Point 1 - Discover - Discovering Employee Attitudes and Opinions

The Challenge
The greatest cause of employee discontent is rarely money; instead, dissatisfaction is usually caused by a lack of understanding between employees and management and a perceived lack of respect for employees by management. To make a solid link with an employee audience, an organization needs to know all about that audience - what it is, where it is, what it thinks, how big or small are the influences, which way it’s moving and how fast. Guessing isn’t good enough.

Research Reduces Risk!
Accurate research helps to discover what’s being said, what’s being perceived, and what’s being felt, so that employee relations issues can be circumvented or addressed. Whether an organization has 20 or 20,000 employees, management needs to know what employees are thinking. Discovery Group has developed a prompt, cost efficient qualitative and quantitative methodology to obtain this information.

Facts gathered through a client-customized array of written opinion surveys, personal interviews and focus groups provide management with knowledge that directly impacts an organization’s bottom line and creates positive employee relations in many or all of the following ways:

• Improving productivity
• Reducing turnover
• Strengthening middle management
• Curbing absenteeism and tardiness
• Evaluating customer-service issues
• Assessing training needs
• Improving communication
• Measuring employees' knowledge of, and agreement with, the company’s
• Mission and values

Employee opinion research also serves as a highly effective internal “public relations” tool by indicating respect for employees’ views and the value of their recommendations.

Data Gathering Processes
Personal, Paper, Online: Depending upon the environment of the client, Discovery Group uses a variety of means to creatively address the specific needs of an organization and obtain the most reliable, projectable, insightful information upon which decisions can be made. Research media include: personal interviews (in person, telephone), paper surveys (self administered), and online surveys (via secure Internet access).

<< Back to Discovery Compass                                                                           << Back to top
Point 2 - Understand - Comprehending the Research Findings

Data Analysis and Implications
Employee opinion research tells a story and like the cardinal points on a compass, indicates a course. It should be clear, understandable and directional regarding what to do next. Discovery Group’s mission from the very start has been to distinguish ourselves from other research organizations that often operate in the sterile realms of academic numbers and statistics. We make information come alive for our clients thereby assisting their ability to make bold, common-sense workplace decisions with confidence.

Graphic Interpretations and Presentation
Tables of numbers and tomes of text do not serve a time-pressured decision-maker well. Our findings, presented in written and oral formats are clear, understandable, interpreted, and analyzed with respect for our clients’ time. Of course, all primary data, tables and analyses are provided as support of key findings.

<< Back to Discovery Compass                                                                           << Back to top
Point 3 - Plan

Developing a Response
Employee opinion research informs and directs, but the real value comes from the action taken by management and employees. Once research findings are clearly understood and absorbed, the next step is the development of a responsive, strategic action plan.

A client must own the plan for it to have a chance of being implemented.There are no “one size fits all” plans from an outside consultant. Therefore, with guidance from Discovery Group, the client develops their own response plan. Discovery Group facilitators help management and employees develop an intelligent, strategic action plan that responds to the employee research findings.

Strategic Planning Facilitation
Our experienced, unbiased facilitators guide an organization’s decision-makers (upper management) through issue confirmation, and prioritization, ultimately evolving into the client's own articulation of strategic direction to resolve the findings uncovered in the research.

The Key – Middle Management Participation
The best plan will not succeed without middle management buy-in. Line employees may be willing to go along, but without the support of their supervisors a plan is doomed from the beginning. The Discovery Group’s Compass Process alleviates this situation. While organization leadership sets the strategic direction, mid-management action teams contribute tactically. With this participation comes ownership and emotional equity which ultimately ensures successful plan execution.

Strategic/Tactical Plan Writing
Codification of the planning session’s results are insightful, relevant, and above all, provide an actionable road map with timelines and accountability points. Discovery Group’s Compass Process formalizes the plan developed by the client’s management groups and transforms it into a structured written document that coalesces the intent of the planners.

<< Back to Discovery Compass                                                                           << Back to top
Point 4 - Act - Implementing the Response Plan

We prepare the organization to launch its plan by first presenting the plan, and the research upon which it is based, to the entire employee community. If requested by the client, Discovery Group will provide oversight of initial plan implementation, guiding the in-house team in its preparation to work independently.

<< Back to Discovery Compass                                                                           << Back to top