Communication Deep Dive Survey

Use the Communication Deep Dive survey to understand if knowledge and information are communicated well, and overall how communication works in your organisation. From this survey, you’ll get a clear view of how people feel about your communication – and how to make sure it’s clear, regular, and delivered appropriately.

When to use this survey

• When you’ve recently refreshed your company values

• If changing processes related to communication – like launching a ‘chat tool’

• Before your communications team introduces new initiatives

• You have experienced a low Communication Score in your Organisational Fitness matrix

How the survey is scored

This Deep Dive survey addresses four criteria of Communication:

Structure
Format
Connected, and
Tone

By listening to your employees along these key dimensions, you will be able to uncover the detailed specifics of communication-related issues in your organisation.

Asking 12 questions on a 5-point Likert scale, from strongly agree to strongly disagree, this Deep Dive first finds each survey respondents’ total score. This is based on the proportion of positive answers (‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’). Combining these scores, the average over all respondents is calculated, deriving the overall Communication score.

This survey also contains four open-text questions, to understand and add context to the scores and support your findings.

Introductory Text

In this survey, we’ll ask you about 4 core areas of communication - from how regularly we communicate, to whether communications are easily understood. This will help us understand the working experience within {our organisation} and guide our next steps - with the aim of making {our organisation} a better place to work.

Structure

The Structure dimension of Communication explores how your organisation communicates. How regularly are new priorities shared, and is it easy to ask for more information?

The Structure dimension is made up of the indicators: Timely, Informed, Clarified and an open-text question.

Indicator	Question	Rationale
Timely	{Our organisation} is quick to share important news.	People in the organisation are kept up to date of important news on matters that affect them.
Informed	I feel well informed about the priorities and goals of {our organisation}.	Employees are clear on where the organisation is heading and what is expected of them.
Clarified	I have a forum to ask questions about big announcements or important news.	People are freely and easily able to get more information or clarifications should they need it.
Open Text	What do you want to hear more about, what topics are not well covered in our current communications?	Asked in order to gather top of mind thoughts on what people would like to hear more about in communications.

Format

The Format dimension of Communication helps you understand if your communication clear and accessible. It lets you know if your messages are easy to understand, and if important information can be found by everyone.

The Format dimension is made up of the indicators: Engaging, Accessible, Clear and an open-text question.

Indicator	Question	Rationale
Engaging	Our communications are always well designed and engaging.	Communications are designed well so that employees are drawn to reading/hearing the messages contained in them.
Accessible	It is easy for me to find important information and announcements.	Important information is not buried in the announcement but is made readily accessible to people.
Clear	News or announcements use clear language that can be understood by everyone.	People at all levels of the organisation are easily able to understand the content of the communications.
Open Text	Can you think of a change, small or large, that would improve communication in {our organisation}?	Asked in order to gather top of mind extra thoughts and ideas regarding the organisation’s communications.

Connected

The Connected dimension helps you know if your communications help your employees feel connected, and in control. Do they get the right amount of updates when they need them?

The Connected dimension is made up of the indicators: Flow, Change, Volume/Overwhelmed and an open-text question.

Indicator	Question	Rationale
Flow	Our communications help me feel better connected to our leadership team.	Communications in the organisation keep people connected to the leadership and direction of the organisation.
Change	I’m made aware of changes that impact my work in a timely manner.	When changes will affect people at work, they are made aware of these in good time so that they can prepare.
Volume/ Overwhelmed	I never feel overwhelmed by the number of updates and communications I receive.	The volume and frequency of communications is sensible and people are not left feeling overwhelmed.
Open Text	What communications do you feel are unnecessary or are distracting from your work?	Asked in order to gather real life examples of communications that may not follow best practice.

Tone

The Tone dimension helps you understand if your organisation usually gets the tone right when communicating. This verifies that your communication encourages trust, reflects our values, and displays empathy when delivering difficult news.

The Tone dimension is made up of the indicators: Open, Aligned, Empathetic and an open-text question.

Indicator	Question	Rationale
Open	There is open and honest two-way communication in {our organisation}.	Leaders, managers and employees are able to have open and honest dialogues about what is going on in the organisation.
Aligned	Our internal communications reflect our brand and values.	Communications in the organisation are aligned with what we value as an organisation.
Empathetic	{Our organisation} shows understanding and empathy when communicating about sensitive topics.	Communications surrounding sensitive topics are handled appropriately and empathetically.
Open Text	Think of someone that you work with and motivates you, or is an inspirational communicator. What appeals to you most about the way they communicate?	Asked in order to gather instances of behaviours that are aligned with a good communication style.