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How to Encourage Staff Participation

Here's what you can do to get your team onboard

The Employee Engagement Survey is now open. Staff have two months to complete the survey. Get your plan in place for engaging staff so you can ensure high participation!

Communications

Prepare to communicate information about the survey to managers and staff as soon as you can. Use your regular communications tools such as all-staff emails, messages from managers, employee newsletters, and team meetings. A personalized message from the executive director encouraging participation is particularly valuable.

In your communications speak to the importance of staff members contributing their voice to the first-ever countywide survey of nonprofit employees. The results will help the nonprofit sector better understand how to attract talented employees, support them, and retain them in the sector.

If your organization has more than five staff members and at least five participate, you can receive a report for your organization. Let employees know that their participation can make the organization stronger and improve your ability to serve your clients.

Visit the sample communications messages to make it easy to communicate with your staff.

Allow employees to complete the survey on paid time

The survey will take 15-20 minutes. Employees are more likely to take the survey if they know that they are encouraged to participate and can do so on paid time.

Ensure computer access for everyone

  • A flyer with a QR code that you can distribute to staff makes the survey easy to complete on a cell phone. You can also download a PDF copy of the flyer to hang up at your workspace.
  • If you have staff working from locations where they do not have computer access to complete the survey, consider setting up a designated on-site computer station. Employees can be encouraged to “sign up” for a survey time block. Do consider privacy needs for employees to take the survey. Be sure to provide hand sanitizer and sanitation wipes for shared computers with instructions to sanitizing the area after using the computer.
  • There is a large text option for anyone who needs it on the survey platform Alchemy. It can be activated by the respondent as the survey is being taken.
  • If you have signed up for survey information, the link to the survey will be sent to you when it opens so that you can forward it to your staff. The survey link will also be available at 501commons.org/Survey.

Translations to make survey accessible

The survey is available in 10 languages

  • English
  • Amharic
  • Arabic
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Korean
  • Russian
  • Somali
  • Spanish
  • Ukrainian
  • Vietnamese

Participants can easily change the language of the survey on any survey page by using the language bar in the upper right corner of each page.

Debriefing the results with managers, staff and board members

After the county-wide results are published and, if applicable, you have received the report for your organization, make a plan to dig into the results with your managers and share the results and any actions you plan to take with your staff members.  Board members are an important audience as well. Provide a briefing on the summary report 501 Commons will produce and any insights from that to your board members.