By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady

Readers of this column know that in February, I opened participation in our National Employee Attitude Survey (NEAS) program for its second year.

NEAS offers you a chance to have your employees’ opinions about your organization surveyed by BLR at absolutely no cost to you, and with almost no work on your part.

All you do is email employees a link that we provide to the Internet-based questionnaire, or print out questionnaires, if workers lack Internet access.

We do all the rest—collect the data, tally it, and write up the findings. And in about 2 weeks, we deliver a custom-written, confidential report to whomever you designate at signup.

Receive a custom-written confidential report on your employees’ attitudes, at no cost to you! Join BLR’s National Employee Attitude Survey program. Read more.

When we first offered NEAS last year, nearly 1,500 companies joined, and some 25,000 employees took part. So far this year, there have been about another 1,500 signups, with nearly 15,000 questionnaires returned.

I’ll tell you how to participate in a moment. But first, let me update you on what the survey shows so far.

Results Show More Work Needed

NEAS measures employee feelings in four key areas proved critical to morale, productivity, and retention. These are: (1) communication, (2) teamwork, (3) supervision, and (4) career opportunity. Workers indicate how well they see these things happening in their organizations on a 1-10 point scale, with 10 the highest score.

In a nutshell, this year’s ratings are very close to last year’s, meaning the same issues exist nationally now as then. There has been slight drop in most scores, meaning that we as a business community still have some work to do, in several areas.

Some selected results:

--Last year, employees landed hard on companywide teamwork, rating it a dismal 5.96 out of 10. This year, it’s a little more dismal at 5.81. Teamwork within departments is better than companywide, but it has still dropped from 7.31 to 7.14.

--Another weak spot was communication between departments. It still is. Last year, the rating was 6.52; this year, 6.34.

--On supervision, workers agreed that their managers were fair and even-handed for a rating of 7.46 last year. This year, it seems they seem a little less fair. The rating is 7.38.

--On recognizing good work, employees gave management a rating of 6.67 last year on recognizing good work. This year, it’s 6.65.

Nearly 3,000 companies like yours have learned their employees’ attitudes at no cost. Join them! Click to find out how.

--On the brighter side, workers rated their commitment to quality last year at an impressive 9.51 out of 10. (But even that’s declined a bit to 9.47.) And they would continue to recommend their workplaces to friends and family looking for a job, although with a bit less certainty. Last year, that score was 7.07. It’s now 6.91.

Of course, these are only national averages. The really important numbers are those your employees generate. And the really important results are the action steps you take, based on those numbers. At BLR, we’ve used this survey for 10 years, paid heed to what it told us, and it’s helped us to be a “Best Workplace in Connecticut” for several years in a row.

Such good things can happen for you, however, but only if you sign up. That’s extremely easy to do, and remember, there’s no cost for the basic report. (This year, we also offer an optional report with greater detail, plus the full survey data in Excel, so you can data mine the results whatever way you wish, for a nominal fee.)

Click the link below and you’ll get all the information you need to join NEAS. But don’t delay. This round of signups closes on Monday, July 14, 2008, and we don’t want you to have to wait for this critical, workforce-improving data until signups reopen again.

Start learning more about your employees’ attitudes now … still at no cost to you!