Key messaging suggestions for internal communications

Great survey communications are essential to help achieve the best participation rates and buy-in from management, so they support and encourage staff to take part.

Participants can receive the following communications from AskYourTeam as part of the survey process:

Invitation to take the survey: Their invitation contains their unique survey link. It is delivered by email or SMS or a passcode can be generated for them.
Reminders: If survey reminders have been set up, then up to two reminders will be sent on the date/s you specified during the create survey process. These reminders are only sent to participants who have not yet completed the survey.
Manual reminders: You can manually send additional reminders outside of the ones listed above in the Participant Tracking section.

Users within your organisation who have access to AskYourTeam can also receive the following communications depending on their role and the survey:

System access: If someone is assigned as an Account Manager, Account Administrator, Survey Administrator or Report Viewer, an email will be sent with login information and instructions.
System notifications: Any Account Managers at your organisation will receive notifications that a survey has been surveys set up by other users, if a survey end date has been extended, and when a survey closes.

But you should also consider what other internal communications you need to help participants prepare for the survey process and manage their expecations.

What internal communications should be considered?

Internal communications are usually sent to participants from one of the following sources:

Human Resources
Senior Leadership Team
CEO

It's a good idea to send an introductory email to participants that explains:

they will receive a survey soon (include specific dates and how long it will run for)
who is AskYourTeam, and why you are using them
what you'll be doing with the results
your commitment to taking action on the results and retesting to measure progress

After the survey, it's also best practice to send a thank you email. You can use this post-survey communication as an opportunity to thank participants for their time and provide transparency around the timeline for sharing results and planning action.

Suggested messages

Here are some suggested messaging options you can use in the lead-up to your survey. These suggestions are based on a baseline survey for employees (like Local Government or Business surveys) and are split up by topic.

What and Why

AskYourTeam is a business survey platform that will enable us to identify what’s working well at {Organisation} and also what we need to improve.
We are interested to find out both how you feel and what you think about various aspects of working at {Organisation}. Your honest feedback is critical in helping to make {Organisation} a great place to work.
It’s an important opportunity for you to have your say and share the ownership of what happens at {Organisation}. We value everyone’s contribution.
The survey covers many different aspects of our business such as culture, leadership, continuous improvement, internal communications and business processes.
We will be sharing the results with you and will involve you in putting together an action plan for our team.
We are then able to retest our improvements using the AskYourTeam system at any time to see if these initiatives are making a difference. If they are not, we can then course-correct swiftly.

How the process works

If you have a {Organisation} e-mail address, you will receive an invitation via email to click on a link to take the survey. If you do not have an {Organisation} email address, you will be invited to use a laptop/pc/tablet during working hours and will be logged in to take the survey online using a unique passcode.
There are a set of ‘rated’ questions designed to give a full picture of how {Organisation} is doing. You will simply click on an emoticon that represents your response to each question.
There are also some questions asking you for a written response using a free text box.
Your responses are completely confidential. Individual responses cannot be linked to you at either {Organisation} or AskYourTeam.
You’ll just need to ensure you don’t include any text that identifies you if you want to stay anonymous, as we do see these comments as they are written.
The survey will take around X minutes to complete.
Demographic reports are available when five or more people from each team respond. If your team has fewer than five people, the results will be rolled up to the next level. This ensures responses remain anonymous.
Results will be used to both identify reasons to celebrate at {Organisation} (i.e. what is working well?) and to help to plan improvements at both team and organisation-wide levels. You may/will also be asked for your ideas on how to improve areas relevant to you.
Results will be shared with everyone once we have reviewed the feedback.

What's next?

You’ll receive an email from AskYourTeam first thing on {Day Date Month} giving you a link to the survey.
Those of you with no email will be allocated a time slot to come into the office and complete your survey on a work laptop/pc/tablet.
The link in your email is personal to you and populates our demographics for reporting (we can assure you we still cannot see your individual results but this helps with our analysis after the survey)
The survey will remain open until {Time Day Date Month}.
We will use the system throughout the year for regular pulse checks on actions taken to ensure that we are tracking in the right direction and also to continually involve you in the decisions we make.