IDEAS@WORK: PUSHING RESPONSE TO AN ETHICS SURVEY

It's not often that one can demonstrate the practical impact of communications in driving core initiatives and raising productivity in a business environment. But Sodexho USA's annual ethics survey of the top 3,000 managers provides an interesting case study, thanks to the detailed data collection

As a company, Sodexho is committed to operating ethically and with integrity, and the survey is one tool the company uses to ensure that managers understand and adhere to its ethical conduct policy. Less a survey than an attestation tool, Sodexho's annual ethics survey has evolved from a time-consuming, paper-based exercise, to an online survey that runs more efficiently each year. Participation is mandatory.

Sodexho launched its first online ethics survey in February 2004 (previously, paper surveys were mailed to managers' homes). By moving the ethics survey online, Sodexho saved an initial 200 hours of labor and US$650 in paper and mailing costs.

While Sodexho achieves 100 percent compliance of the target audience, achieving this goal requires some one-on-one tracking down of managers to ensure they respond. A more realistic measurement goal to illustrate the impact of communication is the time it takes to reach 90 percent of targeted managers.

The first year of the online survey (February 2004), it took 125 days to reach 90 percent of respondents. The corporate audit team graphed responses by day, looking at the effect of deadlines and of targeted communications, including from the company's president and CEO. New deadlines are established as managers miss a previous one.

The conclusion: both communication and deadline contribute to driving compliance but communication has more of an impact than deadlines (see Figure One, below). This impact starts with the initial communication launching the survey, which results in the largest spike in participation. Subsequent communication/reminders cause mini-spikes in participation and have some residual effect.

The second online survey was launched in January 2005 to coincide with the new year. That survey showed that managers had become more comfortable with online surveys, and it took only 55 days to reach the 90 percent compliance level, a time-savings and productivity improvement of 44 percent.

Heading into the 2006 ethics survey, we anticipate it will take even less time to reach 90 percent of our target audience. Based on what we've learned about the importance of the initial e-mail communication, we now prime our managers to expect this message by communicating in advance through our weekly c-zinc and intranet site.

Due to the inroads made with electronic surveys, we anticipate being able to expand the audience and reach more managers in less time. Our goal is to get to a point where the entire process can be completed within 30 days.

Lessons learned

We've learned a few basic lessons from this exercise:

* Use of online tools/surveys saves time, enhances productivity and the impact can be measured.

* Communication has a measurable impact on behavior, and is more important than deadlines in driving behavior.

* The initial launch communication of an initiative has the greatest impact on participation.

* Prime your audience: let them know what's coming and when it's coming.