Deborah Heart and Lung Center has been performing employee satisfaction survey research with The Jackson Organization since 2003, and they’ve seen some impressive results. Most impressive, however, is how they have made gargantuan strides in improving employee participation. Deborah Heart and Lung and Jim Carlino, Director of Human Resources, have taken the time to share a wonderful roadmap to driving employee participation rates higher and higher. Their best practices have taken them from a 13% participation rate in 2004 to a staggering 79% in their most recent survey. It doesn’t take a degree in math to see how significant a jump like that is.

Among the core concepts that drive The Jackson Organization’s analyses of client data is our Brand Equity Hierarchy, comprised of Awareness, Image, Preference, Market Share, and Loyalty. This Discovery Paper will focus on the quantifiable power that Preference has on Market Share. Is the connection there? Absolutely! Hospitals will enjoy greater market share if they also possess high preference among their consumers. Moreover, this Discovery Paper will not only show how preference drives market share, but will also show how you can improve consumers’ perception of your quality—which in turn drives their preference.

This question comes to our Project Management Team often. The answer comes from understanding minimum sample sizes, statistical validity, and confidentiality.

The Jackson Organization recommends a minimum sample size of three to perform individual unit/department breakouts, and at least ten employees to provide breakouts for open-ended responses. “With a sample size below three, statistically valid results are not possible. Low sample size unit/departments need to be grouped with other departments to achieve statistically valid results, and we always seek to group units with similar attributes to the greatest degree possible,” said Berke Bilbay, Senior Vice President of Data Analysis and Reporting.

Confidentiality is another primary reason for having minimum sample sizes, particularly with responses to open-ended questions. Since demographic information is often captured in surveys, having a small pool of respondents increases the chance of tying survey results to an individual respondent, and thus damaging confidentiality. “A classic example of this is seen with departments of low size, such as five or six employees. With numbers that small, it is quite easy for a knowledgeable manager to identify which employees answered certain open-ended questions—even if the manager makes no overt effort to do so. If you have four happy and energetic employees with one obviously unsatisfied employee, it would be quite easy to see which one of them gave you a negative response to the open-ended question. Even knowing who gave high accolades is not an acceptable research outcome. Confidentiality must be protected at all costs,” said Laura Phillips, Project Manager.