Google Forms is software for creating surveys that is part of Google Workspace and has a wide range of potential applications. It’s designed to be user-friendly and easy to create and share surveys at work, and can form an important part of your workplace toolkit.
It doesn’t matter if you are new to this application or use it regularly. Here we look at what Google Forms is and how to use it creatively at work.
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What is Google Forms?
Google Forms is survey software that allows you to create various surveys and share them with your team. When creating your form, you have several options to choose from so you can get the answers you need. These include paragraph and rich text answers, checkboxes and multiple choice, grids, file uploads, and number scales.
You can upload images to your form to make it stand out and add collaborators so you can collaborate with others on the responses you receive. Once you’ve filled out your form, all you have to do is click Send at the top right of the screen and choose to share it via email, link, or use an embed code.
1. Get feedback on new processes
When new processes are implemented at work, there is often a period when employees need to adapt and sometimes issues or difficulties can be uncovered that were not previously flagged. In these cases, you might want to get feedback on how things are going.
Creating a Google Form for this gives employees the opportunity to make their voices heard. However, it is also an opportunity to fix problems before they spread.
For this type of survey, you should use the following features of forms:
- Linear scaling— to add ratings or agree/disagree options.
- check box– to get an idea of preferred or unfavorable characteristics.
- Short answer or Unit volume—for detailed information.
2. Request ideas for a project
During the initial planning phase of a project, it is important to get the employee perspectives of your target audience. Just because something makes sense for your project team doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. Also, there may be useful ideas that you haven’t considered.
If you want ideas, make sure the google form allows free text answers instead of restricting answers to multiple choice. For this reason, Short answer or Unit volume are ideal format options.
However, keep in mind that if you’re going to send the form to a wide audience, you’ll have to work through a lot of information. Depending on the scope of your project, this type of survey may be more appropriate for a small group of people.
3. Streamline communication
In larger companies with several departments, you should try to streamline communication as much as possible. Otherwise, you might find employees being bombarded with emails and updates from these different departments without really having things organized.
To do this, you should create a standard Google form template for departments to send their communications to. You can then summarize this information in an email every two weeks or monthly and send it to the team.
You can see all the information from the answers Tab on the Google form, and just copy and paste as needed.
4. Personnel Application Forms
There are many reasons why employees need to fill out a form to request something. This can be for new devices, support, meetings with other departments and much more.
Instead of using Google Docs for these requests, you can create a Google form. This allows you to better document who is requesting what and keep the information in one place rather than splitting it across multiple documents.
Request forms work best for a mix of multiple selection, check box, Short answerand Unit volume, But you can also use the date and check box Options depending on what information you need.
5. Submit IT requests and issues
Your workplace may already have a phone line or email address to respond to IT-related issues, but using Google Forms to manage this information can prove very useful. Not only can you ask specific questions to gather information about the problem, but you can also spot trends.
For example, you could include multiple selection Questions like:
- Did you refresh the page or restart your computer?
- Do you have problems with the internet connection?
- Is this the first time you have this problem?
And then you have a place for a below Short answer or Unit volume, so employees can write more details about the problem they are having.
6. Collection of Data
You may need to collect data about certain areas of your business and how it operates. It could be how employees view the wellbeing offered at work or what the workload looks like on a weekly basis. Whatever the reason, a Google Form is a quick and easy way to do it without the need for time-consuming meetings or workgroups. It also allows you to be proactive about things instead of just reacting.
To do this, you should use questions that give a numeric answer so you can seamlessly assemble the data rather than having to wade through a lot of text. For this reason, linear scale, multiple choice, and check box are the best options.
You could also include Short answer or Unit volume However, if you are interested in qualitative data, you should be aware of how large your audience is and what that might mean for report writing.
Leverage Google Forms to its potential
You can use Google Forms for almost any purpose where you need answers from other people. You can save time in meetings and create multiple separate documents at work by opting for one form instead.
If you haven’t tried Google Forms for some of the examples above, give it a try and see if it’s something that fits your goals.
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