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Retention and Professional Development: A Case Study on Internal Market Research

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Teamwork and team spirit

Image source: limosalive.net

Many businesses are familiar with using a variety of market research tools to better understand consumer needs and brand awareness, and to solicit feedback from both loyal and prospective customers. The data collected through survey instruments, whether quantitative or qualitative by design, can provide powerful insights that help companies take their business to the next level. This case study shows how the same kinds of market research principles and tools can be utilized to improve a business on the internal organizational level.

A senior executive of a media company wanted to be sure that the firm was doing all that it could to retain the best employees. It chose to conduct a quantitative survey among employees to grant insight into the key workforce issues at play in the firm as well as gauge reactions to a variety of potential changes in the workplace environment.

The firm hired a well-respected research group to help with the effort. The research group worked with the client to develop a robust questionnaire that was pilot tested with a representative range of staff at a variety of locations throughout the client’s operations. The feedback from the pilot test was carefully analyzed and incorporated into the final survey instrument designed.

With the survey complete and hosted online through the research firm’s website, email invitations were sent to all staff of the client company. Although the survey was anonymous, staffers were permitted to create their own personal passwords in order to have the flexibility of completing the survey over several different sessions as time permitted.

Person using laptop to take survey

Image source: mnn.com

The survey itself asked staff to reflect upon what it was that first attracted them to want to work for the company and what factors were important in keeping them there. In addition, the survey solicited opinions from staff on a variety of issues ranging from methods of receiving feedback and recognition, elements of job satisfaction, forms and extent of professional development available, styles and quality of supervision, reactions to different kinds of working conditions to how they both receive and perceive information about the firm.

The instrument was made available over the course of a three-week period, during which response rates were carefully tracked by work area, allowing for targeted email reminders to be sent to staff in areas that were underrepresented.

In the analysis of results, a variety of demographic characteristics were explored, including age, salary, role and length of service. Open-ended responses were also pored over at length to identify important emergent themes. With a concise report in hand, the senior executive could quickly see which groups of staff had problematic issues that needed to be addressed. Based on solid research findings, the firm developed a variety of new professional development programs, made changes to the way staff performance is managed, and overhauled employee contracts to better reflect employee expectations and needs. In short, the firm is able to attain a much closer alignment of its managers and other employees to its overall vision.

Happy employees

Image source: ropella.com

The takeaway here for any business is the realization that they very same tools used for improving business marketing can also be used to diagnose as well as justify a broad range of organizational change initiatives that contribute to the internal strength of a firm.

Instant.ly’s integrated suite of market research tools can help you learn more about what’s most important to your own team.  Get started with a new survey today.


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