Communication Effectiveness Survey: Improving Team Collaboration

Effective company communication is the foundation stone of quality collaboration and building trust among employees, which all translates into improved employee satisfaction, and performance overall. Studies back this up too, and quality internal communication is directly correlated to better employee engagement.

But, it can be hard to understand how well you communicate on a company level, which is where communication effectiveness surveys (CES) can help. 

This article will help you conduct communication effectiveness surveys, and also give you some example questions you can use. Also, we will give you some ideas that will help you take action based on the information you collect from your employees, and tell you how Plai can help speed up the entire process.

Communication effectiveness survey questions 10 Examples

To help you build your survey, here are 10 questions you can include:

1. Which communication channels and tools do you find most effective? (emails, Slack, Discord, Zoom, etc)
2. How would you rate the overall company-employee communication you receive?
3. Do you feel that you have ways to participate in conversations, express your opinion and that your opinions are taken into account?
4. How easy it is for you to ask for and obtain the information you need to do your job?
5. Is the information you receive clear, and is the messaging style consistent regardless of where it comes from within our organization?
6. How would you rate the communication on a scale of 1-10 in terms of (list these separately): inclusiveness, respectfulness, professionalism, and transparency?
7. Do you feel that team leaders and managers effectively communicate the mission and vision of the organization?
8. Are team managers approachable and open to receiving feedback and answering employee concerns?
9. Do leaders provide a good amount of encouragement, praise, and appreciation for employee achievements and accomplishments?
10. Are there areas of communication the company can improve?

How to conduct a communication effectiveness survey for improved team collaboration 

While the 10 questions from above can help and give you ideas, the most important thing is to think through the reasons behind conducting a survey, and what you want to do with it. Here are some tips:

Determine survey objectives

Before you start coming up with questions, it's good to outline what you want to accomplish by asking in the first place. Here are some good survey objectives:

• Evaluating if and how well company values, mission and vision penetrate employees through your communication channels
• Figuring out what is the most effective way to communicate with employees
• Determining how effective supervisors are in communication
• Gathering information to develop a plan to improve company communication

Select survey tools

While you can execute an internal communications survey using something as simple as Google Forms, using a more advanced performance management and feedback collection tool such as Plai has many benefits:

• Easy setup: Plai lets you create custom surveys at speed. You can start from templates, and customize your survey design and questions however you like.
• Use different settings: You can set timelines, use questions with scales, and tickboxes, and set multiple-choice selections, allowing you to easily create and customize the ideal type of survey. Plus, Plai allows you to set up reminders that will increase the participation rates of your employees.
• Analyze, share, and collaborate on results: Once the answers are collected, the real work begins. Plai allows you to deeply analyze the collected information to take action on it. Also, you can use it to share the feedback with decision-makers who will be in charge of making the improvements, as Plai simplifies collaboration.

Craft relevant and comprehensive questions

Once you have established the goals and strategy, and selected the best tool to use, it's time to start creating internal communication survey questions:

• Keep things clear and concise: Even if you ask multiple-choice questions, they should be easy to understand. Ambiguous questions are not a good option.
• Use open-ended questions: While you want to keep the questions easy to understand, you still want to get quality answers, and asking open-ended questions will let you do just that. To do so, avoid those questions that can give you a yes/no answer, and instead give more freedom to participants. Which/what/how questions tend to be open-ended (for example "How do you think we can improve our internal communication?").
• Don't go too far: First, don't ask too many questions as it will deter participants from taking their best effort when they see they have so many to answer. Also, don't go too far when asking – you want to collect opinions, but things should remain professional.

Distribute the survey

The survey method and tool you choose will determine the best course of action for distributing the survey. It can be as simple as sharing a survey link via email, or the complete opposite – getting feedback from each employee in paper form.

Plai makes survey distribution incredibly simple, and it makes it much more likely for employees to take the survey, with automatic reminders.

Analyze results

After you have collected the results, it's time to make use of them:

• Summarize the results: Grouping answers and comparing them will get you started and allow you to make a deeper analysis.
• Identify trends and patterns: If you notice that multiple people make the same remarks, pay close attention to the issue they are mentioning.
• Compare the results to objectives: If you have set up the survey in the correct way, you will see how the answers fit into the survey objectives you established.
• Take action: The last step is to create an actionable plan that will turn the collected feedback into actual improvements that will better the communication at your company.

If you choose Plai, you will see the detailed analysis of the surveys without having to do anything manually. Because the data will be available visually, it will be much simpler to draw the right conclusions without having to go through spreadsheets and extract data from each survey, which will not only save you time but allow you to make better decisions as you won't miss anything.

How to enhance team collaboration based on communication survey insights - HR tips

Unfortunately, as many as 68% of people say they have wasted time as a result of poor communication within a business. That number alone shows how much progress can be made if communication is even slightly improved. So let's give you some areas to focus on that will help you work on communication within your firm:

Identify communication gaps and challenges

Analyzing survey results and especially noticing trends and patterns will help you identify communication gaps and challenges employees are facing in company communication. Addressing those first should be your priority – the results will show the next time you decide to take a communication survey.

Promote open and transparent communication

Surveys themselves are a way to promote communication, but acting upon the results and making improvements is what matters. If you show employees that you have listened to their opinions and made changes, they will know that you are walking the walk and that transparency and communication isn't just a phrase in your company.

Provide communication training and resources

The company should not only identify problems and areas that could use work – providing ways how to handle issues is key. In this case, giving employees access to communication training and resources that can help them improve their communication skills will not only show them you care but give everyone tools and encourage them to work on their communication.

Foster a collaborative work environment

The whole idea of improving communication and transparency is to make everyone feel better in the workplace, whether by fully understanding their role and position, building trust, or sharing values, which will all have an impact on performance and overall workplace wellbeing.

Therefore, fostering a collaborative work environment will pay dividends in the long run, especially when it comes to improved employee satisfaction and reduced churn.

Plai can help you foster such an environment with sophisticated tools that will keep everyone on the same page through clear communication and regular feedback:

• One-on-one meetings: Give each team member updates personally, and easily share agenda, notes and let them get the most out of what you have to share.
• Praise: Top performers should know they are doing a good job, which will also motivate other team members to give their best effort.
• 360° reviews: Getting feedback from supervisors, subordinates, and colleagues in the same position is an incredible way to access the situation, helping each employee understand how they stand.
• Feedback and surveys: Plai has many survey templates and uses cases that will make it super simple for you to gather quality feedback that will help you improve various aspects of your business.

Survey template

Here’s how a simple and short communications survey might look:

Communications survey

This is our quarterly communications survey. It is entirely anonymous, and we encourage you to leave your comments or suggestions at the end. It should not take longer than 20 minutes to complete. ✅

1. Which communication channels and tools do you find most effective? 

• Slack
• Zoom
• Emails
• Phone
• Other (write your own below)

_______________________

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2. On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate the overall company-employee communication you receive?

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

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3. How timely is the communication you receive?

• Very timely
• Timely
• Somewhat timely, but could be improved
• Not timely

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4. How would you rate the transparency when it comes to communicating our mission, values, and goals?

• Very transparent
• Transparent
• Somewhat transparent, but could be improved
• Not transparent

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5. Are there areas of communication the company can improve? Please leave your comment below:

____________________________________________________

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Conclusion

Communication effectiveness surveys are an incredibly valuable tools for accessing communication within your organization, and identifying any bottlenecks. 

Try Plai now and you will immediately understand why modern tools with advanced survey analytics are a much better option than simply running surveys with simple forms, and trying to analyze results manually. With Plai, setting up and conducting employee surveys is straightforward, and you get advanced actionable data that will help you make real changes and improve your business throughout.