FAQs

Why select Insync Surveys

1.   Why choose Insync Surveys?
2.   Why shouldn't we survey in-house?
3. Which organisations have used Insync Surveys' products and services?
4.   Can Insync Surveys conduct surveys in multiple languages?
5.   Can Insync Surveys compare our organisation's results to previous years?
6.   Can your surveys be customised?
7.   Why does Insync Surveys use a 1 to 7 rating scale?

How to survey

8. What are the main steps in your survey process?
9. How long does a survey project normally take?
10. What is a univariate and bivariate rating system?
11. What is benchmarking and what are the benefits of it?
12. What are the different formats a survey can be completed in?
13. How is the survey distributed?
14. What are the IT requirements for conducting an online survey?
15. How should I prepare an organisation or customer group for an upcoming survey?
16. How can I communicate the results of the survey to the organisation?
17. How do I increase my survey response rate?
18. How often should I survey my stakeholders?

Why select Insync Surveys

1. Why choose Insync Surveys?

Insync Surveys differentiates through our:

people - a research team of qualified research experts, registered psychologists and a client relationship management team with extensive professional experience
approach - we conduct surveys in a consultative way, with a focus on developing ongoing relationships with our clients
benchmarking - we'll select a representative group from over a million responses in our benchmarked databases, featuring responses from organisations, large and small, government, not-for-profit and corporate, to compare your results against
product range - our measurement tools cover a number of stakeholders such as: customers, employees, boards, members and communities
flexibility - we understand that research needs to be designed and targeted with a view to providing meaningful insights on issues that impact organisational performance
value for money - our tools are easy to implement, cost effective and have fast turnarounds
ethical practices - we don't believe that you have to leave your morality at the door before you start work each day, which is why we choose to make contributions to society and the environment. More about our commitment to corporate responsibility

2. Why shouldn't we survey in-house?

In-house surveys have many limitations, including:

not capturing organisational issues
statements that are inappropriately worded and untested
a survey process that is prone to bias and may lack statistical accuracy and validity
a survey process that doesn't promote openness and honesty and as a result, respondents' anonymity may not be protected
no external benchmarking

Well-designed survey statements help you achieve your survey objectives regardless of the issues your organisation faces. Asking the right questions will help uncover problem areas and confirm your gut feelings. This knowledge can be used for decision making to increase your organisation's performance and profit.

3. Which organisations have used Insync Surveys' products and services?

With a 20 year history we've provided stakeholder surveys to some of the largest organisations in Asia Pacific.

See our list of organisations we've helped

4. Can Insync Surveys conduct surveys in multiple languages?

Yes. We have the tools and partners to develop surveys in any language. We can collect survey responses worldwide and around the clock, via paper and online forms.

We're done surveys in 38 languages in 90 countries. Languages we've developed surveys in include: French, Arabic, Polish, Hungarian, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Hindi, Tagalog, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and more.

5. Can Insync Surveys compare our organisation's results to previous years?

Yes. Once your organisation has established a baseline, we can track the progress of your organisation's results against previous years'.

If you've previously used a survey from another provider, we can incorporate some of the questions of the survey into the current survey. This will be used to draw historical comparisons providing the surveys are of a scale comparable with Insync Surveys' survey rating system.

6. Can your surveys be customised?

Yes. We can customise our surveys to better meet your organisation's needs. Examples of what you can do include:

using your organisation's logo, images, brand colours and custom fonts
changing the terminology of survey statements to reflect your organisation's culture or industry
adding or removing demographic questions
removing standard survey statements
adding your own survey statements
removing standard open-ended questions
adding your own open-ended questions

7. Why does Insync Surveys use a 1 to 7 rating scale?

Insync Surveys recommends using a seven-point scale. Seven-point scales are used because they have a clear middle point and there are just two choices between the middle and end points. This is ideal for capturing variations in opinions without presenting too many choices (leading to indecisiveness) or too few (meaning that variation in response is lost).

How to survey

8. What is benchmarking and what are the benefits of it?

Most people would regard an average response of 5 on a 7-point survey response scale as good. A consideration of how this average response compares to an external benchmark may however tell us a different story.

For example, survey statements with an average response of 5 can have a benchmark ranking as high as 90 out of 100 (i.e. a very high ranking compared to other organisations), or as low as 15 out of 100 (i.e. a very low ranking compared with other organisations).

Put another way, an organisation that considered a survey statement with an average response of 5 to be good, would be making an inappropriate conclusion if the majority of other organisations responded to the same survey statement with an average of, say, 6.5 on a 7-point scale.

Benchmarking your organisation's responses against similar organisations gives you a baseline for your performance internally and shows where your organisation sits compared to others externally. This will reveal what areas you need to focus on to hit your goals and get ahead of competition.

9. What are the different formats a survey can be completed in?

For people who have varying levels of access to computers, email and telephone, Insync Surveys can administer surveys online, on paper forms, over the telephone and even face-to-face.

10. How is the survey distributed?

Depending on the format of the survey, there are different ways we distribute our surveys.

Online: By providing us with a list of email addresses of survey participants, we have a secure system that sends out all the survey invitations for you, including reminder emails for those who haven't yet completed the survey.

Paper:

For employee surveys we create the paper survey form, print and send them to the survey facilitator with reply paid envelopes to distribute within your organisation.
For customer surveys you provide us with a list of survey participants and mailing addresses. We create the paper survey form and send the survey form along with a letter of introduction and a reply paid envelope directly to each participant.

We're flexible and open to your preferred method of distribution.

11. What are the IT requirements for conducting an online survey?

All of our online applications are designed to be used by multiple browser platforms, including current and previous versions of Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome. We come across a diverse range of IT environments throughout our work with public, private, educational and not-for-profit organisations and have adapted our technology accordingly. Our surveys do not require respondents to install browser plug-ins or special software to complete a survey. We understand the IT security and management needs of our clients and their diverse stakeholders.

12. How should I prepare an organisation or customer group for an upcoming survey?

Strong levels of communication are essential to a successful employee or customer survey. Pre-survey communication should explain:

the rationale behind the survey
if applicable, what previous survey results have said and how they have been used
confidentiality assurances
survey launch and closing dates

Our survey invitations will reinforce why you are undertaking the research and also have detailed instructions for completing the survey.

Organisations that achieve the best response rates do not to rely on a single method of communication, but use multiple methods. Examples of these include posters, articles in newsletters or e-bulletins, staff briefings, flyers or reminders in payslips.

Research projects that are supported by the CEO of an organisation are far more likely to be taken seriously by participants.

Prizes are also a good way to encourage participation and thank people for their help.

Post-survey communication is also very important. Respondents expect to be informed of the results and subsequent improvement initiatives. Most of our clients involve their CEO or very senior staff in their customer and staff debriefs. Insync Surveys' research experts and registered psychologists can also attend and support all debriefs; this is particularly valuable to help your audience extract meaning from data.

13. How can I communicate the results of the survey to the organisation?

It's essential to communicate the results of a customer or employee survey, regardless of the outcomes of the survey. Failure to do so can lead to mistrust in an organisation's leaders, negativity towards the survey process, and can undermine any follow-up actions. Survey results are typically reported back to survey participants via presentations, town hall meetings or through electronic or hardcopy notifications.

Organisations that achieve the best traction with customers and employees following a survey have tended to take a multi-tiered approach to responding to the survey results. That is, feedback and initiatives have been communicated to customers face-to-face. Or for employees, the feedback will have been cascaded down through a number of levels (e.g. whole-of-organisation, business unit, work team).

14. How do I increase my survey response rate?

There are many ways to increase your survey response rate. Click here for our list of methods.

15. What are the main steps in your survey process?

There are three main phases of a customer and employee survey project:

Pre-survey
Survey administration and
Post survey

Pre-survey phase - we begin with a planning and requirements session. The survey is then customised to suit your needs. It's ready for launch when the online and/or paper form design is approved and when your organisation has finalised survey communications.

Survey administration phase - participants are invited to complete the survey. Your Insync Surveys research project manager will monitor response rates to identify the need for follow up communications. A hotline is available for participants to call if they have any questions.

Post-survey phase - after we close the survey, Insync Surveys will analyse the survey responses, benchmark your results and compile a comprehensive report. The report shows results using tables, graphs and charts. It provides both a high level overview of the results and a detailed breakdown of participants' responses.

A highly qualified research project manager will then conduct a full presentation of the results with your nominated customer group or management team.

Optional services - depending on the product, other support services at additional cost may include but is not limited to: custom analyses, a results bulletin, management education sessions, focus groups, additional presentations, etc.

16. How long does a survey project normally take?

Here is a summary of the three main phases of a customer and employee survey project and how long it generally takes:

Pre-survey: 3-4 weeks
Survey administration: 2-3 weeks
Post-survey: 3-4weeks

Pre-survey takes approximately three to four weeks. This phase begins with a planning and requirements gathering session and incorporates all pre-survey communication.

Survey administration typically lasts for two to three weeks. Throughout this phase, research project managers work closely with the survey facilitator to provide updates on response rates and follow up actions to improve the response. In addition, a hotline is available for participants to call should they have any questions.

Post-survey involves Insync Surveys analysing the survey responses, benchmarking your results (if applicable) and compiling a comprehensive report. This report will be available usually within three to four weeks after the survey close. A research project manager will then present the results with the nominated customer group or management team.

17. What is a univariate and bivariate rating system?

A univariate rating scale involves a single quantitative rating for each survey statement. The most common type of univaritate response assesses agreement with a particular survey statement. For example, to what extent do you agree with the statement that "senior leaders are respected".

Univariate rating scales are used in some of the following Insync Surveys products: Alignment and Engagement Survey, Organisation Alignment Survey, Customer Satisfaction Survey.

A bivariate rating scale on the other hand involves two quantitative ratings for each survey statement or question. The most common type of bivariate response assesses both "importance" and "performance" in relation to a survey statement. For example, how important is "financial accountability" to you and how is the organisation performing in terms of "financial accountability".

The difference between the importance and performance is called the "gap". The gap measures the difference between the importance of an issue to an organisation and the performance of the organisation. If the performance of the organisation in relation to an issue is rated significantly lower than the importance, it signifies an area for improvement.

Bivariate rating scales are used in some of the following Insync Surveys products: Employee Opinion Survey, Entry Interivew/Exit Survey, Exit Survey, Library Client Survey.

18. How often should I survey my stakeholders?

Depending on the type of survey required, the following is a guideline to how often a survey should be conducted:

Employee Opinion Survey - every year, bi-annually or even quarterly if a shorter pulse survey is used
Alignment and Engagement Survey - every year
Customer Satisfaction Survey - every year or immediately after every client's purchase
360 Feedback and Director 360 Survey - every year
Entry Survey - every new recruit
Exit Interview/Survey - every person leaving
Library Client Survey - every year
Board Effectiveness Survey - every year
Audit Committee Effectiveness Survey - every year
Risk Committee Effectiveness Survey - every year

If your question isn't answered here, please contact us or email your question to: info@insyncsurveys.com.au