Unlock the hidden insights in your organization
Look past the boxes and lines of traditional org charts and see how your organization actually works.
Product
Employee Survey Tool: Active ONA, Engagement + Culture Surveys
Improve and build better organizations with our flexible relationship-based survey tool. We provide a built-in, fully customizable survey tool that makes it easy for you to collect and visualize network data with ease.
What is a relationship-based survey tool?
A relationship-based survey tool is designed to collect not just regular survey data (for example employee experience and employee satisfaction data) but to go one step further and measure the relationships that exist between employees. For example, you can ask respondents who are the most important working relationships for them in the workplace? Or who they go to for advice?
Fundamentally, our survey tool is designed for Active Organizational Network Analysis - to easily collect data on the relationships that exist inside of an organization. There is a strong relationship between Active ONA and engagement surveys and our survey tool allows you to ask not just relationship questions but also standard survey questions such as demographic questions, engagement questions, workplace culture questions or open text questions.
The survey results can then be used to enable the core applications of Organizational Network Analysis such as to uncover influencers or to improve collaboration in a data-driven way but also to analyze the network data alongside employee engagement and culture data. It's worth noting that Polinode's survey tool is most often used for employee surveys but it's not limited to just employee surveys. We have many non-profit and other customers who use our survey tool to map ecosystems, i.e. external relationships.
The survey results can then be used to enable the core applications of Organizational Network Analysis such as to uncover influencers or to improve collaboration in a data-driven way but also to analyze the network data alongside employee engagement and culture data. It's worth noting that Polinode's survey tool is most often used for employee surveys but it's not limited to just employee surveys. We have many non-profit and other customers who use our survey tool to map ecosystems, i.e. external relationships.
Benefits
What should I look for in an Active ONA employee survey tool?
Of course you will want your employee survey software to be able to ask standard survey questions - multiple choice questions, likert scale questions, open text questions and so on. But beyond that standard functionality, what should you look for, particularly if you want to collect relationship data in order to understand not just how employees feel but to go a step further and understand how they are connected?
Flexibility
Our flexible survey tool allows you to ask any type of question you want, from demographic to relationship-based questions.
Relationship data - at scale
Our autocomplete feature makes it easy to standardize responses - so you can direct your efforts to analyzing, not cleaning data. Upload pick lists with many thousands of names and let Polinode take care of the rest.
Let your respondents direct the sample
Not sure who or how many people should respond? With our snowball survey functionality, respondents can nominate who they think should respond.
Share with ease
Provide a unique link to your survey or use our built-in mail merge and email reminder functionality to track and prompt participation.
One click to visualize and analyze
Our survey tool is fully integrated with our network visualization and analysis tool. Once you have collected your responses, all it takes is one click to visualize your data.
How can I use the survey software to collect employee engagement data?
Many of Polinode's users use our survey tool to just run Active ONAs but it's important to point out that combining Active ONA data with employee experience data can be incredibly powerful.
This combination allows you to understand, for example, how engagement varies within the different informal communities within an organization and to compare these different groups.
This combination allows you to understand, for example, how engagement varies within the different informal communities within an organization and to compare these different groups.
We can not only identify influencers but also understand what areas for improvement those influencers believe exist (in a privacy-protecting way that preserves anonymity).
The typical way to collect employee engagement data alongside relationship data is to include a set of employee experience questions after a set of name generator questions. These engagement questions may include survey items such as:
- I would recommend Company as a great place to work
- I feel empowered to make decisions regarding my work
- I feel a sense of belonging on my team
- I have good career opportunities at Company
- I receive feedback that helps me improve my performance
There are many ways in which the data can then be combined. For example, understanding the decision-making network that exists and overlaying on top of that network how empowered (or not) groups feel to make decisions.
Do you have template ONA questions? Template employee feedback questions?
Yes! We strongly believe in customizing survey questions to fit both the organization and its strategic priorities, and we always recommend doing so.
That said, we do have a set of template questions that we’d be happy to share - please contact us for a copy. Our standard set of template questions includes six relationship questions and two open text questions. We also have a standard set of employee feedback template questions that we recommend asking alongside those template Active ONA questions if there is the desire to collect both sets of data together.
That said, we do have a set of template questions that we’d be happy to share - please contact us for a copy. Our standard set of template questions includes six relationship questions and two open text questions. We also have a standard set of employee feedback template questions that we recommend asking alongside those template Active ONA questions if there is the desire to collect both sets of data together.
How do I get actionable insight from employee survey data?
There are a number of fundamental principles to follow when extracting insight from employee survey data and this is true for Active ONA surveys as well as for ONA surveys that include engagement data:
Define objectives and key questions
Begin by clearly defining your objectives and the specific questions you want to answer. This will help focus your analysis on the most relevant data points.
Conduct thorough data cleaning
Ensure accuracy and reliability by conducting a thorough data cleaning process. Look for patterns, trends, and correlations using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Leverage analysis tools
Utilize statistical analysis tools as well as Polinode's built-in network analysis tools to identify significant relationships and potential areas of concern. Pay attention to both positive and negative outliers, as they can provide valuable insights into what's working well and what needs improvement.
Segment the data
Segment the data by departments, teams, or demographics to uncover group-specific issues or trends. This can help pinpoint areas that need targeted interventions.
Prioritize key findings
Once you've identified areas for improvement, prioritize them based on their potential impact and feasibility. Consider factors like inclusion, recognition, leadership, productivity, the work environment, and onboarding.
Develop and communicate action plans
Create action plans to address critical issues and opportunities for improvement. Communicate the results and planned actions transparently to employees, showing that their feedback is valued and acted upon. Include a summary of the key topics and results from the network analytics.
Track progress and measure impact
Finally, establish a system for tracking progress and measuring the effectiveness of the changes implemented.
Is it easy to get started?
Polinode makes it incredibly easy to get started with running relationship-based employee surveys. You can sign up for an account and begin right away.
Your account will include some template questions to use as a starting point, or you can create your own questions from scratch. If you prefer, you can also request a demo, and we’ll help you get set up. Additionally, we can provide any professional services you may need to maximize the value you get from our platform
Making the invisible visible.
