You’re going to have to bear with me this week, readers, as I’m going to be talking about a story that didn’t actually run in this week’s paper because we didn’t have the room.
However, I’ve been thinking about this issue a little since last week’s Pembina Hills meeting and I wanted to delve into it.
As detailed in the rather lengthy story on Page 6A-7A, Pembina Hills trustees recently reviewed the results of the annual Satisfaction Survey report that is conducted earlier in the year with students, staff and parents.
During that presentation, assistant superintendent of education services Mark Thiesen mentioned they hire temporary staff to actually call out to parents and get their responses. Many of you who have children in the school division have no doubt received these calls.
Thiesen mentioned that the parent portion of the survey had been attempted in the past using entirely online methods, ie. asking parents to e-mail in their responses. Apparently, it was a dismal failure, as the response rate dropped drastically.
Even by phoning parents directly, Pembina Hills only reaches about 53 per cent of potential respondents. Apparently their bar for success is just 50 per cent.
Now let’s delve into a discussion that wasn’t addressed in that huge story.
Amidst Thiesen’s presentation of the results, the trustees actually discussed the possibility conducting the survey by e-mail again. They took note of the fact that approximately 97.9 per cent of parents now indicate they have access to Internet at home, which is a considerable jump from the last time the e-mail option was attempted.
And while Thiesen couldn’t given them a hard number about how much the phone survey cost, trustees rightly pointed out it would add up to a fair amount of money, as the total amount of manpower hours required to conduct the survey totaled up to 416.
I know some of the impetus for this change is coming from the community, as board chair Jennifer Tuininga mentioned there was at least one parent who was in favour of sending her responses in via e-mail.
Certainly there is an argument to be made for conducting the survey by e-mail, as it would save both money and some time on the part of the parents.
That said, I don’t think it’s a great idea.
I think the trustees are a little off the mark in thinking that Internet access was a factor in limiting e-mail responses. I think it’s simply a matter of people being deluged with things like this in our day and age.
Speaking for myself, I’m constantly being asked to fill out customer surveys at stores and online. But even when there’s an actual incentive to fill out a customer survey, like being entered in a prize draw, I personally don’t make the effort most of the time, even when it would only take a couple of minutes.
And I think most people are in the same boat. We just have a lot of things competing for our time, and filling out surveys isn’t the most enthralling way to spend it. Plus, there’s just so many of them.
But a phone call is harder to dismiss than an online survey. You’re not dismissing a faceless corporation’s efforts to steal more of your personal data, you’re dismissing a person who just wants a little bit of your time to assess the effectiveness of your children’s education., which might prove beneficial.
Yes, having to complete a survey over the phone is a pain, and it probably carries a hefty financial cost. But if the results of the satisfaction survey are important to the division, I think that burden must be shouldered by the division and parents.
