Performance Programs Helps Companies Define What's "Normal" in Employee Surveys

Employee survey benchmarks, or norms, provide a critical frame of reference when human resources professionals try to interpret survey results. Performance Programs now provides an updated and expanded database of industry norms—available to companies whether or not they choose Performance Programs to conduct the survey.

Old Saybrook, CT (PRWEB) May 21, 2008 -- Employee survey benchmarks, or norms, provide a critical frame of reference when human resources professionals try to interpret survey results. Performance Programs now provides an updated and expanded database of industry norms—available to companies whether or not they choose Performance Programs to conduct the survey.

Trying to define a "normal" workplace is as difficult and unpredictable as describing a "normal" child, according to Paul M. Connolly, Ph.D., president of Performance Programs, Inc., a human resources research firm that has conducted hundreds of employee surveys worldwide.

Most companies, for instance, have a hard time getting high ratings for internal communications or for career development.

"We have learned that while there is no way of defining 'normal' workplaces, there are average or predictable responses to certain questions or groups of questions on employee surveys," says Connolly. "Most companies, for instance, have a hard time getting high ratings for internal communications or for career development."

Connolly defines high ratings as more than 67% favorable or highly favorable ratings of a statement such as: "There are adequate advancement opportunities for employees at my level."

"Even the best managed firms have a hard time reaching 67% favorable ratings on career advancement," says Connolly.

Performance Programs recently updated its norm database, which was started in 1997 and has nearly 100,000 responses for most of 85 questionnaire items. Employers can obtain norms for general business or for one of 16 industries and categories, including nonprofits. Multinational organizations are well represented in the database.

Reports include the mean, standard deviation, frequency distribution, and number of respondents on which the norm is based. Norms are available whether Performance Programs performs the survey or not. There is no minimum purchase. A 50% discount is offered to employers who share their survey data with Performance Programs for inclusion in their Employee Feedback Database. Identities of organizations in the database are kept confidential to PPI.

Employee survey benchmarks or norms are very valuable when human resources professionals try to interpret survey results. "Norms help you judge whether results are high or low compared to other organizations," says Connolly, who encourages organizations to repeat their surveys several times and develop internal norms. "Even if you find certain items disappointingly low, you may find your organization outranks many other organizations. Outside norms are especially important for a first-time employee survey."

Sample industries and categories in the Performance Programs database include: General Business (entire database), Multinationals, Consumer Goods, Finance, Food and Beverage, Government, Heavy Industry, High Tech, Light Industry, Medical/Healthcare, Nonprofits, Professional Services, Professional Sports Organizations, Recreation/Entertainment, Transportation and Connecticut firms.

Interested employers and human resource consultants can also purchase a preview of PPI's norm data in the book and CD combination, Employee Opinion Questionnaires: 20 Ready-to-Use Surveys that Work. In addition to 20 employee questionnaires, the book provides 30 of the most frequently asked questions, along with their norms. A complete list of 700 questionnaire items is available in The Employee Survey Question Guidebook.

For more information, call Performance Programs at 1-800-565-4223 or visit http://www.PerformancePrograms.com.

Click here to email.

Media Contact:
Kathy Connolly
1-800-565-4223

This press release was distributed through eMediawire by Human Resources Marketer (HR Marketer: www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company listed above.

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