Employee Researchers Missing the Point, Claims Hutton

Most employee surveys fail to identify key issues because they ask the wrong kind of questions, says former MORI leader Peter Hutton, in his new book.

In 'What are your staff trying to tell you? Revealing best and worst practice in employee surveys', Hutton states that the problem is caused by employee research consultancies using questionnaires that comprise mainly agree/disagree statements.

This technique was developed to measure opinions but, according to Hutton, it is not the best way to measure attitudes to a large number of aspects of the working environment, and is very poor at measuring behaviours, motivations and knowledge.

'Failure to use the right mix of questions has led to an over-dependence on comparison with consultants' norms to provide interpretation rather than issues identified by employees themselves, or performance against the organisation's unique objectives,' he asserts.

He also condemns how some consultancies have developed measures and models of employee engagement, which he says bear little relationship to the underlying concept.

Hutton spent nearly three decades at MORI (now Ipsos-MORI) before setting up BrandEnergy Research in 2003. His first book, 'Survey Research for Managers', was published in 1988.

Web site: www.brandenergyresearch.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.