. They are always FREE to join, and it cost absolutely NOTHING whatsoever! Please be aware the difference between paid survey sites and paid to sign up offer sites, the later pay you for signing up offers, and sometimes you might need to pay upfront a small amount (therefore provide credit card information) to try non-free offers.

3. How do paid surveys work?

You sign up with (join) a market research/paid survey company’s research panel, provide your contact information (such as email and home address) and basic (and sometimes a little more detailed) demographic information such as your name, gender, age etc… When the survey company has a market research survey that fits your profile, they will send you an email inviting you to participate. They will indicate what the reward will be for completing the survey. You take the survey, if you qualify and complete the survey, you will get paid by the survey company. Often if you don’t qualify for the survey, you will still earn a entry to enter in a sweepstakes drawing.

4. Why so many people think paid surveys are scams?

There are four main reasons:

1). There ARE tons of scam sites - they claim to be paid survey sites and in-fact they just want your personal information and turn around and sell it, and you will get tons of spam emails and even telemarketing calls, but no real surveys.

2). There are many websites promoting those scam/spam sites. If you see any websites (paid or free) that list hundreds (300+, 400+ or even 500+) of paid surveys sites, please be aware! Lot of those websites just promote anything they can for commission, no matter it is scam or spam. Remember, more is not always better!

3). Many paid offers sites advertise themselves (or claim on their own websites) as paid survey sites. The truth of the matter is, even some of them do have paid surveys (usually low paying ones), their main “business” is actually paid offers. This could make people confused and often give false impression that paid surveys are NOT FREE, and unfortunately give paid surveys a bad name.

4). Lot of survey starters do not realize that it takes time to get paid. A couple of weeks after signing up and taking some surveys, you don’t see the money coming in and you start questioning this whole paid surveys thing is just another online scam. Many people just give up this way. Please be aware: If you sign up with legitimate survey companies and complete surveys, you will get paid. But it doesn’t mean you will get paid right away. Some survey companies have minimum payout requirements to cash out rewards, of course it takes time to reach that requirement. Also, it takes average 4 weeks for survey companies to process payments and rewards.

5. How much can I make for taking paid surveys?

How much can you make really depends on several factors:

1). How many legitimate paid survey sites you sign up with - the more you sign up with the more survey invites you get;

2). Your demographic profile which determines the number and type of surveys you get and qualify - for example, you probably will not get a women apparel product test survey if you are a man.

3). Amount of time you spend taking surveys, focus groups, etc.

4). How lucky you are when it comes to drawings, rattles and sweepstakes - people do win!

I would say if you sign up with a number of good survey sites and take the majority of the surveys you are invited, you could make $1000 to $2000 a year in cash, gift certificates and prize combined. I personally make average $200 a month and spend about an hour and half a day taking online surveys, it takes me about 1 year to reach this level.

Can you really make $100 an hour? - It is possible to make $100 for an one hour focus group discussion, but you won’t have this kind of opportunity to fill a full day’s work. The truth is you are not going to get rich or make a full time salary by doing paid surveys. However you certainly CAN make pretty good extra cash.

6. Should I pay a database/directory/list for paid survey sites?

No. With some effort, you should be able to find all yourself. The problem with those database/directories is they usually promote everything they can find for commissions, no matter it is scam or spam, and they can NOT be trusted.

7. Is paid survey worth my time?

Yes. I personally feel that with the little effort I put in and the rewards I earn, it’s worth my time. It’s easy work and very flexible, I can do it anytime I want. I enjoy testing new products before they come out of the market and giving opinion on existing products and services to make them better, and the better part is I get paid for doing so.

Doing paid surveys is not going to make you rich, but it’s certainly an easy and fun way to make some extra cash. For more information about paid surveys, please feel free to visit my site, you will find free paid survey lists (that only list real legitimate paid survey companies), paid survey guides and tips, as well as my personal first hand reviews on individual paid survey sites.

Copyright 2007 Mei Lynn.



FRANCIS

Howard Deutsch asked:


Key Survey Findings

1. Types of employee surveys - The type of employee survey that the organizations conduct most is employee satisfaction/engagement surveys. The organizations also conduct employee turnover surveys, employee exit interview surveys, employee benefits opinion surveys, training effectiveness feedback surveys, organizational effectiveness surveys, IT customer satisfaction surveys and business risk assessment surveys, etc. The most common frequency for conducting surveys is annually, followed by semi-annually and every two years. To learn about a wide range of survey types, see http://www.quantisoft.com/Industries/SurveyTypes.htm

2. Satisfaction with survey companies - Organizations are significantly more satisfied with using survey companies than they are with using self-service online survey services. Organizations primarily using survey companies to conduct surveys rated their overall satisfaction with survey companies at 4.4 on a 1 - 5 rating scale where 5 is the highest rating.   

3. Satisfaction with self-use online survey services - Organizations primarily using self-use online survey services to conduct surveys rated their overall satisfaction with self-use survey services at 3.9.

4. Effectiveness of survey practices - Organizations primarily using survey companies rated the average effectiveness of 15 survey practices at 4.7, significantly more effective than the 4.0 survey practices average effectiveness rating at organizations that primarily use self-service online survey services.

5. Importance of survey practices - Organizations that primarily use survey companies rated the average importance of 14 survey practices at 4.2, slightly more important than the 3.9 survey practices importance rating at organizations that primarily use self-use online survey services. The most important survey practices include keeping responses anonymous, conducting follow-up surveys, time taken to complete surveys and performing analysis/statistical analysis of survey data. The least important survey practices include providing incentives for participation, multi-language survey capability and enabling multiple sessions for completing surveys.

6. Survey Response Period - 70.5% of respondents answering this question typically use a 2-week survey response period, 23.5% use a 3-week response period and 5.9% use a 4-week or longer response period.

7. Survey Response Rates - 60% of respondents answering this question typically have a survey response rate of 60% or greater.

8. Primary Survey Approach - 70% of respondents answering this question use Web/Internet surveys as their primary approach, 20% use paper surveys as their primary approach and 10% use Web/Internet surveys complemented with paper surveys as their primary approach.

9. Reasons for conducting employee surveys - The top reasons for conducting employee surveys include part of ongoing measurement process, identifying performance opportunities, assessing satisfaction/engagement levels and trends, and identifying causes of employee turnover.

10. Surveys Achieving Objectives - Survey respondents rated “surveys achieve their objectives” 4.2, indicating that surveys are typically effective in achieving expected results. Their average rating for “surveys achieve a strong benefit from making identified changes” is lower at 3.8.

11. Using Normative Benchmarking Data - Survey respondents rated their comfort with using normative benchmarking data for comparing their survey results with at 3.9. Their comments indicated the need to make sure “apples-to-apples” comparisons are being made.

12. Survey Best Practices - The survey asked respondents to provide their organization’s “best practices” for eight specific survey practices. Following is a sample of the “best practices” identified by the 21 survey respondents:

 ”Our survey is all about driving business results, alignment of goals, employee engagement and creating/maintaining a high performance organization.”

“Designing surveys to get lots of comments and suggestions. This feedback identifies hidden problems and opportunities and helps to understand what changes are needed.”

 ”Online surveys are the way to go, hosted by our survey company. No more paper surveys…. “

 ”Taking action on the survey from year 1 will increase the response rate in year 2″

“Having a survey company conduct the survey so that employees feel confident HR and senior management won’t be able to identify who said what in the survey responses.”

“Speed is the key. The survey company gets us hundreds of graphs, charts and comments reports very fast….”

 ”Make sure everyone in the company sees the results. Meetings to communicate the results work best. Senior people need to see all of the results. Summary results are OK for most other people. Of course, managers that need to take action need to have access to all of the survey results that pertain to them.”

“I am not sure we can quantify all of these needed changes, but I am confident we will get a very strong payback, in the millions of dollars. The survey cost us about $20,000, less than the recruiting cost for hiring one middle manager. The results of the survey and the changes we are making as a result of the survey will impact our entire organization, not just one position.”

“Senior leaders should not only discuss results but should also talk about what they personally plan to do to drive change.  Keep it away from being an HR initiative.”

 ”Get managers involved and make sure they include the issues that pertain to their areas. The survey company got us on the right road. The recommendations in their analysis and summary report were very useful.”

 ”Make sure to tell employees that their responses will be carefully considered and acted upon where appropriate and possible, and then make sure to follow through and take action.”

“It is important that our senior management team sees unfiltered survey feedback from employees and customers. Without it they are not getting the real story. They are too removed from day to day things they need to hear and see.”

 ”Asking questions that might provide feedback we are afraid to hear but that we need to hear.”

The following link provides extensive information about surveys and Quantisoft http://www.Quantisoft.com



ARON

Supriyo M asked:


plz give me the details of online paid survey.I am an indian cityzen.i am interested in this type of survey.

MATT

Timothy Clark asked:


What is a land surveyor? A surveyor has the tools and experience to provide mapping and boundary services to property owners. They provide plans, maps, property boundaries for construction, remodeling, title insurance, and other real estate projects.

The surveyor researches titles and documents to obtain an accurate description of your land. They may also research neighboring property documents for any problems or conflicts. Next, they obtain physical measurements from the property. These measurements are compared to the records on file to check for any problems and verify any disputes.

A land surveyor will use various methods to determine boundaries, including electronic equipment, photo mapping, GPS positioning, measuring tape, and may even employ an old-fashioned compass to give accurate measurements.

Costs for a land survey can vary. It depends on how much work is involved to research records, the size and scale of the project and the land itself, the time of year, weather, and how many visits are required for complete and accurate comparisons. The more effort required, the more it can cost.

Reasons to Get a New Land Survey:

From the website Colorado Professional Land Surveyors: “In recent years, few and fewer property buyers are getting a professional land survey done. This is due, in large part, from advice from real estate professionals, mortgage companies, and title insurance companies.

Simply because a mortgage company or title insurance company does not require a survey for their underwriting requirements, that doesn’t mean they are looking out for the best interest of the buyer of the property or the seller for that matter. Buyers and sellers should be aware of matters that could adversely effect the title, marketability, or value of their property.

Many new home buyers are relying upon old outdated surveys to evaluate survey matters. This is unwise. An old survey is certified to the seller, not to the buyer. Therefore, the new buyer should not rely on the old survey for obvious reasons of assurance and liability. A new survey should be conducted and certified to the buyer. A new survey will address encroachments onto and off of the property, access to and from a public right-of-way. A current survey will identify and locate new structures, fences, walls and additions. A new land survey will also identify recent, missing, destroyed and erroneous property corners. Flood hazard areas will also be delineated, as they relate to the subject property and the improvements.

A recent development has property owners signing a survey affidavit as a substitute for a survey for the new buyer. This practice puts the homeowner (or seller) in an awkward position of certifying an old survey, and stating that there have not been any changes since the date of the old land survey. These homeowners have been persuaded into signing the so-called affidavit do not have any way to determine if the old survey is correct, much less a way to identify any changes or if there was an error. Nor do the sellers know what matters and to what standards a survey should be conducted for a survey to be correct. This practice might also put the seller in a position of covering up and not disclosing issues in order to save some money.

The request for the survey affidavit usually comes from a title insurance company for their motivation of shedding liability. The seller, by signing the affidavit, assumes the survey related responsibility. The buyer, in turn has no assurance or recourse if there are survey related matters that adversely affects the marketability and value of the property. The buyer cannot seek recourse from the title company, because they usually take exception to survey related matters and any matters that a ‘correct’ survey would disclose. The only course of action would be to seek damages from the past seller of the property.

All parties should also be aware is that a survey is an original creation and is protected under the federal copyright laws. Any unauthorized reproduction of an old survey can result in a lawsuit. The original survey is certified to the original homeowner and is not transferable. A third party cannot rely upon an old survey. A new survey should be conducted and specifically certified to the new buyer. Also the Tennessee Real Estate Commission recently noted, ‘if the surveys given to prospects are not accurate, a court could hold (real estate) licensees liable for providing a party with misinformation.’

In conclusion, buyers of real property should have a new survey conducted. Those buyers who do not have a new land survey will be purchasing property without reliable information as to encroachments, overlaps, boundary line disputes and other matters that might be disclosed by an accurate survey of the property by a registered professional land surveyor.”

If you need to have a land survey done on your property, you can post your request with Construction Deal.com. We’ll match you with a local land surveyor for any type of property survey that you need done.

And it’s a free service to find a local property surveyor in your area.



MONTY

Terrance D asked:


Has anyone ever taken one of those online pay surveys and gotten paid for it?

DEAN

RAKESH D asked:


I want to know name of the online paid survey websites. Iam citizen of India.

JAME

asked:


i was about to sign up for a survey site when the terms read that anyone paid over $600 is required to have an IRS form sent to them. even though i’m not with reading documents and stuff, i don’t want to get stuck with tax issues. also, i saw on oprah how many people were tricked by false contests and sweepstakes so i’m just wondering.

ROD

yebel89@gmail.com asked:


I am looking to earn money online by completing online paid survey sites. Does anyone have info?

CHRIS

misscourtneyd89 asked:


Does anyone know of any LEGIT Online Paid Survey companies that you dont have to pay for and are any of them really worth it??

BENNY