Over the weekend, I was shopping for some much needed items for my house. As I was browsing the curtain aisle, I heard someone speaking to the man who was stocking the area near me. She was asking him a series of questions about his work environment, his department, and his likes or dislikes with regards to various aspects of his job. This woman was conducting a personnel evaluation while the man worked, during store hours, and was obtaining valuable feedback. Here is why this form of verbal in-store personnel evaluation worked.The personnel evaluation survey seemed more like a conversation than a true survey.
The woman asked the man a series of questions about his job, his job function, his department, and more; however, because the questions were delivered in-person, the survey was conversational and less ask-and-tell.
There was no job time lost in delivering insights from the personnel evaluation.
The man worked as the store manager asked questions, which meant that answering the survey did not require time away from the man's job. Rather, the man was able to continue with his work flow in addition to delivering value to the personnel evaluation.
The survey participant was reached in the most direct way possible.
Most company surveys are delivered via email, sometimes via paper questionnaires, and sometimes via the web. In this case, the survey was ensured to be answered since it was delivered in-person and was conducted on a one-to-one basis. Sometimes, personal communication cannot be overlooked as the best way to reach your target audience.
A few things to keep in mind if you decide to conduct in-person personnel surveys:
- Employees may feel uncomfortable answering some questions honestly in a face-to-face interview. Like any face-to-face interview, there's always the concern for social acquecense bias (basically, pressures to respond a specific way). Depending on who is conducting the interview, the employee my feel uncomfortable offering anything less than positive affirmation on the topic.
- Be sure to store responses in a central location to make reporting easier. I suggest using an online survey solution so that reporting can be automated, and reports can be parked so managers and other executives can have real-time, eyes only access to the data when they need it. Regardless of whether you go with an online solution or simply store the data in an excel file, it's critical it's saved in a manner that can be easily accessed and used for reporting purposes later.
- Finally, be wary of conducting these interviews within ear shot of customers. If an employee has negative things to say about his work environment, job satisfaction, etc. it could impact the customer's perception of the store and even result in a loss of sales.