Determining the Best Options

Survey your employees

The purpose of a needs assessment is to determine which work/life options would best meet employees' needs prior to the implementation of new policies.  Various methods exist for exploring employee needs and concerns for child care assistance. The most common tools are surveys and focus groups.  Surveys can reach may employees quickly through handouts, mail, e-mail or even phone calls.  Results are also readily tabulated and can be easily summarized in quantitative terms. 

Focus groups or seminars can provide more information about why employees hold certain views or why they rank alternatives in particular ways.  They also can provide more detailed information and they are easily tailored for different groups of employees.

Sample Needs Assessment form.

Designing an Effective Survey

Designing an effective survey instrument is a challenging task.  The data you collect will only be as good as the instrument used to collect it.  If you do not have this type of expertise within your company, you may want to consider working with a consultant.  Look for someone with experience in needs assessment development (i.e., formulation of survey questions) and appropriate research skills including data collection, analysis and interpretation.

If you decide to develop the instrument yourself, here are some pointers for designing an effective employee survey:

1. Decide on what you want to know - Determining what you want the survey to tell you is absolutely crucial because the questions you ask are driven by your information needs.
2. Decide who to survey - Will you survey just parents and potential parents, or the entire employee population?  Generally, it is best to survey everyone.
3. Decide on a data tabulation method - Data must be in a form that can be coded if you plan to tabulate responses by computer.  The tabulation method should be determined before formulating questions, as it may affect the way in which the questions are phrased.
4. Formulate the questions - Your questions must be clear and direct, leaving no room for interpretation errors.
5. Decide on the distribution method - You must determine when and where to distribute the survey.  Choose the method that ensures the best return rate while simultaneously protecting the anonymity and confidentiality of the employees.  For example, employees may be more likely to take the time to complete the survey if they are allowed to do so at work but are not required to submit the survey in person to their supervisor.
6. Analyze and interpret the data - The final and most challenging step in the process is to analyze and interpret the data collected and to formulate a recommendation which makes sense given the findings of the needs assessment.  Once again, an outside, unbiased consultant may be very helpful in this final step.

After the needs assessment is completed, the company must decide whether or not to proceed.  If the decision is made not to proceed or to defer action, employees should be informed about the reason for this decision.  If the needs assessment indicated continuation, the next step will be choosing, planning and implementing a program.

For a sample questionnaire, go to National Network for Child Care, "Questionnaire: Employees and Child Care".

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