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Survey Content
The NCEO's employee surveys draw from a variety of sources, including academic research, public opinion research, and, primarily, our own proprietary survey items. Companies are welcome to select the individual survey questions most useful to them, and the NCEO project director for surveys will help companies choose the mix of items to maximize their benefit from the survey.Survey items are available on the following topics:
- ESOP Understanding
- Equity Compensation Understanding (stock options, restricted stock, etc.)
- Entrepreneurship
- Information and Learning
- Trust in Leadership
- Organizational Fairness
- Work Atmosphere
- Decision Making
- Organizational Effectiveness
- Accountability
- Work and Pay
- Aspects of Ownership
- Employer-Employee Relations
Survey Packages
Companies also have the option of starting with a pre-selected survey package drawing items from several of the topic areas above.The ESOP Effectiveness Survey
The ESOP Effectiveness Survey is a quick snapshot of key ownership attitudes at your company. The survey includes 24 items and covers the following topics:- Ownership Identity (how much people feel like owners, the importance of ownership, pride in ownership),
- ESOP Understanding (general comfort with ESOP concepts, value of own account, basic ESOP mechanics, link between company performance and ESOP value),
- Perceived Fairness (overall, supervisor fairness, manager accountability),
- Attitudes About Participation (participation skills, company encouragement for participation, supervisor openness to participation, overall employee influence),
- Information Sharing (access to information, employees' motivation to understand company finances, opportunities to learn),
- Satisfaction, and
- Ownership Behaviors (challenging underperformance, willingness to work extra, active engagement, turnover intent).
The Equity Compensation Effectiveness Survey
The Equity Compensation Effectiveness Survey contains a short battery of questions that probe how your employees view and understand equity compensation and related organizational practices. The survey includes 26 items and covers the following topics:- Equity Compensation Understanding (How much do people understand how your equity compensation plan works and their potential financial gain from it?)
- Satisfaction with Equity Compensation (Do employees like receiving equity compensation? Do they think the program is fair, do they think they will benefit financially?)
- Ownership Identity (How much do employees feel like owners of the company and how important is this to them?)
- Entrepreneurship (To what extent are employees willing to work extra, challenge underperformance, learn about the business, and actively engage in problem-solving?)
The Ownership Culture Survey
The Ownership Culture Survey (OCS) is the original survey instrument for employee ownership companies. First developed in 1991 by Ownership Associates, a consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the OCS is a comprehensive approach to measuring and understanding the attitudes, perceptions, and understandings that determine how whether employee ownership becomes a practical reality.Using the OCS provides greater depth than the ESOP/Equity Compensation Effectiveness Surveys and is based on a comprehensive theory of ownership in business organizations. Instead of a one-dimensional measure of ownership (i.e., strong or weak) the approach in the OCS more closely approximates the complex and multi-dimensional nature of psychological ownership. This model-based approach ensures that no significant but unexpected viewpoints are overlooked.
Survey results can be "just data": interesting, but almost impossible to use. To be useful, surveys need to be based on a model and their results need to show a company where they fit within that model. Armed with both data and an interpretation of that data, companies can determine their most effective next steps. The OCS uses a framework for ownership culture based on rights and responsibilities. A strong company honors both the positive expectations that employees have for employee ownership and the responsibilities that come with these expectations.
The OCS includes 65 items and generally takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete.