The initial survey effort led by Debbie Horner, HR manager of Ballard Integrated Managed Services, Inc. (BIMS), did not produce useful findings. The survey had several flaws that made the majority of the results questionable. Some items were biased. A few questions were worded awkwardly, likely affecting the response. Some of the information needed was not asked, further reducing the value of the effort. Additionally, the data entry typist and general office support person made a number of errors when keying the data into the spreadsheet, compounding the poor results.

In hindsight, Debbie suggested that she should have pretested the sample instrument before issuing it to the workforce. Such a step would have likely revealed many of these problems. Further, to improve the 17.3% response rate, she should have taken different steps to encourage employee participation. Just inserting it into the payroll process did not inform employees sufficiently about the purpose and sponsor of the survey. Advance information to explain the need for gathering their views, as well as reassurances about confidentiality and anonymity, plus descriptions of how the information would be used are among the many steps that Debbie might have taken to increase the response rate.

Knowing that Barbara Tucker, general manager of the BIMS operation at the Douglas Medical Center, and the rest of the top management team were disappointed in the findings, Debbie proposed that she create a second, improved survey effort that was better planned and marketed. Although somewhat reluctant to authorize the effort for fear of creating more damage, Barbara approved the request. She felt the need to understand the current employee dissatisfaction and increased turnover rate was urgent and thus merited the continued effort.

Learning from the initial effort, Debbie designed another survey instrument.