Survey Process
POPULUS is a nationally-recognized marketing research firm located in Idaho. In its 24 year history, the company has conducted survey research for a broad range of businesses (start-ups through Fortune 100 companies), government agencies (at the local through federal levels), associations, and politicians (those running for local office as well as U.S. presidential candidates). Since 1999, POPULUS has conducted more than one million online surveys, the majority of which have been directly related to human resources (HR) issues.
POPULUS will conduct the surveys and analyze the data, which will be reported at the aggregate level. Survey responses, both for employees and the companies, will be completely confidential. Participating companies will receive a summary of their scores in each of five areas:
- Compensation and Benefits
- Work Environment
- Company Management
- Employee Growth and Development
- Work-Life Balance
Companies will also see a comparison of these scores with the average score for the top 10% of performers in their size category.
Price Associates is available to deliver to you your reports, a custom presentation analyzing your results, recommendations, and an action plan based on your company's specific data.
Additional reporting will be available upon request.
Survey Options
Online Survey: Employees with access to email and the Internet at their work station will be sent an email invitation that includes a unique link giving a single individual access to the online survey. That link cannot be shared with others or used more than once. This survey will take approximately ten minutes to complete.
Paper Survey: Employees who do not have email or access to the Internet at their work station may participate by completing a paper version of the survey. POPULUS will provide instructions to the company regarding efficient and secure distribution and collection of these surveys to ensure the highest level of respondent confidentiality is maintained. Additionally, POPULUS will employ a validation procedure to assure the surveys were distributed to and completed by a broad sampling of employees.
To help cover the cost of producing, handling and shipping the paper surveys, POPULUS will charge $25 one-time plus $1 per paper survey sent to a participating organization. Each organization is responsible for shipping the completed answer sheets back to POPULUS
Language Options
The online and paper surveys will be available in English and Spanish. For the online survey, the first page will allow respondents to select the language they choose to complete the survey in. For paper surveys, we ask each company to indicate at the time they register online the approximate number of English and Spanish surveys they will need. POPULUS will confirm this number prior to shipping the surveys.
Award Eligibility
To be eligible for an award, employers must have a certain proportion of employees—both for the online and paper methodologies—complete the survey. POPULUS will report the results to all participating companies but will indicate when sample sizes are too small to be statistically reliable.
Minimum survey completion rates for eligibility for an award are as follows:
50 or fewer employees: 80%
51 to 250 employees: 60%
251 to 500 employees: 40%
500 or more employees: 20%
Employers receiving the highest ratings in each of the five areas named above—for both medium and larger businesses—will be recognized at award events hosted by the Idaho Business Review in the Boise area. The Idaho Business Review will also publish articles about award winners and describe the programs they have that engender employee satisfaction and loyalty. POPULUS will identify only the award winners to Idaho Business Review. As previously stated, individual company data will remain strictly confidential.
Timeline
Best Places to Work in IdahoTM 2010
| Now – February | Participant recruitment and registration |
| February 16, 2010 | Registration deadline |
| January - March 5, 2010 | Survey period (company Inventory of Benefits and employee surveys) |
| March 2010 | Data analysis and selection of award winners |
| April 2010 | Participating company results available (with login) on Best Places to Work in IdahoTM website |
| April 2010 | Best Places to Work in IdahoTM awards presentation. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |