Take caution when making changes to standard questions or adding custom questions to standard drivers. Even small changes can lead individuals to answer differently and skew the existing results and benchmark comparison. As an alternative, consider creating your own drivers within Company questions.
Note
Each question has its own question ID. Whenever you change the wording of a driver or open-ended question, any existing responses remain attached to the question.
Examples
Take this question: I feel like my coworkers trust me to do a good job.
Employees answer this question closer to 10 if they agree with it, and closer to zero if they disagree with it. Editing this question can have a major effect on how employees answer it.
| Revision | Considerations |
|---|---|
|
I feel like my coworkers don’t trust me to do a good job. |
This revision would invert the zero to 10 scale. |
|
My coworkers should have more trust in me to do a good job. |
This revision would invert the zero to 10 scale. |
|
This is the most trusting team that I’ve ever worked in. |
Rather than gauging how trusting your team is, this question is entirely relative. Employees will base their answers on their previous career experiences. |
|
We have a world-class level of trust among employees. |
Setting such high standards can cause 2 problems:
|
|
Trust in our team has increased since our last team-building event. |
We don't recommend time-sensitive questions if you’ll ask the question again, to understand whether scores are improving. As time passes, employee memories of the event and its consequences will fade and differ, negatively affecting the reliability of their answers. |
|
Trust is essential for teamwork, I believe we have a trusting team. |
The framing of this question isn’t neutral. It insists employees agree with the premise before passing their judgment. |
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I feel like my coworkers trust me to do a good job, and I trust them to do a good job. |
Phrasing a question that essentially asks 2 questions can be confusing for the survey participant, because they may want to add a high score to the first part of the question and a low score to the second part of the question. |
Also, take caution when editing a question to be more specific. Example: I am satisfied with the performance review process at our organization.
| Revision | Considerations |
|---|---|
|
I am satisfied with our process of running OKRs. |
Employees might use their own knowledge of how companies should practice OKRs and instead rate how the company implemented OKRs, rather than their satisfaction of performance management. The specific version is also not future-proof in case you change your performance management methodology. You'll potentially have 2 entirely separate and unrelated reviews on the same trend line. |
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