PMcrunch

Why bother?

The life blood of any business is good customer service. Although you should try and attract new customers good customer service will help generate customer loyalty and encourage repeat business. With each satisfied customer your business is likely to win many more customers through recommendations and remember, if you are not taking care of your customers, your competition will.

Online customer satisfaction surveys will demonstrate to your customers that you care and are proactive in looking for ways to improve the service that you provide.

Where do you start?

Objective - As a first step decide what the main objectives of the survey are, in that way you will be able to retain focus and find it easier to decide what questions to ask.

Analysis - When the survey is complete consider how you will analyze the answers.

Bare in mind that ‘closed’ questions (where the respondents are asked to choose from a limited number of responses) are easier to analyse than questions that are ‘open’ (where the respondent can reply in anyway they want).

Much will depend on the volume of respondents, the higher the volume the more important it is to have an easy method of analysing the results.

Opportunity – Keep in mind that as well as obtaining valuable market research data customer surveys are also a good way to advertise aspects of your service that your customers may not be aware of.

After you have drafted your survey read through the survey from a market research view point and check that you are asking the right questions in the right way and that with the feedback information you will be able to properly analyze the data allowing you to make informed decisions.

Then, from a marketing view point read through the survey, confirm that you have phrased each question so that every opportunity has been taken to promote your business?

The ideal question will perform the following three functions:-

• Market research - provide valuable feedback to help you improve your customer satisfaction levels and in turn your business
• Marketing - promote aspects of your business
• Information/Education - advertise a service that you provide that your customers may not have been unaware of

For example:- Do you find the in-store baby changing facilities useful?

In asking this question the store will hopefully not only receive useful feedback on the baby changing facility but they will also promote the store as being child-friendly even beyond the customers who actually require the facility.

Warts and all – to benefit most from a customer survey you need to be prepared to accept criticism.

A well designed customer satisfaction survey will enable you to identify problems so that they can be addressed; regular customer satisfaction will prevent complacency and give you early warning on where you might be losing out to your competitors initiatives.

What should you ask?

Depending on their own particular size and makeup each business is likely to have unique factors in relation to providing good customer services however there are common areas relevant to all businesses be they a physical store, online store or a service industry. The following are key areas to providing good customer service.

Communication - Are you confident that you make it easy for your customers to contact you?

When a customer telephones is the phone answered promptly; are enquiries about products or services properly handled? Good businesses will make every effort to ensure that whatever the customers query it is resolved by the right person, politely, quickly and fairly.

If customers reported problems that cannot be resolvable immediately do you promise to respond in a given time period and do you deliver on your promise?

Use a customer satisfaction survey to ensure that all your staff are considered by your customers to be courteous, helpful and knowledgeable.

Location – Do your customers find it easy to visit you, if a physical store, is it conveniently located with good access?

Making it pleasant, making it easy - For an internet business it is important to ensure that your website is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.

Regardless of the store being a bricks and mortar or purely an online internet store, is the store properly laid out, can your customers find what they need and is there sufficient information and help on hand to explain how a particular product works?

The right quality products – In addition to measuring the quality of the service that you provide you should ensure make sure that the products and services that you provide do fully match your customers’ requirements.

Value for money – Cheap or expensive is rarely a good measure, value for money is.

Do your customers equate your business with value for money, if not, why not?

Speed and attention – Regardless of the type of business most customers will want to be dealt with quickly but attentively.

Are you doing everything you can to avoid delays?

Good businesses will try to treat each customer as an individual, does yours? Customers appreciate attention but only if it leads to a quick and satisfactory resolution of the query.

Demographics and Specific issues – Take the opportunity to profile your customers, for example what is their age group and where do they live?

The more you try to understand your customers the better you will be able to target your business.

For customers who have specific problems allow them to provide details and contact details.

What is next?

Having completed the survey analyze the results.

Trends – Look for common and specific areas where the customer service is found wanting.

Ask yourself honestly if any criticism that you receive is valid and if there anything that can be done to resolve or minimise the problem?

Training – Are all employees properly trained and do they have sufficient knowledge?

Where customer service training programs have been implemented have they had the desired effect and improved the customer experience?

Follow-up – If a customer who has completed a survey has raised a specific issue ensure that they are contacted and their complaint addressed.

Don’t lose an opportunity to resolve a problem and keep a customer.

Continuously Monitor - Based on the survey results make changes and then re-measure by issuing further surveys.

If you are interested in tracking customer satisfaction and would like to see a sample survey for a store that demonstrates some of the above advice please view the following example that can be used as a customer satisfaction survey template.

Whether you want to set goals for your business or your personal life, defining clear, concise goals is very important. Without clear goals you can end up confused about what you want to achieve, and you may be putting yourself on the path to stagnation. Clear goals can give you tremendous momentum and intense purpose in your life.

Here are five important tips to help you to define clear goals in your life:

1. Understand what you want to achieve. In order to define clear goals, your first step is to determine exactly what you want to achieve. If you don’t know where you’re going, you can’t figure out a route to get there.

Once you know where you want to be and what you want to achieve, you’ll be able to come up with the goals that will help you get there.

* Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Take the necessary time and brainstorm your visions, desires and dreams that are long-term.

2. Determine a timeline. Setting timelines will prevent procrastination and spur you on to action to meet your goals. Having a timeline for your goals also helps to clarify them because now you know what you want and when you want it!

* Come up with goals that you want to meet in a month, year, and even five or ten years from now.

* Make a plan that will keep you on track; however, don’t etch your plan in stone! There will probably be changes along the way, so make sure you keep your eye on the prize.

3. Ensure your goals are realistic. With realistic goals, you can almost guarantee that you’ll be able to achieve them, and you won’t stress yourself out trying to accomplish something that’s out of reach. A clear goal is a realistic one.

Your long-term goals can be broken into small steps of action that are easily achievable. Reaching multiple goals along your journey will give you a feeling of accomplishment and motivate you to continue.

4. Be specific. Clarify your goals with the details of exactly what you want. Avoid vague generalities. When you make a specific goal, you’ll be better able to accomplish it.

* Specific goals allow you to form your timeline and define your action steps. There’s no guesswork involved when dealing with specifics.


* For example, “make more money with your business” is a vague goal. Come up with a specific goal, such as, “I will make $1,000 more per month, three months from today.” This goal is specific, measurable, and realistic.

5. Refine your goals. Your goals may change as your life changes. During this process, you’ll be able to make them more specific, realistic, and achievable.

* It’s okay to refine your goals several times in your life! What’s important now, might not be important to you six months or six years from now. Be willing to accept change. Revisit your goals from time to time and make new plans if necessary.

Some people flounder through life, unsure of their purpose or what they want to achieve. Don’t let this be you! Your life will have clear meaning if you put some thought into what’s important to you, what goals you want to achieve, and what actions to take to make your dreams a reality.

How to create a survey using Survey Galaxy

Writing surveys is considered easy; but is it? The reality is that writing surveys is easy but writing surveys that will be effective is a little bit more difficult. The following tips will help you with your survey questionnaire design so you can write more effective surveys.

1. What is the survey’s purpose?

Surveys are conducted for many reasons. By phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in a multitude of ways and for a variety of reasons. When compiling a survey don’t lose sight of its purpose.

2. Give the survey a good title

The survey title is a golden opportunity to instantly summarise a survey’s objective and encourage respondents to participate. Respondents need to invest time in completing the survey so make them feel that their investment is worthwhile.

3. Don’t make the survey any longer than it needs to be

Every question that is asked should be asked for a reason. Concentrate on the ‘need to know’ questions and minimise ‘nice to know’ information.

4. Use plain English, avoid terminology and acronyms, be consistent and don’t ask questions that may result in ambiguous answers

Word the question carefully. If a question can be interpreted in more ways than one then there is a real risk that any analysis of the resulting survey data will be worthless or at the very least suspect.

5. Don’t have long questions

Where practical use succinct sentences. Long questions can cause a respondent discomfort and lead to them abandoning the survey.

6. Ask one question at a time

Avoid confusing the respondent with a question like ‘Do you like football and athletics?’

7. Do not influence the answer

Do not load the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell tobacco to children be prosecuted?’ is unlikely to have any value.

8. Make sure that the answer format used allows the respondent to answer the question being asked

Allow the respondent to answer how they really feel or they may be less inclined to complete the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a “Don’t know”, “No comment” or similar response option.

9. While compiling your survey consider how you will analyse the results once the survey has been published

When asking questions that allow for a free text open ended response appreciate that such information is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider grouping answers. For example “Indicate your length of service?” - ‘less than 1 year’, ‘between 1 and 3 years’ and ‘more than 3′.

10. Try and ensure that the questionnaire flows

Group questions into clear categories as this will make it easier for the participants completing the survey.

11. Target your respondents carefully

You may want to target a specific group, in others a cross section. If you can’t control who responds to your survey consider including questions/answers that will allow you to filter out respondents who don’t match your target profile.

12. Allow respondents to expand on their answers and/or make comments

Allowing respondents to make additional comments will increase their satisfaction level and will also give valuable feedback on the specific questions and/or the survey as a whole. Remember that for large sample collections free text open ended responses may prove difficult to analyze.

13. If the survey you are conducting is to be confidential ensure that your pledge is upheld

If you have guaranteed the respondents that the survey is confidential ensure that the individual data is not to be shared with anyone and not used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained at all times and any contact information destroyed after the survey is complete.

14. Consider the benefits and disadvantages of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable

If your respondents are to be anonymous then you will be unable to follow up specific complaints or match “pre” or “post” surveys. There are advantages to allowing people to remain anonymous for example it would allow people to respond without possible peer pressure.

15. Give careful consideration to the best response format

Maintaining a consistency in the format used for responses is good practice. When creating your survey keep in mind that when analyzing the data radio buttons are easier to analyze than check boxes that offer the respondent multiple responses. Do not use a check box format if a radio response format would do.

16. Inform the respondent as to the approximate time it will take to complete the survey

If the survey appears to be a stream of never ending questions then respondent drop can increase. It is good practice to give an indication as to how long the survey is likely to take so the respondents can choose the best time to complete the survey.

17. Inform respondents of the survey end date

Encourage your invited respondents to complete the survey as soon as possible but advise the respondents of the survey’s end date so that they have the opportunity to schedule the necessary time.

18. Pilot the survey

Before publishing a live survey publish the survey as a trial to check for questions that are ambiguous or confusing and to ensure that the survey is aesthetically pleasing.

19. Before publishing the survey check the survey carefully

Check and then check again that a survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If practical get a colleague to check the survey before you publish, if no one else is available then take a break before checking again.

20. Say ‘Thank You’

Respondents invest their time when completing surveys and should therefore be thanked at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider incentives such as a prize draw or reward.

To get started there are numerous survey software websites to choose from.

NetSuite Pricing

All of the technology and business contacts I regularly talk to keep telling me cloud computing. But what is it, what does it really mean for business and what are the financial and physical upsides?

Cloud means Internet. The computing takes place on the Internet – in place of the software you use executing on your desktop pc, it’s hosted on the Internet on a server installed in a data centre usually staffed by people who are experts in managing technology. This type of “cloud” software is sometimes called “on demand” or Software as a Service (SaaS).

Some good examples of well established Software as a Service are:

Web based CRM Software (Customer Relationship Management) – Salesforce.com pricing approximately $9 per user/month.
Small business management and accounting software (small business ERP) – Salesorder.com pricing $45 per user/month.
Medium sized business ERP software – NetSuite pricing approximately $99 per user/month.

There are 3 substantial benefits for every business here:

Time, cost savings and reliability

Businesses no longer need a dedicated IT professional to help them procure, bed in and monitor the systems platform thus decreasing operating costs and time to implement. The effort of vigilantly backing up information is eradicated as this is usually an inherent feature of the “cloud” software. Cloud software “operators” almost always have fail over systems that can be brought to bear in a very short amount of time should a serious problem occur.

Easier selection and more choice

Through the ubiquitous web browser, businesses now have instant access to a huge range of software packages they can in the majority of cases immediately try and effectively determine if the software fulfils their needs at no expense. This makes it straightforward for employees in large enterprises to circumvent the standard information technology procurement processes and easily assess and prove their business proposal.

Superior user experience

The net provides rapid feedback to software makers and has led to substantial progress in user interface design resulting in more intuitive systems in turn lowering learning times and improving user satisfaction. This of course means quicker adoption and better productivity.

I’m not happy. The printer has still not been fixed and now my chair is broken. The problem with the company is that it is going to the dogs. My boss is okay but has no clue what is going on.

And on it goes.

When a company loses touch with their employees these are the sort of thoughts that start to play on the minds of individuals; the lack of appreciation, a broken chair, the blaming of ‘management’, even questioning the futility of what they are doing. Small problems fester and a sceptical and destructive mindset develops. Can you be sure that this isn’t the sort of thing that is going on right now in your organisation?

What should be social events held outside the office become no more than a forum for complaints and negativity grows among people who feel unable to effect change. Diverse frustration will often amalgamate into a demand for an increase in remuneration, as though like a cheap fix more money will briefly reduce the pain.

If ignored by management the concerns of this employee will inevitable find empathy with their colleagues own individual concerns, where the only common demand might well be a demand for an increase in remuneration, more paid holidays and a reduction in working hours, all of which will not fix the broken chair, ensure that new personnel are in future properly introduced, trained and managed nor help management identify areas of inefficiency.

Organisations have a habit of pigeon holing people, physically through offices, cubicles or workstations and also in terms of responsibility. With strong and effective management to support this structure it can be productive, but as an organisation grows, weak or inappropriate management can infiltrate the management chain and it is only to then be expected that cracks will begin to appear.

Looking at an organization from the top down all the corporate garden can appear to be in full bloom as middle management either disguise or are just unaware of festering problems.

A very skewed view can be the result of relying on a limited number of indicators, just as a one eyed person finds judging distance difficult. By establishing procedures that sample the mood from different perspectives throughout the organisation good management will be able to form a rounded picture.

The benefits of establishing good, frequent and extensive communication channels are both direct and indirect.

Greater respect will be given to a senior management team that is known to have their ear to the ground and where they keep the middle management honest by knowing that middle managers can no longer shrug away the senior manager’s searching inquiry “How is everything going?” question with a non-committal “Fine”; It is my experience that if someone replies with “fine” you need to dig deeper and ask if they really know what is going on.

Most principals of organisation will not have the luxury of spending time walking the floor and discussing the issues of individuals but through online employee surveys they can achieve the same benefits.

Online surveys are the perfect mechanism for establishing effective communications between the employer and employee. Using a survey hosting service they can now be created and published with speed and ease.

Using the Internet and intranet surveys can be deployed in seconds, easily completed by employees and results can be displayed in real time allowing ‘problems’ and common themes of dissatisfaction to be identified early.

Online employee satisfaction surveys have the ability to get to the heart of an organisation, confirm not only that the engine room is working but that there is sufficient coal in the bunker.

Online surveys provide many benefits, not only do they help identified concerns, but the employees voices are heard and their views, right or wrong, have a forum.

Online surveys won’t in themselves resolve a problem but they will give senior management the opportunity to address the problems and concerns of their employees, at least if people then leave the organisation they will be doing it for the right and not wrong reasons.

The grass will always appear greener on the other side but the underlying reasons for good people leaving an organisation are rarely purely monetary (although it is often cited as the reason) and more often to do with one or more of the following:-

• the working environment;
• a lack of accomplishment
• insufficient training and feedback;
• lack of a career path;
• over worked;
• lack of trust and respect with the senior management.

A well planned employer/employee communications programme that can identify the individual and common concerns of employees will give senior management the opportunity to address root problems and not just the symptoms of employee dissatisfaction, allowing them to demonstrate to their employees that they are not viewed simply as interchangeable parts that can be used for any job at hand.

Each individual organisation needs to customised their own employee survey so that it is relevant for them. I invite you to put yourself in the place of an employee and complete the short sample employee satisfaction survey, then view the results of the satisfaction survey and just think of the benefits to management being able to measure so easily the heart beat of the organization.

small business consulting

I run a Saas company that supplies help in the form of small business management and accounting software tools and know-how to thousands of startups and small businesses around the planet and whenever I explain to people what I do, I always get asked the same question “Given my working knowledge, how could I put it to use and make earn cash quickly from small business consulting? I’m always ready to supply guidance as I am fortunate enough to spend a significant portion of my day interacting with small business owners and workers enthusiastic to chat at length about their challenges.

This is the advice that I offer:

The web is a perfect platform for finding customers and it makes it simple to reach them and sell your expertise. A lot of small businesses turn to the internet to find knowledge or trusted advisors who can provide them with better ways of doing things and help them tackle issues.

Information marketing – package and sell your expertise to businesses through the Internet

What I am about to tell you doesn’t just apply to small businesses. You can repackage and sell your expertise in a electronic format such as video, audio or documents. The systems to construct excellent material are readily available on the network. Creating a series of lessons in easy to consume digital formats is now simple and inexpensive. You just have to be prepared to spend a bit of time getting to know the tools. material] that you can either sell or give away to get your target customer’s attention.

You have to decide what you want to achieve. Consultancy and Information marketing go hand in hand and if you do both can be very provide a substantial income as the consultancy will provide you with the questions, the answers to which repurpose for sale through the internet and sold over and over again.

If you are starting from scratch with no customers but have expertise you know would be needed by others then make a no longer than 120 secs video to introduce yourself and your expertise to your market. Unless you know the potential client(s) precise problem then make the video generic and adhere tothe following format – S.T.A.R (Situation or Task, Action, Result). Be creative and concise. Now upload the video to your website/blog or even YouTube if you don’t have the former and send the target(s) an invitation by e-mail containing a personal message and a link to the video. Follow this up with a phone call. If you know the specific nature of the potential client(s)problem then don’t make the video public, just put it somewhere secureon the Web or even on a disk and post it, again follow up with a call.

This method is ideally suited to situations where you are individually targeting potential client(s). The one objective you should be constantly pursuing is the creation of a list that you can converse with and sell product to.. Treat the people on your list well and they will tell you their needs to which you can match and your content products. The more people on your list the more consulting and information marketing opportunities you will discover. If you would like to know more about how to do this then click on any of the links in this article. I would be happy to help you.

The benefits of conducting an annual employee survey is widely accepted but many organizations have been put off by the amount of effort those annual surveys take to deploy.

Many organizations who have conducted their own internal employee satisfaction surveys use word-processors to design and compile a survey, then go through the effort of printing and distributing the survey and invest time chasing and collecting the completed surveys and then more time transferring the survey response information into a meaningful management report.

Fortunately with the introduction of the Internet and hosted survey websites 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

There are many reasons an organization might need a survey. Listed below are a few of the common reason why organizations conduct employee satisfaction surveys.

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 assist an organization in regularly reviewing their employees and monitoring an individual’s 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 Support

Although having management buy-in to a survey is always desirable and in some cases may be essential to ensure it is a success, in some instances the results of a survey that may be all that is required to kick-start a management that has grown complacent and detached from their employees.

Some senior management teams will recognize and drive the need for employee surveys, while other management teams may need to be convinced of the direct and indirect benefits an employee survey will bring.

The degree that management commit to an employee survey will have a bearing on the nature of the survey and to some extent will help determine what questions.

A management that is supportive of the initiative may have specific areas of concern that they require feedback on or they may give the go ahead simply because they have no reason to think that the level of employee satisfaction throughout the organization is anything other than high.

It is good practice to get management to buy-in to the employee survey from the start as it is they who have the most to gain and it is also they who are in a position to make any change that is later identified as being required.

Step 3 - Designing The Survey

Compiling an effective survey can take some time and effort but by applying the basics of good survey design and focusing on ‘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. As an example you may be tempted to ask for individual comments but these types of answer formats can be very cumbersome and time consuming to analyze and it is recommended that they be avoided or at least 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 - Checking And Testing

Spelling, Grammar 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

Check that for closed questions where the employee will be required to choose from a number of available responses; have allowed the employee to answer accurately? Make use of responses like ‘No Comment’, ‘Not Applicable’ or ‘Don’t know’ where you want to make the question mandatory so that it is not accidentally missed out but the employee may not be able to answer.

Give consideration to allowing the employee to include an ‘Other’ answer but be mindful that ‘Other’ answers add to the complexity when analyzing the survey results.

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

Check that for questions that have been made mandatory that you definitely do require an answer, for example open questions that ask for additional comments should not be mandatory unless you really do 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 want to be able to view the detailed response data from the perspective of the different departments, or maybe length of service, check you have asked the employee to indicate their own department and/or length of service.

Don’t Ask Anymore Questions Than You Need To

Consider all the questions in the survey and make sure that they are all ‘need to know’ questions.

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 you own survey yourself you will get a feel for how the respondent will view the survey. From your own and the feedback of your colleagues stop and fine tune the survey as required.

Continue to 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 as 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.

Allowing Anonymous Responses?

Respondents can be allowed to complete a survey anonymously. A survey where respondents are allowed to be anonymous may encourage employees to speak their minds promoting ‘a warts and all’ approach, in turn giving management an opportunity to address potentially serious problems before it is too late.

However, allowing anonymous comments also allows employees to be more flippant and cavalier 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.

Deciding to allow anonymous responses or not will mainly 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

You are able to view in real-time the results online and the number of surveys that have been both started and completed.

If after a few days the number of completed surveys falls short of any set target it is recommended to send employees one or more reminders to ask them to complete the survey.

Step 7 - Analyzing The Results

When it comes to analyzing the results data there are no hard and fast rules. Much will depend on the specific survey, the questions that are asked and the number of responses that are received.

The majority of surveys will benefit from the results being displayed as a chart as well as tabular form.

On the proviso that the right questions have been asked a number of ‘headline’ results will often stand out when the survey data is first analyzed that can provide you with an overview and an assessment of the general mood of the organization.

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 any negative view shared by employees of both genders, is it a view held throughout the organization, or is it one that is limited to a particular gender and/or 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 complement 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

The most important step is probably 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 negative responses are received from employees working in a particular department but the reasons for their negativity may not be clear. A smaller, specifically targeted follow-up survey may help reveal the root causes.

When employee surveys are run on a regular basis an organization that has a track record of addressing the issues highlighted by surveys will see their efforts rewarded in the results of subsequent surveys. Almost all organizations have problems and it will help the moral of an organization to see that a channel is available that will highlight problems that can then be 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 that will directly influence the tone and nature of the survey and will also dictate what the primary and secondary reasons are 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 www.surveygalaxy.com, at a very reasonable cost.

For selecting the career options the youngsters of today have started on thinking rationally in place of blindly following the masses. The youths of today are aware enough to formulate their choice carefully and intelligently instead of following the cattle herd. They think that the right option for them is the way that will get them good pay packages and benefits. They want to select the path that will long last and that path which should be surely resilient to recession. This is one thing that students have started thinking. In such times, students are not at all selecting career paths that are prone to be affected by recession. Facing the strike of recession is very miserable. In the difficult times of recession and meltdown when almost every field is affected, institutes and coaching circles are coming up with new career choices. They are deciding to launch novel courses this session. Amongst the various new courses, the course that is receiving majority of feedback is the electronics course. It is being delivered by some of our popular Woodstock Electricians (Need one? click here!). They will teach students to build complex and off course very useful circuits that will fetch them excellent job outline and exposure to this interesting and thrilling field. This all is really exciting the students interested in this field. Next comes the novel course in plumbing. This course being organized by Pavo Plumbers is definitely very popular, as it will prove its significance in coming time, where everyone wants a prolific and scenic campus. Be it house, office, garden, or any public place, people want striking view everywhere beautified lavishly by fountains and artificial waterfalls. Lastly the option is also being given by Mc Nabb Roofers(Need one?click here!). After the study and survey at different locations and areas, it is being assessed that roofing will also prove itself to be one of the brilliant and lucrative career choice. Thus, amongst the various lucrative career options, it’s the choice of youngsters!

small business accounting software

Experienced business managers will always share with you how much time the spend dealing with problems. What can go wrong generally will when you least expect it. Spotting serious problems in the most well run of businesses is often quite difficult. Business management goes hand in hand with problem resolution.

Every manager has to design and implement good financial controls. Think of financial controls as a sentries that sound the alarm when a financial problem occurs. Good financial controls begin with a budget that you track or compare with the reports run from small business accounting software. Make sure you have sufficiently competent small business accounting software that can produce the reports you need to track and monitor budget versus actual performance in areas such as revenue, fixed expenses and profitability. I believe the best approach is “get a rope across the river” by starting out with a handful of key numbers and relationships, designing the reports to highlight these, refining the out put and then building out from here.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to quickly investigate any deviation in the margins you should of course be monitoring. Overlooking any decrease in volumes or margins if you sell products or services in large numbers can quickly lead to disaster, so it’s vital that a key financial control is in place to give you immediate warning of any deviations. A key cause of financial distress is fixed expenses deviating from the plan in the early part of the financial year. The Average number of days it takes for your customers to pay you should be monitored closely and you can do this be running the Debtors report in your small business accounting software.

Experience is the way to learn and over time you will learn which financial controls should be highlighted in your accounting reports, just make sure you have the right small business accounting software that can generate these.

Make Money Online With Your Website

If you have your own website as a hobby or are planning to start your own website, you can use the website to also make extra money. There are several ways to make money with the Internet.

Affiliate Programs
By signing up for affiliate programs that pertain to your website content, is a great way to make some extra money while you explore and experiment with a topic that you enjoy. The concept of earning money online gives you the liberty to choose any field of expertise. You need not spend much money from your pocket to get started with working and making money online. You only need an internet connection, a computer and electricity. It is very simple! No initial investment at all.

Google AdSense
Another option to make some extra income from your website, is by using Google AdSense. Google AdSense is a program that you can sign up for that will allow you to place code produced by Google in your web page that will automatically generate advertisements that relate to your web page content. If a visitor clicks through those advertisements, you generate revenue. You can also pay for Google AdSense ads, and Google will include your website in the possible links that other websites display.

It is no secret that you need an effective plan of action to get you from dead broke to making your very first dollar online It doesn’t seem like that long of a journey. Once you have the e-book written and proofread, you can sell it on your website and potentially profit from your knowledge and expertise.

Believe me, I know, I’ve been there! I also went to the extreme and bought a bunch of money making programs when I first started and that was probably worse than not having any plan at all because of information overload. not to mention the hellacious credit card fees I was racking up!.

Resource Author Francisco Rodriguez Higueras online juegos Trabajo Empleo