Focus Surveys: A Tool for Exploring Agency Survey Results

Agencies such as OPM or MSPB survey Federal employees to obtain their perceptions or attitudes about a variety of work and workplace characteristics. These surveys measure broad topics such as employees’ satisfaction, commitment, and engagement levels; they do not elicit employee attitudes about events and concerns within a particular agency, sub-agency, or work unit. If an agency is interested in understanding employees’ perceptions of in-house issues such as a recent organizational restructuring or a new employee development program, personnel policy, training initiative, leadership change, or technology introduction, agencies must administer smaller, more tailored, focus surveys to their employees.

Focus surveys are short (5-10 minutes and 10-20 questions) and have a specific goal such as identifying employee concerns or soliciting program improvement ideas. For example, changes in the availability of training resources may be important to employees who have come to rely on such support. Leadership may administer a brief survey asking for perceptions of impact and ideas for resolution while providing a voice for employees reluctant to express themselves in other ways. Focus surveys can also be used to follow up on patterns identified in Governmentwide surveys, such as OPM’s Employee Viewpoint Survey (EVS) or MSPB’s Merit Principles Survey (MPS). For example, the MPS survey may reveal employee concerns about workplace fairness. These opinions may be explored further by an agency, through precise questions about the procedures for distributing resources and how individuals are treated in the process.

A focus survey has several steps, as outlined below.

  1. Identify areas of concern. Agencies may wish to conduct employee focus groups to discover important issues and to develop associated questions. This communicates to employees that leadership is aware of specific issues and allows for more tailored questions.
  2. Design the survey. Focus on only the areas of concern identified. Write questions only on topics for which you are able to take action. Hold the survey length to 5-10 minutes.
  3. Communicate about the survey. Inform employees: (a) the purpose of the survey; (b) when and how you will share the results; and (c) how you will use the information they provide.
  4. Field the Survey. Your agency may have tools for designing and administering a simple survey. If not, many vendors offer free or relatively low- cost options for short web-based surveys.
  5. Collect and analyze the survey responses.
  6. Report the survey results. Be candid about any unfavorable results, as honesty goes a long way toward increasing organizational trust.
  7. Act on the results. Select at least one area for action. Following any survey effort, it is essential to show employees exactly how the results of the survey are incorporated into leadership’s decision making and how employees’ views are used to better manage the workplace. Agencies must communicate how the results figure into the business process—that they are taken seriously and may prompt action.
  8. Follow up. Conduct subsequent interviews, focus groups, or additional focus surveys on any themes or patterns that emerge to better understand the findings. Focus surveys are an effective way to explore in greater detail—at a local level—employees’ attitudes about work and workplace characteristics. Short, targeted, and fast, focus surveys are a tactical tool that leaders can use to enhance and complement larger Governmentwide survey efforts.

Reprinted from Issues of Merit, a publication of the Office of Policy and Evaluation, U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board

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