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Many companies and managers have found employee surveys are an extremely valuable survey tool to see how various aspects are going in the workplace, including things like employee morale. When you would like employee feedback on a new project or process or are looking to find out how clients feel about you, obtaining honest feedback is very important.
So, you've focused on all the best practice and have created what you believe is an engaging survey, it's now time to get it out there. But, you're suddenly not sure what you should do as far as anonymity. Should you ask respondents to include their names or should your survey be anonymous? Here we'll look at the pros and cons of both.
Pros of an Anonymous Survey
There are several benefits of sending out an anonymous survey.
Provide Honest Feedback. Typically, when a survey is anonymous, respondents will be more inclined to discuss problems and provide honest feedback.
No Fear or Embarrassment Worries. The nature of anonymous surveys is your respondents are free to answer without fear of embarrassment or reprisals. An anonymous survey works great for deeply personal topics, allowing individuals to respond more openly.
Better Response Rates. If your respondents fear there will be some type of retribution following their survey submission, they're likely to skip it entirely.
Provide Identity Protection. Many drop-outs on surveys occur when they ask for personal information like names, email addresses and demographics. Many people fear their personal information may be sold to marketing companies.
Cons of an Anonymous Survey
Some cons of anonymous surveys are:
Difficulties in Following Up. Sometimes you may need to take further action on the responses such as adopting a certain policy or addressing a specific problem. An anonymous survey makes that difficult to do.
Less Specific. You might find if there's the involvement of negative feedback, it's broad-based since you can't learn more by following up.Can’t Get Clarification. Also, with an anonymous survey, you may not be able to clarify the respondents' complaints; therefore you can't be positively sure of the whole picture.
May Not Get a True Answer. If the respondent is fearing reprisal for comments made on a non-anonymous survey, they may not provide their most open and honest response. This could mean you make decisions based upon feedback that doesn’t correlate to what is actually going on in the workplace. After weighing both the pros and cons of making your survey anonymous, you can then figure out the route you're going to take. If you're still not sure, why not ask your survey takers what they prefer? Giving them the choice to answer the questions anonymously or openly can likely yield better results. It also helps you to design a better questionnaire using online survey software knowing whether your survey is.
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