Hamas, Back To Square One Or A New Start?

Hamas has been branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, but it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation.

Hamas was formed in 1987 at the beginning of the Palestinian uprising against Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.

Since the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, it has taken part in local elections that have culminated in them winning the parliamentary elections with enough seats to form a Palestinian government.

The UN, US, EU and Russia have said that the future aid to the Palestinian Authority will hinge on the Hamas government's commitment to peace and recognising Israel.

How should the world deal with Hamas? Should the Israelis and the wider international community try and negotiate with them?


Participate in this weeks free survey Hamas, Back To Square One Or A New Start?

Bolivia's New Beginning

Bolivia have voted in Evo Morales as their president, the first of Bolivia's president to be of indigenous Indian heritage.

With a pro-coca leaf-farming policy, plans to nationalise the Bolivia's natural resources and in support of the anti-Washington coalition based around Cuba's Castro and Venezuela's Chavez he is adding to Washington's concerns for the whole region.

Evo Morales was voted into power, with a clear absolute majority, do you think he will have what it takes to improve the economy of one of the region's poorest countries and what do you think US policy towards Bolivia will be?

Participate in this weeks free survey Bolivia's New Beginning?

The Advantages, Considerations and Risks of Employee Satisfaction Surveys

There are a number of distinct advantages to conducting regular employee satisfaction online surveys but there can also be risks.

Here are listed some of the main advantages, considerations and the possible risks to conducting online employee satisfaction surveys.

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Advantages

Mood and Moral

Provides a simple but effective method to measure and monitor the mood and moral of an organisation.

Identify Problems

Surveys are can be very effective in identify problems areas before they become serious, especially those that are hidden from senior management.

Training

Lack of proper training is a common cause of dissatisfaction among employees and can lead to more serious problems such as stress.

Processes & Procedures

As businesses evolve some of the traditional processes and procedures can become antiquated, personnel are often the first to know and the last to be asked. Businesses evolve and the business processes need to be regularly re-aligned

Communication

For an organisation to run efficiently good internal and external communications are essential, surveys can provide a method to help organisations to monitor and measure how well an organisation communicates.

Working Environment

From something small like a broken chair to the more serious problem of sick building syndrome that can result in personnel experiencing headaches; eye, nose, and throat irritation; a dry cough; dry or itchy skin; dizziness and nausea; and difficulty in concentrating. Surveys allow environmental problems to be identified in a measured and controlled manner.

Goals and Objectives

Surveys can measure and monitor the extent that the personnel are aligned with the senior management's business goals and objectives.

Remuneration & Benefits

Measure and monitor how satisfied personnel are with their remuneration and benefits.

Compliance

To properly comply with an ever increasing array of regulations the modern organisation needs to be able to disseminate information throughout the organisation and ensure, through records, that the information has been received, and importantly, understood. Online surveys provide organisation with a cost effective method to meet many of their obligations.

Benchmark

In the same way that an organisation will consider their financial position by comparison with previous years, so the regular use of online surveys will allow an organisation to monitor and measure their progress and development in non-financial terms.

Keeping the Initiative

It is always better for management to ask than be told. By conducting regular employee surveys management are able to keep the initiative in trying to identify problems that may otherwise manifest into demands.

Cost Effective

Using an online survey service such as www.surveygalaxy.com survey are quick and easy to create, simple to deploy and will provide real-time results.

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Considerations

Anonymous

The decision to allow respondents to remain anonymous or not needs careful consideration. A survey that is conducted anonymously may allow employees to be more candid, however, anonymity may encourage some individuals to make wild accusations that can not be substantiated and cause considerable concern. When in doubt it is often better to keep everything 'on the record' rather than 'off'.

Where survey respondents are known there is the opportunity to chase for surveys that have not been completed and also to follow up on some issues directly with those employees who have raised them as problems.

Management Backing

A survey that is both sanctioned and has the support of senior management will go some way in ensuring that any action required, based on the survey findings, will be implemented.


Incentive

Most employees will feel that by being able to give their opinions that they are already stakeholders in the exercise and will be happy to participate in the survey as they will expect to benefit from the process.

However, some incentive may help improve the overall response rate or could be used to encourage early participation.

Smaller incentives could be handed out to all employees or all participating employees could be entered into a lottery to receive a more substantial prize.


Ask the right questions
Consider careful the questions being asked. If employees feel that the survey is just trying to tick the right boxes the survey could backfire.

A survey that is to be conducted annually should try and ask questions that will provide senior management with an overall health check of the organisation.

Avoid questions that will only apply to specific departments or personnel. If some areas of the organisation require detailed investigation consider running separate one-off surveys that can be targeted at specific personnel.

Comments

Keep free text comments to a minimum because they are difficult and time consuming to measure and analyse.

Consider limiting free text comments to one at the end of the survey or, in the case of surveys that are not being conducted anonymously, allow for a post-survey follow-up to obtain more information where additional and more specific detail is required.

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Risks

Non-Action

Many employees will invest time and effort in participating in a survey and their hopes and expectations will be raised. Any post-survey non-action is likely to promote cynicism and jeopardise any future initiatives to obtain employee feedback.

Management should formally respond to the issues raised in surveys even if the demands of employees are not to be met. If senior management agree to address and resolve some issues then action needs to have started before any further survey is scheduled.

Management

Some managers can regard any form of employee consultation as a sign of weakness and may have a tendency to dismiss out of hand any negative comment.

Warts and All

A survey is likely to reveal warts and all. Senior management should be prepared for discovering that the top down view can differ from the bottom up view and that ignorance, of any identified problems, can no longer be used as an excuse.

Can Cause Problems

Where surveys reveal, or bring problems, to the surface there could be a tendency for senior management to blame the messenger.

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Summary

The potential benefits of conducting regular online employee surveys are considerable, but for surveys to be effective important upfront considerations need to be made. Although the process of conducting a survey can be therapeutic in itself it is the post-survey analysis, response and action that will ultimately determine how useful and effective the process has been.

Bizarre or Exotic Children Names?

Although the majority of US and British parents still prefer traditional names for their offspring, more and more parents are now choosing to give their newborn unique and unusual names.

For obvious reasons celebrity parents who give their children unusual names are in the spotlight but will they start a trend or just be viewed as bizarre?

We have made a short list of some celebrities who have given unusual names to their children and we ask you to say that having such names their children should grown up feeling that they are blessed, or cursed?

Participate in this weeks free survey Bizarre or Exotic Children Names?

What are your predictions for 2006?

Looking ahead to what 2006 might bring.


Yes it's time to predict what 2006 will bring, peace in the Middle East would be nice but do we really think that is possible in twelve years let alone twelve months?

From a short list of events we ask you to pick those events that you would most like to happen and also ask you to rate the chances of some predictions we have thought up coming true.

Participate in this weeks free survey 2006 Predictions

Customized Style

Want to know how easy it is to customize the style of your survey so that it compliments your corporate style, or just stands out from the crowd.

We have just released a short tutorial that demonstrates how easy it is to change display attributes such as the background colour and the default font.

Because we break the survey down into groups of common elements you can change the style of your survey quickly, for example changing the style of one question will automatically change the style for all the questions, and new items added will automatically adopt the new style.

The customized styles are all stored in your personal library so they can be applied to other surveys making the whole process quick, easy and efficient.

For more details please see Customize the Style of your Survey

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and all the very best in 2006.

Merry Christmas to all

I would just like to take the opportunity to wish all who celebrate Christmas - the Survey Galaxy subscribers, regular visitors or anyone who just happens to be passing by - a very happy Christmas.

We hope you all have a good time and all your Xmas wishes come true.

Blogs

Well if your reading this the chances are that you know what a blog is.

Although blogs have been around in some form on the Internet since 1993 it wasn't until the blog explosion of 2004 that the world went blogging mad and now blogs, blogging and bloggers are everywhere.

However, although more and more people blog there are many others who have no interest or have still yet to discover blogging.

Are you a blogger that has your own blog? Do you blog for business or pleasure? Has a blog ever affected your relationship with someone in a good or bad way?

This weeks survey is Blogs - he's got one, she's got one, have you got one?

Torture by Proxy?

There is now strong evidence that hundreds of CIA flights have landed at European airports with the suggestion that terrorist suspects have been on board on the way to secret interrogation camps in eastern Europe, Egypt, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw have both issued carefully worded statement that still leaves wide open the question that the US are complicit, along with their allies, in torturing detainees by proxy.

Have both the US and British governments now become the very people that they have in the past so publicly denounced? Is there any justification for torturing suspects? If there is sufficient evidence to suggest that either government were complicit in torturing detainees should they be tried as criminals? Extraordinary rendition - where do you stand?

Participate in this weeks free survey Torture by Proxy

Branching Comes to Town

As it is the season of goodwill we are pleased to offer all our members a new branching facility.

Branching is the term used that can ask a participant a number of follow-up questions, or conversely skip over a number of questions, depending on their response.

For example, for those respondents that answer 'Yes' to the question "Do you drive?" a number of follow-up questions could be asked about their driving habits, while for those that answer 'No' they can be taken automatically to the next section.

In many cases the need for branching can be eliminated and at the same time the survey streamlined and made more user friendly. However, in some cases it is desirable and necessary and so we are happy to provide it as a feature.

Branching is only applicable for single radio responses, but all types of questions can utilize the 'Jump To' facility that is included with Branching to allow blocks of questions to be established.

To use branching create and design your survey in the usual way. From the Composer screen set the Preview Mode (found at the top of the right-hand side of the dynamic survey display) to Branches.

A list of valid branches will appear next to each single radio response and a 'Jump to' section under each question.

If you use the branching facility please thoroughly test your survey before inviting people to complete the survey and ensure all branching works as you intend it to as branching logic will add a level of complication to a survey.


Should you need any assistance in using branching please do not hesitate to contact us using the Help Request found on the Information Page.

The Christmas Survey 2005

Well we are well into December now so it is perfectly acceptable that this weeks public survey is to do with Christmas.

With the lights going up, cards being sent and your bank balance being drained ... this week we ask you if you think it is all worth it?

Take part in The Christmas Survey

Have you provided for your retirement?

With people now living longer and a decade of poor performing saving plans many countries are experiencing a crisis with regards to providing any state pension.

Some countries have already taken action while others are considering asking people to work longer, or making it mandatory that people contribute towards their own pensions.

Workers are being told that they can no longer expect pensions that are linked to their final salaries and some people are finding that the savings that they had made are no longer adequate to maintain the lifestyle that they expected.

What is your own attitude towards retirement, do you feel that you are making adequate provision or are you just living for today?

Take part in this public survey Have you provided for your retirement?

Phishing - whose responsibility?

Phishermen’ trick people into revealing their personal details (such as their passwords or credit card numbers) by imitating reputable websites. This is known as ‘phishing’.

Phishermen create website that closely resemble the home pages of online banks and commercial websites such as E-bay. They then send millions of emails out using mailing lists that give the people receiving the email the impression that they are receiving an official message from each website asking them to confirm their security details by clicking on a link.

If the request is actioned the person will be taken to the fake website, where they will be persuaded to attempt to log on and as they do so their security details are recorded. The fake website tells them that an invalid password was entered and to try again at which point they are often sent to the bona-fide website where the person successfully logs on.

The person is often unaware that a third-party has now recorded their security details and the bona-fide website is not aware of any problem.

There are many variations but in all cases it is an attempt to get people to part with security information that can then be used dishonestly by a third-party.

Where security is breached in this way who do you think should be held responsible for any loss?

Take part in this weeks survey Phishing - whose responsibility?

The Best And Worst Chat Up Lines

In our survey to find the best and worst chat up lines currently in the lead is perhaps the oldest chat up line "Can I buy you a drink?" with "I've lost my phone number can I have yours?"in second and "If I said you had a beautiful body would you hold it against me?" trailing in third place.

The top two are as equally popular for both male and females but males put "If I could rearrange the alphabet I'd put U and I together" in third place while the girls have a three way tie for "Get your coat love, you've pulled", "Your clothes would look great on my bedroom floor" and "I've lost my phone number, can I have yours?"

When it comes to the worst chat up lines "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" and "How do you like your eggs? Fertilised?" head the list for both sexes.

Some of the best other suggestions were "Is your surname Jacobs? Because you look an absolute cracker" and "I may not be Wilma Flintstone but I know I could make your bedrock"

Why not register your own vote here The Best And Worst Chat Up Lines.

Who Has Been The Greatest Film Villain Of All Time?

They can be mean and down right dirty, crooked to the hilt and corrupt beyond all hope, they include outlaws and gangsters some wouldn't hesitate to sell out their own brother, some even their mother.

They can be sly and devious, take delight as well as a helping hand in other peoples misfortunes, often immoral nearly always deceitful but despite their many faults they can intrigue and delight their audience.

For nearly every film hero there is a villain, sometimes more fascinating than the film's main character.

Take our survey and choose which villains from our short list of memorable movie villains that you would rate as your top three most villainous - the ones that you would least like to meet alone down a dark alley?

Who Has Been The Greatest Film Villain Of All Time?.

Forms - Bringing A New Dimension To Surveys

A new feature Email Responses will allow publishers to receive via email a copy of respondents responses on completion of a survey. This is useful for low volume surveys saving the publisher time in periodically monitoring the response rate but really comes into its own for organisations wanting to set up forms.

In this context a form is any set of questions that once answered is likely to require an action.

Forms for example can be used for initial sales enquiries so that the potential client's requirements can be clarified early allowing a business to better manage their sale enquiry responses. First impressions count and by being more informed of the potential customer's requirements a business can respond from the outset in a more professional and positive manner.

For business that provide expensive information packs to their potential customers a simple enquiry form will be able to identify unsuitable enquiries.

Forms can be used internally throughout an organisations for everything from booking meeting rooms, requesting stationary to travel and holiday requests. Any request that is normally followed by "you will have to fill out this form" can now be conducted online saving people time and reducing paperwork. As all responses are still captured in a database you will, at any time, be able to analyse requests, for example, for year end audits.

By creating an online form an organisation can ensure that the right questions have been asked and the necessary boxes ticked, the second the form has been completed the responses are emailed to the publisher for further action.

To benefit from this feature simply create and design your form as you would a normal survey and include the 'Email Responses' option when publishing. The 'Email Responses' can be deactivate and activated for a published survey through the survey's Edit Details menu option.

This feature is a per survey optional extra under the Pay-As-You-Go payment plan and is included free of charge for all subscribers who have an active subscription.

Is a bird flu pandemic inevitable?

Delegates from 100 nations recently met at the World Health Organization headquarters in San Francisco and were urged to prepare against the avian flu or risk a human pandemic that scientists fear could kill millions and cause up to $800 billion in economic damage worldwide.

Migratory wildfowl are carrying the so-called H5N1 strain of avian influenza allowing it to spread from Asia to Eastern Europe and appears to be heading towards Africa.

Half of those that have so far contracted Avian Flu have died and although so far there have been no recorded cases scientist believe that it is only a matter of time before an avian influenza, most likely the H5N1 strain, acquires the ability to be transmitted human-to-human.

Existing vaccines for seasonal influenza are regarded as ineffective against any new strain.

With international travel now being common place when this happens scientist warn that the next pandemic will cause incalculable human misery.

How informed do you feel and how concerned are you that the predictions of untold deaths and economical consequences could become a reality?

Register your views by participating in our survey Is a bird flu pandemic inevitable?.

Can You Keep A Promise?

How good are you at keeping promises?

Do you give them with gay abandon or are you someone who only gives a promises on rare occasions?

Do you think any worse of people who break their promises or do you take the promises that people make to you with a pinch of salt?

We invite you take part in our survey on promises by clicking on this link Can You Keep A Promise.

New Report Facility

Changes have been made to the format of the Respondent Activity Monitor so that the displayed information is clearer.

When requesting the download of the detailed results you are now able to choose to receive the 'Results Document'. This is a file that will be provided in HTML format containing all of the individual survey responses in a format that can be locally viewed using a browser and/or printed.

This facility is ideally suited for surveys that contain a number of questions that allow free text comment responses as well as providing a method for customers to archive locally their information in a readable format either electronically or in hardcopy form.

The new facility will incur a small charge for Pay-As-You-Go customers and included free of charge for customers who have an active personal or enterprise subscription.