Ninety percent of U.S. workers in mid-sized companies (100 to 499 employees) think that employee surveys are a positive step by employers, even if the employer does not respond to the results. But only 51 percent of employers perform employee surveys. With law firms, the disconnect is even more striking. We did an informal poll of 16 law firms with about 100 attorneys (roughly 200 employees) and found only one firm that regularly performs employee surveys. The reasons law firms gave us for not performing surveys included: 

The firm we talked to that does a survey includes all lawyers and staff in the annual survey and benchmarks the results to measure satisfaction and the performance of support services departments.

Experts recommend that firms that perform surveys should share the results, good and bad, with employees to build trust and credibility. Management should present the results to employees, followed by a question and answer session. For multi-office firms, it is advisable to use a live web hookup or video conference. Experts also suggest that employee suggestions be sought in interpreting the results and that, in designing the survey, firms make sure that some of the questions are directly tied to core business issues such as the quality of legal work, service quality, responsiveness and retention. (Sources: Opinion Research Corporation and the Society for Human Resources Management)