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Employee Mind Meld Session

Research Tools to Understand & Motivate

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World of HR

Workforce is changing

Stakes are higher

Greater impact to productivity and bottom line

Resources are limited

Need the Mind Meld advantage!

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What’s a Mind Meld?

Gaining deeper understanding of what's in someone's mind and how they think

Getting into the mindset of employees about:– Benefits communications– Open enrollment activities– Wellness programs– HR communications in general

Mere mortals sometimes refer to this process by another name —

Market Research…

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Gaining an Advantage

Evil villains are the misconceptions that waste resources

Employee mind melding reduces risks and gives you an advantage

Help clarify key messages and how to communicate cost effectively – What are they thinking? – What messages are cutting through the clutter? – What are the best methods to communicate?– How often to communicate? – What will motivate changes in behavior?

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What It Can Do?

Measure opinions and attitudes

Uncover perceptions — perception is reality

Identify issues

Provide a reality check

Generate goodwill

Guide or help change direction — an HR roadmap

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Reaching Your Target Audience

Think like Sales and Marketing– Must understand customers’ wants and needs before launching a

campaign– Need to test key messages before budget is approved

Move the needle

Why launch HR communications or a wellness program without

doing the same?

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HR Research Areas of Focus

More than just employee satisfaction/engagement

Most common HR related research topics– Wellness programs (focus on benefits and wellness)– Benefits communications– Recruitment and retention – Open enrollment– Employee engagement

www.aperioinsights.com

Do-it-Yourself (DIY)Research Process

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Actionable Plan

Have clear objectives and purpose; start with the end in mind– What are the issues?– How will the information be used?– What change can be affected from the new knowledge?

Overlay your organization’s strategy

Use research to help understand and measure the issues that

matter to the organization and its employees

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Research Process and Planning

Identify key stakeholders– Who needs to be included? – What is the scope of the issue?

Determine best tool for gathering information– Paper, mail-out– Online survey– Telephone interview– Mobile, social media, bulletin board– Focus groups (in-person or online)– One-on-one (IDI’s)

Get everyone on board

Share results– Management debrief/working session– Monthly employee newsletter, e-blast, etc.

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Research Process Case Study

Key issue: retaining the IT people– Scoping the issue involved doing investigative work

Organizational facts and trends- The # of years on the job, age, supervisor, work environment

External sources - Other organizations, magazines, books, articles to compare

salary and work environment trends – RE-EVALUATE THE NEED FOR RESEARCH AFTER SCOPING– Create objectives and hypothesis– Assemble research tools– Gather data– Analysis– Conclusions– Recommendations

www.aperioinsights.com

Do It Yourself (DIY)Research Basics

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Qualitative vs. Quantitative

Qualitative (Qual):– Blue sky– Discovery and understand the “why” or the rationale behind actions– Explore the range of possible perceptions and beliefs– Understand the unique language and its meaning– Helps develop ideas and hypothesis to test

Quantitative (Quant):– Project findings onto larger population– Measure the percentage who think a certain way– Gather feedback from a larger audience– Benchmark and periodically re-measure

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Types of Qualitative

Focus groups (face-to-face or online) – Group dynamic is important to exploring topics – Discussion doesn’t involve personal or sensitive data disclosure – Group is likely to have had similar experiences so can relate to

each other and discuss similarities as well as differences

One-on-ones (in-depth interviews = IDI’s) – Information is sensitive – Experiences are unique and can’t be related to a group– Scheduling is an issue

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What to Ask

Satisfaction

1. _______ benefits meet my needs

2. Overall, I was very satisfied with the most recent enrollment process

3. I can afford the benefits (employer) offered

Knowledge and Understanding

1. I understand how my ______ benefits work

2. I need more information about my ______ benefits

Communications

1. The amount of info I receive about my ______ benefits is _______

2. ______ materials are an effective way to reach me about _____ issues

3. I prefer receiving my _________ materials via ________

4. I believe (employer) works hard to keep me informed about my benefits

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How to Ask

Phrase questions for clear responses without adding bias

Beware of the following– Leading questions– Double-barreled questions – Keeping scales complete and balanced– Asking respondents to do mental math

www.aperioinsights.com

Revealing Insights for Clear Decisions

Do-it-Yourself (DIY)Fielding

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Sample Size

How many people do we need to survey?

Understand margin of error

Census (everyone) vs. sample (portion of the population)

Protect anonymity of employees and departments

“It’s helpful to know how much sample is needed to be 90 or 95% accurate. Perfect knowledge is very expensive; you need to understand what’s good enough and what

you will actually use.”

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Frequency and Timing

When and how often should you research?

Understand that change takes time

How often do respondents interact with ____?

Track and time results year-over-year

“We got useful information from the research, but next year we need to better think through the timing. By the time we got the employee feedback, we were pretty far along in our communications materials. We ended up

making changes days before final approval.”

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Common Issues and Solutions

Participation rates– Get management support– Explain the rationale– Offer incentives

Anonymity – Let employees know the company is NOT interested in identifying

them by name (directly or indirectly)– Goal is to identify trends, not people– Allow respondents to select an option of “prefer not to say”– Research isn’t outreach, don’t use it to solve individual issues or

follow up unless asked

www.aperioinsights.com

Do-it-Yourself (DIY)Research Tools

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DIY Quantitative Tools and Technology

DIY survey technology has evolved to become easier and more powerful

DIY quantitative tools– Free versions with inexpensive price plans

SurveyGizmo SurveyMonkey Zoomerang

– Many have examples of survey questionnaires to customize– Most use advanced features such as skip logic– Some offer mobile surveys – Instant reporting (PowerPoint charts exported to Excel)

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DIY Qualitative Methods

Buddy tests to measure word-of-mouth (WOM) – Invite pairs or small groups to participate– Show materials to half of group; listen for how they pass

information

Listen for– Which messages are remembered and repeated?– How are the messages changing?– Which items are left out?– What details have been randomly added?

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Coding Tips and Tricks

Coding can help make sense of open ended questions– Identify common themes, create buckets and count– 2 percent rule of thumb — code as “Other”– Use Wordle to input list of words or phrases to generate “tag cloud”

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Sharing Research Results

Lets employees know their feedback was worthwhile

Set expectations– Explain what will be done, when it will take place and the

importance of employee participation

Golden rule– Don’t hide bad results– Use as a catalyst to discuss what is working and focus areas for

improvement

Include audio/video clips in presentation– Comments are more credible when they can be seen or heard

www.aperioinsights.com

HR Market Research

Case Studies

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Case Study – Wellness Drivers

Objectives– What employees know about current health trends? – Employees’ knowledge of wellness benefits offerings? – What is driving participation in wellness programs? – What will motivate a change in behavior?

Methodology– In-person focus groups and online quant survey

“Our employee research has helped us to tailor our communications to address the needs of our employees, deliver

messages in a more effective way and to validate what is working/not working in our communication efforts. We were able

to get a better understanding of both the employee and employer’s role in improving total wellness while maximizing resources.”

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Case Study – Benefits Communications

Objectives– Understand rationale for benefit selections– What can be done to best communicate changes? – Benefits support perceptions, when used? Why? Satisfaction?

Methodology– Online focus groups and survey

“Conducting employee research takes the guesswork out of HR communications and helps us save resources and budget. We

don’t want to develop materials that make the HR dept. happy; we want to develop materials that help our employees make informed

decisions about their benefits.”

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Case Study – Open Enrollment Satisfaction

Objectives– Gauge knowledge and understanding of benefits – Test communications materials (print and web) for clarity– Understand employee satisfaction with open enrollment

Methodology– In-person and online focus groups and survey

“Decisions were being made based on non-representative sample of data points. Our perception of what's happening

was based on who you talk to i.e., your boss, folks who complain, etc. We weren’t getting hearing from our average rank and file employees. We didn’t want to make decisions based on the tail but based on the middle. Research helped us quantify the people in between the tails and understand

what they think.”

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Summary

Market Research– Helps HR gain an advantage– Reduces risks– Allocates resources efficiently

Do it yourself (DIY) tools are available– Free or inexpensive– Templates– Reporting tools

Professional external or third party research support– Ensures feedback is anonymous– Interpretation of findings are unbiased – Saves time

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