This document discusses how conducting employee research, or "mind melds", can help HR gain a deeper understanding of employee needs and motivations. It provides examples of how qualitative and quantitative research methods like surveys, focus groups, and interviews can reveal insights about benefits communications, wellness programs, recruitment and retention. Conducting regular low-cost DIY research using available online tools is recommended to clarify messages, guide strategy, and ensure resources are used effectively to motivate positive workplace changes.

1. Employee Mind Meld Session Research Tools to Understand & Motivate

2. World of HR Workforce is changing Stakes are higher Greater impact to productivity and bottom line Resources are limited Need the Mind Meld advantage!

3. 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…

4. 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?

5. 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

6. 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?

7. 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

8. Revealing Insights for Clear Decisions Do-it-Yourself (DIY)Research Process

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. Revealing Insights for Clear Decisions Do It Yourself (DIY)Research Basics

13. 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

14. 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

15. What to Ask Satisfaction _______ benefits meet my needs Overall, I was very satisfied with the most recent enrollment process I can afford the benefits (employer) offered Knowledge and Understanding I understand how my ______ benefits work I need more information about my ______ benefits Communications The amount of info I receive about my ______ benefits is _______ ______ materials are an effective way to reach me about _____ issues I prefer receiving my _________ materials via ________ I believe (employer) works hard to keep me informed about my benefits

16. 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

17. Revealing Insights for Clear Decisions Do-it-Yourself (DIY)Fielding

18. 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.”

19. 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.”

20. 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

21. Revealing Insights for Clear Decisions Do-it-Yourself (DIY)Research Tools

22. 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)

23. 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?

24. 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”

25. 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

26. Revealing Insights for Clear Decisions HR Market Research Case Studies

27. 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.”

28. 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.”

29. 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.”

30. 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

31. Visit EmployeeMindMeld.com Booth #619