Employee surveys and the works council
When planning an employee survey, you should involve the works council at an early stage. This also applies where the specific survey is not subject to co-determination in every respect. Open collaboration builds trust in the survey’s purpose, process and anonymity. It improves acceptance and can encourage employees to take part.
Agree the objectives, subject areas, data-protection measures and communications for the survey together.
Table of Contents
The role of the works council in employee surveys
The German Works Constitution Act (§ 80(1) no. 1 and § 80(2) BetrVG) gives the works council extensive rights to information from the employer so that it can carry out its statutory duties. The works council may also conduct employee surveys itself to obtain information. Its questions must fall within its statutory remit. The survey must not disrupt business operations or workplace relations.
Employee surveys conducted by the works council
Case law has generally recognised employee surveys conducted by the works council. The questions must concern its statutory duties and must not intrude on the employer’s sphere or disrupt business operations or workplace relations.
A survey can help the works council understand employees’ concerns more clearly and align its work accordingly:
Make better-informed decisions: The findings show which issues matter to employees.
Enable participation: Employees see that their perspective is taken into account.
Encourage dialogue: In smaller organisations, employee views can be gathered purposefully and reflected in the council’s work.
Co-determination when the employer conducts a survey
Employee surveys conducted by the employer may be subject to co-determination if the technical system is capable of monitoring employees’ performance or conduct (§ 87(1) no. 6 BetrVG). The works council may request information about the analysis where it is likely that the findings concern its duties. The Federal Labour Court confirmed this in its decision of 8 June 1999 (1 ABR 28/97).
Collaboration builds trust
An employee survey is generally not a personnel questionnaire within the meaning of § 94 BetrVG. Regardless of the legal classification, it is in the employer’s interest to involve the works council in the survey project. Both sides may pursue shared aims, such as improving employee satisfaction. An agreed approach increases acceptance and willingness to take part. It also builds trust where the works council can review the data-protection measures and understand how anonymity is safeguarded.
We recommend involving the works council and, where appropriate, providing it with its own user account in the survey tool. Detailed information is available in our help centre: User management, permissions and approvals
Running an anonymous employee survey safely
The most frequent questions concern anonymity and data protection. Information about how we handle your data is available in our data processing agreement. In an anonymous survey, neither you nor we can link results or responses to individual participants. This also applies to people invited through LamaPoll.
Plan the questionnaire and analysis so that cross-tabulations cannot identify individual participants. Involve the works council and, where appropriate, the data protection officer at an early stage.
Avoid identifiable combinations of characteristics: Questions about gender, length of service, department and income can make individual employees identifiable when combined. The same applies to attributes and other segments. Keep them general and use them with care.
What is LamaPoll?
LamaPoll is a survey tool for creating employee surveys and measuring employee satisfaction. You can use it to create, conduct and analyse all types of employee survey. Create your employee survey in just a few steps, apply your organisation’s corporate design and invite employees conveniently by email or via your intranet. You can quickly gain insights that help improve employee satisfaction. You can register for our survey tool free of charge and immediately conduct surveys for up to 50 employees with no obligation. If you need more responses to your online employee survey questionnaire, simply choose one of our monthly plans. You can also use our employee survey questionnaire templates and examples.
