1. Buyer’s
guide
This guide will help you to navigate the survey marketplace and find your ideal
partner. It’ll enable you to create a checklist of what you’re looking for…
As engagement experts ourselves, we know the considerations and questions that HR
professionals most frequently ask about. This guide will help you establish the things that you
need from a survey provider and, equally importantly, those that you don’t. As well as ensuring you
get a quality survey, it could save you money as you won’t pay for services you don’t need.
Service provided Reader notes
Reputable client list
Specialist engagement expertise
Dedicated project management support
Post-sales support (technical/IT or consultative support)
1. Supplier profile
Having a clear idea of the type of survey partner you want for your survey will help you narrow
your search. Typical considerations are things like client experience, technical and theoretical skills
and know-how.
A buyer’s guide to:
An employee survey
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Buyer’s guide: An employee survey Call us today +44 (0)1932 222700 or visit www.etsplc.com

2. 2. Level of support
Are you looking for a simple employee survey or a wider engagement programme? Consider
whether you need an expert provider with consultants to design the survey.
Service provided Reader notes
A simple piece of technology for you to run your own survey
Advice on what’s driving engagement for your employees
Guidance on how to measure engagement
Advice on how to encourage participation (improve response rates)
Support for managers to identify actions after the survey
Advice on communication with key stakeholder groups
Help to present survey results to executives
Service provided Reader notes
Create a new questionnaire from scratch
Help to devise a single score of the level of engagement
(an engagement index)
Review and amend an existing questionnaire
Ensure questionnaire links with business strategy
Help to translate survey into different languages
Design a survey brand/identity for all communications
3. Creating survey materials
This involves devising the questionnaire, choosing rating scales and question types. You may
also want to create a survey brand and pre and post survey communications. Think about what
content and materials you’ll need support from an engagement expert on.
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An employee engagement index is a single score that summarises how engaged a company’s
employees, or a group of employees, are.
Buyer’s guide: An employee survey Call us today +44 (0)1932 222700 or visit www.etsplc.com

3. 4. Reporting & analysis
You need to know how your organisation will use the survey data in order to inform your
requirements. Think about who’ll be accessing the data and what formats they’ll need it in.
Reporting outputs vary between providers so be clear on your reporting needs as an organisation
including any different localised needs.
Service provided Reader notes
Online report of results
Paper reports
An analysis of which questions to focus on to increase engagement
Custom report design (i.e. designed for managers, admin users,
executives)
Internal benchmarking within reports (using historical survey data)
External benchmarking within reports (using other organisations’
scores)
Data showing how engagement increases sales and customer
satisfaction (linkage analysis)
5. Action planning
How ‘bought in’ to the employee survey are your managers and leaders? And how comfortable are
they with data and devising action plans? Answering these questions will inform what the survey
provider needs to offer.
Service provided Reader notes
Guidance for managers/leaders on interpreting survey results
Help identifying key action areas at individual, manager and group
levels
Manager workshops covering data analysis and selecting the best
actions
Linkage analysis offers powerful business insights, highlighting the impact increased engagement
has on other business metrics. It can also provide you with a tangible (monetary) value of
increased employee engagement.
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Buyer’s guide: An employee survey Call us today +44 (0)1932 222700 or visit www.etsplc.com

4. 6. Technical requirements
You needn’t be a technical whizz but you should know the basics to ask from would-be providers.
Involve your IT team early on and list any technical or security-related restrictions or preferences.
This could include where the survey data is stored and how the system is accessed.
Service provided Reader notes
Self-service questionnaires
Host the survey (and all data) externally
Host the survey (and all data) internally
Survey completion via password entry and secure link
Integration with other HR software or a company intranet
Thorough security (penetration) testing
7. Budget
You’ll find a large variance in employee survey prices and we’d need a better idea of your
requirements in order to advise accurately on budget. The best advice is to ensure you’re only
paying for what you need. Below we offer some guidance on functionality to expect for smaller
and bigger budgets.
Under £10,000
Fixed survey approach and questionnaire content. Standard,
pre-defined post-survey reports. Low or no involvement from
consultants or project managers
Action planning is all about how you get the business (local managers or group level) to act most
effectively on survey results. Aim to agree an appropriate action planning approach before
launching an employee survey. This will better enable your organisation to take relevant action on
survey results.
Action toolkits for managers with action plan templates
Focus groups
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Buyer’s guide: An employee survey Call us today +44 (0)1932 222700 or visit www.etsplc.com

5. What should you do next?
Æ Use our checklist and refer back to what you must have, would like to have and don’t need
Æ Create your brief using this information
Æ Speak with people in your network and get their recommendations
Æ Do some research and shortlist 3-5 companies that meet your criteria to invite to talk.
Can we help? If you’d like to speak with us about your requirements, please
contact us...
Call us on +44 (0)1932 222700
Or e-mail us at info@etsplc.com
Buyer’s guide: An employee survey Call us today +44 (0)1932 222700 or visit www.etsplc.com
£25,000 – £50,000
Flexible survey content and tools. Reporting tools allowing for detailed
analysis across the organisation. Consultancy support in both design
and post-survey interpretation. Project-managed implementation
£100,000 over
Integrated survey programme incorporating self-service questionnaires,
pulse surveys. Powerful reporting tools for data analysis including
custom reports. Consultancy partnership with support throughout
and in all post-survey interpretation, activities and communications.
Dedicated project management during implementation.