Essential reading for HR professionals who conduct research and surveys, Here are the current trends and analysis.

1. HR SURVEY MONITOR 2015 · WWW.QUESTBACK.COM 1
EMPLOYEE SURVEYS –
CURRENT FACTS, TRENDS, AND ANALYSES
QUESTBACK
HR SURVEY MONITOR 2015
WHICH SURVEYS ARE
BEING RUN?
HOT TOPICS THROUGH 2020 ROI FROM HR FEEDBACK
WITH LINKAGE ANALYSES
NEW
EDITION
2015
HR SURVEY MONITOR 2015 · WWW.QUESTBACK.COM

2. HR SURVEY MONITOR 2015 · WWW.QUESTBACK.COM2
83%
+10%
63%
+3%
54%
+16%
56%
+9%
49%
+10%
44%
+14%
37%
+11%
24%
+11%
100%
50%
2
84%
2012 2013 2014
77%
68%
EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK 2015
Employee surveys are more important
than ever before
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK 2015
When we initially released the HR
Survey Monitor in 2011, employee
surveys were typically run centrally
and conducted every two years as
a ‘requirement’ more than anything
else. This picture has changed dra-
matically in recent years. Strategic
topics such as leadership, transpar-
ency, engagement, and generation
Y are rapidly beginning to dominate
the HR agenda. Employee feedback
is extremely important within each
of these topics.
An indicator of this change is the
increasingly broad range of topics
included in surveys. More and more
companies are conducting surveys
that are ever more specific. In paral-
lel, survey data is being used more
often to determine whether targets
have been met, and to calculate em-
ployees’ variable compensation.
Follow-up processes and quantifi-
cation of the return on investment
(ROI) continue to pose great chal-
lenges for HR managers. Linkage
analyses of employee surveys can
help in mastering them.
We will elaborate on this hot
topic on pages 4-7, as far as is
possible within the scope of this
document.
Representatives from 159 organiza-
tions in German-speaking countries
took part in the HR Survey Monitor.
Of these participants, 74% were de-
cision-makers and project managers
working in the employee surveys
field, and 26% were members of
project teams in various corporate
business areas (including HR, quality
management, market research,
and marketing).
The percentage of respondents who consider employee surveys important
or very important for their company has been rising steadily since 2012.
2014/2015 SURVEY BREAKDOWN
Over 80% of all businesses interviewed conduct “standard” employee surveys.
More than half of the respondents also analyze internal customer satisfaction, leadership,
risks, health, and training requirements.
Executive feedback and training requirements exhibit the highest growth rates – about
15% of the respondents indicated that they were planning to implement relevant programs
in these two areas.
Which surveys are being run?
Which are planned?
of the respondents
consider employee
surveys to be an
important corporate
management tool.
100 % = very important
Implemented
Planned
Generalemployeesurveys
Internalcustomersurveys
Leadershipand/or360°Feedback
Threatanalysis
Healthsurveys
Trainingrequirementssurveys
Exitsurveys
Onboardingsurveys
THE STUDY PARTICIPANTS

3. HR SURVEY MONITOR 2015 · WWW.QUESTBACK.COM 3
%
73,9 % 73,5 % 59,2 % 59,0 % 57,9 % 57,1 % 52,8 % 51,8 % 49,3 % 46,7 %
100%
50%
47,1%
25,6%
+9,2%
+4,7%
25
70%
1
2
3
AT A GLANCE
Using feedback KPIs for team and employee
performance management
More and more businesses are setting goals with their employees that include
“soft” key performance indicators that were identified through surveys.
The most commonly used KPIs include
engagement, leadership skills, and cus-
tomer satisfaction. Using these metrics
ensures that employees do not gear their
efforts toward achieving one-dimensional
goals, such as short-term sales targets,
but rather toward creating sustainable
value.
Accordingly, this management model is
used for executives, employees, and teams
with a high level of customer contact.
Leadership and engagement clearly come out on top.
What are the hot topics through 2020?
Leadership takes first place because of the growing demands placed on executives – especially in terms
of human relations, driven in large part by the upcoming large-scale integration of generation Y.
Engagement is key, in particular because companies without an extremely dedicated workforce will not be
able to succeed in complex, knowledge-intensive markets.
Transparency is in third place – a clear sign that successful companies need to be more open to candid,
routine internal feedback and dialog.
Implemented
Planned
Usage for
goal-setting
Usage for variable
compensation
One out of every four
companies already fac-
tors feedback KPIs into
its employees’ variable
compensation.
THE TOP 10 OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS
Topic seen as important /
very important
Leadership:Linemanagers
Engagement/Motivation
Information,communication,feedback
Commitment/engagement
Jobsatisfaction
Teamspiritandcollaboration
Organizationalculture
Corporatemanagement
Educationanddevelopment
Work-lifebalance

4. HR SURVEY MONITOR 2015 · WWW.QUESTBACK.COM4
LINKAGE ANALYSES
SUCCESSFUL FOLLOW-UP PROCESSES
THROUGH LINKAGE ANALYSES
“Our employees’ commitment score is 3.8.
What exactly does that mean?”
“Well, we conducted a linkage analysis and found out
that an increase in commitment of 1/10 would reduce
the employee turnover rate by approx. 0.4%.”
When following up on employee surveys, the information needed to make effective decisions is frequently
missing. Linkage analyses are conducted to bridge this gap. Linking the available data sources can identify
new, “harder” correlations.
Today, 23% of the companies inter-
viewed already link their employee sur-
veys to other data sources in order to
gain deeper insights. These numbers
are trending sharply upward: another
13% of these businesses are definitely
planning to implement linkage projects
in the future.
The study participants reported that
they link their employee surveys to two
different types of data: 1) to the results
of other surveys, and 2) to other corpo-
rate data and metrics (e.g., fluctuation
rates, sickness rates, churn rates). On
the following pages, both options are
described in greater detail. They pro-
duce the greatest effect when used in
combination – as demonstrated in the
fictional dialog on the right.
“And what do we have to do to boost our employees’
commitment?”
“The personnel development topic has been prov-
en to have the greatest impact. We should allocate
our follow-up resources primarily to that area.”
Linkage analyses can be of
considerable help in defining
the ROI of feedback.
Through linkages from two surveys (page 5)
IDENTIFY DRIVERS
 IDENTIFY AND QUANTIFY CAUSE/EFFECT
through the linkage of surveys with corporate data (page 6)
Drivers
E.G. COMMITMENT E.G. EMPLOYEE TURNOVER
e.g. personal
development
e.g. team spirit
e.g. leadership
Feedback KPIs Corporate KPIs
Driver analysis and correlation quantification can be used as an early warning system, as long as
measurements are taken regularly and models are adapted accordingly.

5. HR SURVEY MONITOR 2015 · WWW.QUESTBACK.COM 5
+32,3% +12,1% +14,3% +14,3% +11,1% +7,1% +10,3% +7,7% +7,9%
60%
30%
28%
41%
16,1% 30,3% 25,0% 21,4% 13,9% 14,3% 10,3% 11,5% 10,5%
Getting to the heart of the matter:
Linking survey results
This is also referred to as driver analysis, which is used to identify the factors “driving” or having the greatest impact on the target parameter.
Driver analysis is based on the fact that target parameters always comprise several survey results. Linkage analysis allows the key factors to be
reliably determined retrospectively.
of all employee surveys
are linked to other
surveys.
On average,
more than
Linking an employee survey to other surveys is usually designed to find tangible parameters
that can be optimized.
(according to the
reported number of
projects businesses
plan to implement)
This figure will
increase to
Healthsurveys
Planned
Leadership/360°-Feedback
Trainingrequirementssurveys
Internalcustomersurveys
B2Ccustomersurveys
Onboardingsurveys
Threatanalysis
Exitsurveys
B2Bcustomersurveys
Implemented
Linking employee surveys to health
surveys 32% of all the companies inter-
viewed are planning to link these two
surveys. This is due to legislative initia-
tives and their direct impact on corpo-
rate expenses. Linkage analysis serves
to uncover the tangible parameters that
have the greatest impact on employees’
health. For example:
Does team collaboration or leadership
have the greatest potential for
improvement?
Do work processes need to be
improved?
Is the office inventory creating
problems?
This is typically done to analyze how
management behavior affects
employees’ commitment.
Put more precisely: which leadership
aspects have the greatest impact on
employees’ engagement and motivation,
and should therefore be specifically
encouraged? Examples of this are:
Team representation by the
team leader
Fairness
Leadership skills
Companies that are highly service and
customer-focused are especially interest-
ed in the correlations between employee
engagement, and customer satisfaction
and loyalty.
Their key question is: which drivers are
worth investing in because they do not
“only” have an effect on their employees’
attitude toward customer orientation, but
also on customer satisfaction and loyalty?
Examples of this are:
Interdepartmental cooperation
Team atmosphere
Leadership
LINKING EMPLOYEE SUR-
VEYS TO HEALTH SURVEYS
LINKING EMPLOYEE
SURVEYS TO EXECUTIVE
FEEDBACK
LINKING EMPLOYEE
SURVEYS TO EXTERNAL
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

6. HR SURVEY MONITOR 2015 · WWW.QUESTBACK.COM6
34,1% 27,3% 29,9% 22,4%
15,9% 15,9% 10,3% 9,4%
60%
30%
31%
44%
LINKAGE ANALYSES
FINDING WAYS TO DETERMINE
THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Linkage analyses can be used to find distinct correlations between “soft” feedback KPIs and objective corporate
metrics. In other words: linkage can turn feedback into hard currency.
The most frequently linked key indicators are human resources
management figures: sickness rates, absenteeism, and employee
turnover rates.
“So what does this number tell me?”
Anyone responsible for employee sur-
veys is certainly familiar with this ques-
tion. Linkage analyses provide good
answers to that question, since they
allow correlations to be quantified. Typ-
ical examples of this are provided at the
bottom of the page.
Yet the methodology is far from trivial:
the survey results and corporate metrics
need to contain an adequate number of
data points and compatible data struc-
tures to allow a reliable correlation anal-
ysis to be made. That probably explains
why only about a third of all the com-
panies interviewed perform this type of
analysis, despite the advantages of the
insights it offers.
Linking feedback to objective metrics
Employeeillness
Implemented
Planned
Employeeturnover
Absence
Performancemetrics
of all the companies
interviewed
link surveys to
objective data and
key indicators.
(according to the
reported number of
projects businesses
plan to implement)
This figure will
increase to
EMPLOYEE TURNOVER
COMMITMENT
SICKNESS
STRESS
PERFORMANCE
ENGAGEMENTFeedback KPIs
Corporate KPIs
Provided that appropriate data are available, it is possible to uncover impact chains that can serve as
a basis for defining the specific actions to be taken.
CORRELATION MODELS

7. HR SURVEY MONITOR 2015 · WWW.QUESTBACK.COM 77
LINKAGE ANALYSES
WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE
We predict that linkage analyses will soon become a standard analysis tool. It
makes sense and is in keeping with a holistic approach to corporate development
to utilize the entire potential of available corporate data.
However, we would like to point out once again that several requirements must
be satisfied for linkage analyses to be successful:
We also see career opportunities for HR
professionals in this field. Anyone who
embraces this topic can prove their value
by being able to precisely analyze stra-
tegically important correlations and span
“departmental silos.”
Dr. Frank Gehring
Senior VoE Consultant
Frank Gehring attended the
Universities of Würzburg and
Aachen, majoring in psychology
with a focus on industrial and
organizational psychology. He
also earned a doctorate from
the University of Münster, having
written his doctoral thesis on
the topic of linkage analysis as a
corporate management and de-
velopment tool. He has over 10
years of experience in designing
and conducting complex feedback
and organizational development
projects, and has been working as
a senior consultant for tivian and
Questback since 2011. His clients
include Deutsche Lufthansa and
Continental AG.
Stine Fjell
HR Domain Expert
Before Stine Fjell joined
Questback in 2014, she was
head of HR at the Norwegian
Nordea Bank where she was
responsible for 25,000 em-
ployees in 12 countries. Prior
to her career in human resources,
she worked as a finance manager
in investment banking for over
10 years. She has several univer-
sity degrees in economics from
the Norwegian School of
Economics, the BI Norwegian
Business School, and the London
Business School.
THE AUTHORS
Linkage success factors – a checklist:
Do you have any more questions about available linkage
analysis options? Then we would love to hear from you!
Telephone: +49 221 271690 · E-mail feedback@questback.de
Data protection: Survey data may only be used for their intended purpose,
i.e., they may not simply be used for other analyses. Therefore: contact the
legal department and data protection officers in due time (but don’t allow
yourself to be discouraged!)
Anonymity: The works council also needs to be informed well in advance.
Tip: define clear rules for safeguarding anonymity.
Methodology: An adequate number of data points must be available for
linkage in order to perform a sound linkage analysis; the analysis structures
must be compatible.
Technology: Use a common survey platform for customer and employee
surveys that is capable of describing complicated organizational and analy-
sis structures.
CHECKLISTS

8. HR SURVEY MONITOR 2015 · WWW.QUESTBACK.COM8
Questback Central Europe
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Phone: +49 221 271690
E-mail: feedback@questback.de
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www.questback.com
ABOUT QUESTBACK
LEARN MORE:Questback is the European leader in enterprise feedback management
software. We develop survey and dialog solutions for online market
research, customer experience management, and HR feedback
management.
Questback has grown continuously since it was founded in 2000.
The company is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Today, QuestBack has
branch offices in 19 countries and more than 300 employees serving
over 4,000 customers across all industries, including Volvo, Payback,
Hilti, Daimler, Ikea, and Coca-Cola.