How to Develop Questions for an Employee Focus Group

Developing questions for employee focus groups seems as if it would be simple, yet even experienced question writers can run into difficulties. Ensuring that the questions asked will help achieve the purpose of the study and will be conducive to discussion is no easy task. Developing a question sequence that will provide the most meaningful responses for the study will be critical to success.

This guide is meant to give the basic steps involved in selecting questions for an employee focus group. It is not meant as a guide to question development in and of itself.

Step 1: Determine the Intent of the Questions

This step may seem basic, but it can often be overlooked. Is the intent to generate a list of ideas? To gauge employee impressions or emotions? To understand why employees are not using a specific technology, like the organization’s intranet? Determining the intent will help the question writer understand what type of questions will be more appropriate and more likely to solicit the kind of information desired from the study. For example, a focus group purpose statement (the topic of the study) may be “to increase self-service use through the company intranet.” Employers may want to know both how the intranet is currently being used and how the employees feel about using the system. If so, it would be useful to ask employees to list how they use the system now and perhaps how they feel about how the site is organized. Asking “how satisfied” or “to what extent” questions, however, would not likely elicit the responses desired. Therefore, knowing what kind of information the employer is looking for will help define what types of questions to ask.

Step 2: Create Questions That Will Lead to Open Dialogue

The main idea of any focus group is to encourage meaningful discussion from the questions asked. Certain types of questions do not easily lend themselves to that, such as dichotomous questions that can be answered with a “yes” or “no,” or those with a “pick A or B” response. Maybe less obvious would be “why” questions, which can actually seem confrontational or make participants feel they need to respond with a well-thought-out answer, rather than one on impulse or emotion. Also, questions that project into the future, rather than ask participants to recall a past experience, may not be as helpful, as participants are only guessing of future actions or emotions and not actual experiences.

Here are some general ideas about effective focus group questions:

Open-ended questions. All focus group questions should be open-ended, but they should ask a specific question that requires an individualized answer. Examples include:

• What do you like best about our company intranet?

• Where do you get your information on our company benefits?

Past-experience questions. These questions ask participants to think back to a time they did something and to recall those memories or actions. Rather than have participants guess how they might feel in the future, these questions provide insight into actual emotions or actions participants experienced. Giving participants the option of drawing a picture can sometimes be helpful when asking questions related to emotions, as they can often interject humor and be a bit of an ice breaker to encourage others to open up. Sample questions include:

• How did you feel the first time you used the intranet?

• Remember a time you did not find what you were looking for on the intranet. Draw a picture representing how you felt at that moment, or explain how you were feeling at that time. What did you do to resolve the issue?

Characteristic-based questions. These questions ask about the features or attributes of a survey topic and can often generate lists:

• What is the best feature of our intranet?

• What is your least favorite feature of our intranet?

• What one feature of our intranet needs the most improvement?

Influence-based questions. These are questions asked to determine what causes the participant to act:

• When are you most likely to use the intranet?

• What makes you call human resources versus use the intranet to answer your questions?

• What prompted you to use the intranet for the first time?

Using these ideas, select the core questions, perhaps five or six, that are key to the purpose of the study and that will take the most time to answer. From those, build up the sequence of questions to carry the group through the study as described in the next step.

Step 3: Plan the Question Sequence

To help ensure good flow to the discussion, there should be a plan for asking questions laid out in logical order. The focus group planner should create an outline and fit appropriate questions into a well-flowing sequence:

Introduction questions. The facilitator should first ask participants to introduce themselves, perhaps by naming their department and saying how long they have worked there. Then they can be asked one personal question, such as to name their favorite vacation destination or weekend activity. This approach tends to set the tone that we are all humans with different likes, dislikes and opinions and that differences are welcome here. The facilitator should pick a personal question that will seem to work well for the group.

Opening questions. Next the facilitator should ask more general questions to introduce the topic and to attain a general idea on opinions and feelings. Sample questions may include “What was your first reaction when you heard about the new _____?”, or “The new ________ makes me feel _______.” The answers will help the facilitator gauge how participants feel and where the discussion may be going or even get off track.

Core questions. Now is the time to ask the five or six core questions that will provide the data needed for the purpose of the study. This section will take the most time, and the questions will be more specific than those in previous steps.

Wrap-up questions. These questions will end the session and capture feelings on the overall discussion. A facilitator may summarize what was discussed and ask if anything was missed, or he or she may ask participants, “If you had the power to change one thing about the topic, what would it be?” With many comments having been heard throughout the meeting, these ending questions may help show which issues are still of most importance to participants, and what they will be waiting to see action on.