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OE21 Guide to Assessment/Survey Process

The OE21™ processes require many assessments (surveys), with questions and rating scales. This SOP provides instructions for using the Survey Methods programs to design, launch, and analyze assessments.

An example assessment is included to communicate the process.
 
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR ALL OE21 SURVEYS

 

Step 1 - Estimate the Population and Responders for the Assessment
 

The population is the target number of people or organizations to be surveyed. The "target population" is usually considerably less than the total population. For example, the number of organizations in the USA might be over two million (2M), however, the target population of the organization to be surveyed might be 500. 

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The responders are the number of people or organizations who will actually take the survey. A general estimate of responders for business, nonprofit, or government organizations might be something like the following:

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  • Workforce size - 1000

  • Suppliers - 500

  • Customers - 1000

  • Prospects - 10,000

  • Stakeholders (community people or organizations, owners/investors, or other stakeholders) - 100

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OE21 Limitation: The OE21 decision support tools (sheets) have analysis tabs that contain tables. The largest table in OE21 has a maximum of 1000 rows for Responders. This means that if the number of responders is over 1000, then either multiple surveys must be conducted - or - (suggested) a sample size calculator should be used to keep the responder count at or below 1000. The good news is that even a population of 10,000 will require only 964 responders to maintain a margin of error of +/-3% and a 95% confidence level. Step 2 shows how this works. 

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Step 2 - Estimate the Sample Size for the Assessment

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Sample Size Guideline: In cases where a large number of people will respond to a survey, the use of a Sample Size Calculator is advisable to reduce the number of responses without loss of significant information or data. As of the release of this OE21™ Guideline, a sample size calculator is available on the web at this URL:
 
http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm

 

NOTE: The OE21 decision support tools (sheets) include a tab named Instructions and a tab named Analysis. The Instructions tab includes a formula that calculates Sample Size Needed. This is the same calculation used by the web-based surveysystem.com link (above). 

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Use the sample size calculator to determine the size of your sample group of Stakeholders in cases where you have large Stakeholder sizes. In most cases, use a (+/-3%) confidence interval and a 95% confidence level. 

 

  • Example 1: Suppose you wanted to survey the number of TV viewers in the USA, and the population of TV viewers is estimated to be 290,000,000. The sample size calculator shows that if only 1067 TV viewers respond to your survey, your Confidence Interval would be 95% as accurate as if all 290 million responded.

 

  • Example 2: Suppose you wanted to survey the prospect population of 500. The sample size calculator shows the need to survey only 341 prospects to maintain your Confidence Interval (also know as Margin of Error) of +/- 3% with a Confidence Level at 95%.

 

A population of 10,000 prospects would require only 964 prospects to be surveyed, with the same margin of error and confidence interval.

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Step 3 - Prepare Survey Methods to Administer Surveys. The OE21 surveys use Survey Methods (SM) to collect survey and quiz/test data and export the results to an Excel file format. The Excel format is designed to integrate with corresponding OE21 decision support models (Analysis tabs) that require SM surveys for source data.  

 

NOTICE: Your organization receive copies of all SM surveys in the OE21 system, if your purchase the OE21 Site License. If you have questions on this please email them to crm@hpo21institute.com

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Login to www.surveymethods.com, and follow onscreen instructions to design a new survey, or use an existing survey. During the survey design process, you name the survey. The first part of the survey is a Message screen, which should be edited to be an "Introductory Statement," to introduce the purpose of the survey to the respondents. The following is an example. 

 

  • Introductory Statement (Message):  To improve and maintain excellent services and products for our customers and our surrounding communities, we request that you respond to this survey. Your responses will help us determine your specific issues or recommendations concerning our products, services, and operations. We promise to respond to your concerns in a timely and appropriate fashion. We greatly appreciate your taking the time to complete this survey and ask that you complete it no later than (DD-MM-YYYY) from the time this email is received. It is recommended that the name and position of the organization's senior leader (CEO, President, etc.) be added at the bottom of the Introductory Statement.

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The next screen after the Introductory Statement screen is a Pulldown List. The pulldown list is used for "responders" - the people or organizations who input ratings and narratives into the survey.

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Step 4 - Review the Survey Questions. The OE21™ surveys are pre-developed for use with OE21 decision support tools (Analysis tabs of excel sheets). Most of the OE21 survey questions use a measured rating question as shown in the example in Figure C.1-3 (a captured screen from Survey Methods). When finished with review of all survey questions be sure to use the Save and Exit button in surveymethods.

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CAUTION: DO NOT ADD OR DELETE ANY QUESTIONS IN THE SURVEY. Any changes must only be done by the OE21 Survey Provider, and unauthorized changes will cause the survey excel model that uses this survey to create errors.

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Step 5 - Prepare to Launch the Survey. Determine the list of people or organizations and the EMAIL ADDRESSES, of those that should respond to the survey. These email addresses will be copied in the Email "To" field that will be sent to all responders. If you wish to protect email addresses, use the Email "Bcc" function. Any recipients of the Bcc line are not visible to others on the email. Also, prepare the narrative to be included in the email. The narrative should be consistent with the narrative you input into the survey Introductory Statement (Step 3).

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NOTICE: Be sure to include in the Bcc function, the email address for the OE21 Facilitator or other person assigned by OE21 Focus Teams. This gives the Facilitator a copy of the email sent to the responders. 

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Step 6 - Use the Survey Methods functions to Launch a Test Survey and the actual Survey. The following detailed instructions should be carefully followed. 

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Step 7 - Test the Survey before sending it to Target Responders

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7.1 Login to surveymethods and select the survey you wish to test

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7.2 Click the LAUNCH icon

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7.3 Select Web URL Deployment which generates a non-trackable link; then click Continue

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7.4 Select Allow survey to be taken multiple times from each computer (recommended); then click Continue

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7.5 Skip the web greeting provided; then click Continue

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7.6 Leave Redirect Respondent to a Website (default is surveymethods.com); scroll down and select Launch

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7.7 Wait until the survey link appears; copy this link into the windows clipboard or Notepad type application

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7.8 Email the survey link to the facilitator and, if desired, one or two others in the organization

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7.9 When the survey link email arrives, take the full survey and input "test" data similar to what responders might input

 

7.10 After the "test" responders have had time to input test data in the survey, go to the next step

 

7.11 Login to surveymethods and go to screen where your survey is listed with others

 

7.12 View the colored bar chart icon under Analyze column; note the number of responses

 

7.13 If the number of responses is acceptable, then click the bar chart icon to open Analyze Survey Results screen

 

7.14 On Analyze Survey Results screen, click the link: Results Summary

 

7.15 On the Results Summary page, click the link: Export to Excel

 

7.16 On the Export to Excel screen, verify Excel, Export Actual Data, and Launch Sequence buttons are selected

 

7.17 Click Export and wait for the red message: Your report has been generated. Click here to download

 

7.18 Observe the downloaded excel (.xls) file in the lower left of your screen.

 

7. 19 Open the excel (.xls) download file and observe that your survey responses are in rows 3 and below

 

7.20 At this point, the excel survey file is ready to be copy/pasted into the OE21 Decision Support Tool (sheet) that is associated with your survey. The OE21 Main page pairs surveys with their decision support tools (sheets). 

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7.21 Open the selectedOE21 Decision Support Tool (sheet) and go to the SurveyData tab (many also be named: SM_tab). IMPORTANT: IF this tab contains previous survey data, be sure that that data is SAVED before you continue. 

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7.22 After ensuring that previous survey data has been saved, then copy/paste the download survey file into the SurveyData tab (SM_tab). The paste should be pointed at cell A1. The paste (Ctrl v) action will replace any earlier data with the new survey data. 

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7.23 In your OE21 Decision Support Tool (sheet) click the Analysis tab and observe results.

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  • IF the Analysis tab results match your survey responder inputs then this test is complete/

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  • If any problems appear, resolve them and then repeat Steps 7.1 to 7.23

 

  • If all data in the Analysis tab is complete and correct then you are ready to Launch the survey to your Target Responders

 

Step 8 - Launch Survey and Email Link to Target Responders

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8.1 Login to surveymethods and select the survey you wish to launch

 

8.2 On the My Surveys screen select the icon under the Manage link (same row as the survey you will launch)

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8.3 On the Manage Survey Activity screen, under the Clear Survey Responses (Delete all responses) link; then hit the Back (<--) key

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8.4 On the My Surveys screen, click the LAUNCH icon

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8.5 Select Web URL Deployment which generates a non-trackable link; then click Continue

 

8.6 Select Allow survey to be taken multiple times from each computer (recommended); then click Continue

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8.7 Skip the web greeting provided; then click Continue

 

8.8 Leave Redirect Respondent to a Website (default is surveymethods.com); scroll down and select Launch

 

8.9 Wait until survey link appears; copy this link into the windows clipboard or Notepad type application

 

8.10 Compose the email with the approved Message (with a due date), the survey link, and  email addresses of the Target Responders

 

8.11 On the target responders survey due date, log in to Survey Methods and go to the same survey

 

8.12 View the colored bar chart icon under Analyze column; note the number of responses

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8.13 If the number of responses is acceptable, then click the bar chart icon to open Analyze Survey Results screen

 

8.14 On Analyze Survey Results screen, click the link: Results Summary

 

8.15 On the Results Summary page, click the link: Export to Excel

 

8.16 On the Export to Excel screen, verify Excel, Export Actual Data, and Launch Sequence buttons are selected

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8.17 Click Export and wait for red message: Your report has been generated. Click here to download

 

8.18 Observe the downloaded excel (.xls) file in lower left of your screen.

 

8.19 Open the excel (.xls) downloaded file, and observe the survey responses are in rows 3 and below.

 

8.20 At this point your excel survey file is ready to be copy/pasted into your OE21 Decision Support Tool (sheet).

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This is the end of the Survey Process. Refer to the remainded of the OE21 SOP pages for instructions to use  specific OE21 models and documents. 

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