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The same question posed on the web and in print can yield very different answers, dramatically distorting survey results and misleading management. But, as psychologist Palmer Morrel-Samuels demonstrates, the problems are readily fixed.

There's no doubt that companies can benefit from workplace surveys and questionnaires. Good surveys accurately home in on the problems the company wants information about. They are designed so that as many people as possible actually respond. And good survey design ensures that the spectrum of responses is unbiased. In this article, the author, a former research scientist at the University of Michigan and currently the president of a survey design firm, explores some glaring failures of survey design and provides 16 guidelines to improve workplace assessment tools. Applied judiciously, these rules will not only make a tangible difference in the quality and usefulness of the data obtained, but will also produce an increased response rate. The guidelines--and the problems they address--fall into five areas: content, format, language, measurement, and administration. Following the guidelines in this article will help you get unbiased, representative, and useful information from your workplace survey.