Surveys, surveys, surveys! You can’t be an adult without encountering some type of survey. As a matter of fact, you can’t even be a child and not encounter a survey. There are surveys for school (on all levels), there are surveys for work, and there are surveys even for just being a citizen.
Some would consider surveys as the first step to change. Obviously, how are you going to make the correct changes to something if you don’t know what people think? The survey allows us to get a glimpse of the opinions held by the general population (of whatever control group they’re meant for).
Surveys are perhaps not the most important thing to most people, but for those who hold them in high regard, they ponder what exactly is the best way of to go about creating and distributing surveys.
There are many examples of how surveys recreated and distributed. The surveys given out to students are obviously distributed in a systematic fashion, which usually takes a quick poll on age/grade and some sort of optional opinion section. Political surveys are a bit more complicated because they can be created by a number of different sources all with different agendas. Some surveys may be delivered in the mail and some may be taken in person. There could even be leading questions on a survey for political purpose. Such is the nature of surveys.
There are also surveys for the workplace. Employers want to know what their employees have to say about their various positions and the condition of their workplace environment. Improving workplace conditions has been a goal of the working class for centuries. The creation of unions has a been a popular option when seeking that goal out.
But most efforts are made by the workers and listened to by the employers (or 1% if you prefer) when the workers have gained enough momentum and pose a threat to efficient production. So, what if the employers/management/1% want to earnestly make changes before things get out of hand? Well, they would certainly have to try and understand the need for the employees.
This may sound simple, but not everyone will want the same things to be changed. Management has to come up with some way to make the most amount of people happy at the lowest cost because there probably just isn’t enough money to make the changes necessary to please everyone.
Now, the question that is most pertinent here is what exactly is the best way for management to go about getting accurate intel that represents everyone and can satisfy the need for information?
Well, they could make their own survey and send them out physically to their employees, but the problem lies with the way they would interpret the results. Luckily for them, there is a simple solution to this problem. Glint is a startup that helps companies maintain employee retention rates by performing surveys and analyzing the results.
Glint was founded in 2013 and currently has $80 million in funding. It uses surveys for employees and “analyzes the results using machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive analytics. Its reports measure how employees feel about things like management, compensation and workplace culture and make suggestions for how companies can improve their scores.” Glint says that companies who survey their employees at least 4 times a year and can see a 40% increase in their stock price. Afterall, happier employees mean a more efficient and effective company.
The age of technology that we live in allows us to review that gaps of inefficiency that we have from time to time. Startups like Glint make way for simple yet noticeably effective solutions to common problems. Surveys aren’t always the most effective thin, but I think when it comes to business it pays to be well informed. Glint allows companies to stay informed about the ways their employees feel through a strategic analysis of data and make sure they are doing everything in their power to stay ahead of the curve. Hopefully, more companies will start to use services like Glint to improve their overall performance and value in the stock market. Afterall, it couldn’t hurt to know about the busy bees that build the hive.
glintinc.com
