Prepare for Action

Prior to meeting with the Organization ABC Survey team, we hold our own internal meetings to prepare for our initial consultations with you. We prepare a detailed project work plan setting out timelines, project scope, and project team roles and responsibilities, a survey communications strategy, an issues management process as well as comprehensive risk management plan.

Following our internal meetings, we meet with your survey team to discuss all aspects of the survey project in detail including our recommendations for survey design, deployment, methodology, survey communications, deliverables approval process, reporting, benchmarking, results roll out, and potential follow up action planning initiatives. We go over our training and support processes and discuss the best process for managing issues for the duration of the project. We reccomend the client survey team to include HR professionals, Communications specialists, HRIS specialists, non-HR line manager representation and an executive sponsorship).

TalentMap will also ensure that the survey is relevant to Organization ABC’s strategic objectives, workplace requirements and unique work culture. We will consult with you and review relevant documentation, including Organization ABC’s strategic documents, business plans, previous surveys and results to understand the key issues and questions that will drive the design and customization of the survey. During these initial meetings, the Organization ABC survey team will be introduced to the TalentMap senior project manager who will be the dedicated project point person for the duration of the project.

Develop Questionnaire

TalentMap shall provide advice in the design and development of the survey questions specific to your requirements. We recommend using TalentMap’s comprehensive employee survey, TalentGage Classic Plus which includes key engagement and corporate culture questions as the starting point for the design of your survey. TalentMap is able to provide relevant current benchmark data for the standard core survey questions. TGC+ allows for customization of up to 20 items to fully meet your strategic objectives.

We are able to accommodate virtually any request including adding in custom questions, changing words, deleting questions, adding custom dimensions (e.gs, diversity and inclusion, corporate citizenship and responsibility).

We will consult with you regarding customization of the survey that best meets your objectives. Following our initial consultations, we will make specific recommendations on survey and report template design that aligns with your objectives. We will review and analyze your previous survey and reports for background and context. We will also make recommendations regarding length and format of survey to ensure maximum participation.

TalentGage Classic Plus is composed of 68 core items based primarily on a 5 point Likert scale. The questionaire also provides the respondent ample opportunity to provide voluntary open ended comments for each survey dimension. The survey is very user friendly and generally takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete. For a sampling of questions from the TalentGage instrument, please refer to Appendix A. Your project manager will ensure that the timelines established for draft survey review, amendments and final approvals are followed.

Pre-survey Communication

TalentMap will provide proven pre and post-survey communication templates as a starting point for the design of your key messages. We will work in partnership with you to help refine a communication plan specific to your requirements. We will provide you with frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the survey process for managers and supervisors, tips and reminders to help you make the most of the survey, workplace posters to publicize the upcoming survey and encourage respondents to participate. We will also provide customizable email and letter templates to communicate and promote the survey as well as meeting agendas to brief employees on the survey. Reminder emails/messages to increase response rates and thank you emails/messages to employees for participation in the survey will also be supplied.

A high response rate is vital to a successful survey program and allows you to act on credible data and have confidence in the action plans you develop. TalentMap’s overall average employee survey response rate is 80%, however, many TalentMap clients enjoy participation rates well above 80%. Your Project Manager will provide you with the comprehensive communications package along with recommendations and best practices for ensuring survey success.

TalentMap recognizes that communication is a critical component of a successful employee survey process. Communication helps create buy in for the survey at all levels and impacts survey participation levels as well as trust in the process. During our initial consultations we take the time to learn more about your organization’s communication channels and the way your employees receive information in the organization. This discussion will enable us to create an effective communication strategy designed for your unique workplace culture.

Deploy Survey

TalentMap will deploy the survey online to approximately 1,100 Organization ABC employees. In keeping with Organization ABC requirements and to maximize participation rates, TalentMap recommends Option A but is able to successfully deploy under each of the following methods:

Option A: Unique ID

1. Email: an email survey invitation with a embedded unique url sent to all Organization ABC employees who have an active Organization ABC email address. The online survey is accessed through TalentMap’s secure Internet site. TalentMap’s system will send the survey invitation within a unique URL to each Internet-enabled employee with an email address. As follow-up throughout the survey period, reminder emails will be sent to non-respondents and, upon survey close, a thank you email will be sent to all participants from TalentMap’s secure email server.


2. Paper: We will provide paper as an option for those employees who are not able to complete the survey online (approximately 100 employees). Organization ABC would receive a formatted PDF version of the questionnaire and would print off copies and distribute as required.

Option B: Open Participation

1. Open Link: an open link can be provided if it is too difficult to provide unique ID for the majority of employees (distributed through Organization ABC’s corporate email). The advantage of the open link is it is easy to set up and administer as anyone with internet access can complete the survey. There are two main disadvantages; first respondents must complete specific demographic information (length of service, department, function, etc) which lengthens the questionnaire and thus respondent burden and second, respondents demographic data tends to be less accurate since many respondents advertently or purposefully place themselves in the wrong demographic group.


2. Paper: We can also provide paper as an option for those employees who are not able to complete the survey online (approximately 100 employees). Organization ABC would receive a formatted PDF version of the questionnaire and would print off copies and distribute as required.

Option C: PINS

1. URL an open link can be provided with an accompanying PIN which is unique to each survey participant. Typically, they are mailed a paper version of the survey with their PIN on it and invited to complete it either in paper form or via the included general url, similar to Open Participation. The advantage of the open link with PIN is it is easy to set up and administer as anyone with internet access can complete the survey and you mitigate the Open Participation disadvantages.


2. Paper: Paper is automatically provided with the selection of PIN distribution for those employees who are not able to complete the survey online (approximately 100 employees). Each participant would be individually mailed a survey to complete.

Analyze, Interpret & Report

Our goal is to provide you with exceptional data analysis that will clearly guide executive and management decision-making. Specifically, the starting point of our survey analysis would include standard data cleaning. This step occurs prior to any survey response analysis and includes reviewing the response list for duplicates, incomplete or other suspicious or non valid surveys. Following data clean up, we typically review the frequency scores of each question to identify any anomalies and to generally get familiar with the final data set.

We then move forward to create your “Employee Engagement Index”. This index consists of six items. Two items measure the “Head” the logical connection, two items measure the “Heart” the emotional connection and finally, two items measure the “Hands” – the willingness to put forth extra effort (discretionary effort). We create a client-specific model that uses a regression analysis to identify those specific dimensions of your workplace that have the biggest impact on improving “Engagement” and thus the biggest impact on overall organizational performance. We will rank order these “Key Drivers” in order of importance. Finally we pull all this analysis together in a comprehensive report that clearly identifies your key drivers of engagement along with specific Recommendations on priority improvement areas for enhancing engagement and workplace culture.

The following diagram depicts an example of the type of graphic output we generate. The vertical axis indicates your score on the survey item and the horizontal access depicts the relative importance of that item for your organization. Therefore if the item is in the top right – green area (high score and high importance) we recommend to capitalize by doing more and if the item is in the bottom left- red area (low score and high importance), we recommend action.

TalentMap’s Quad Map

Disseminate Results

The process of surveying would not be complete if the results are not shared. In fact, the longer you wait to get the word out, whether the results are great or less than expected, the more cynicism that is created throughout the employees. This, in turn, can snowball out of control into wild speculation and can actually lead to further disengagement.

To avoid this, TalentMap has created a communication strategy that has proven to be effective. What is ultimately important, though, is to tailor the medium to your particular circumstances and to get the word out as fast as possible.

Typically, the first step is to give all employees the overall results. The next step is then to give each functional or divisional manager their particular results, if you have them. That way, they can compare themselves to the overall results and see how they stack up. Finally, it is important to show that there is a plan to deal with the poorer results.

Action Planning

Prior to meeting with the Organization ABC Survey team, we hold our own internal meetings to prepare for our follow-up consultations with you. We prepare a detailed suggested action plan setting out timelines, project scope, and project team roles and responsibilities, an implementation strategy, an issues management process as well as comprehensive risk management plans.