By Scott Costa, Publisher, tED magazine
A few years ago, I wrote about taking part in research that comes to my e-mail inbox. It’s not my favorite thing to do.
But it ranks much higher than making decisions without having any research to back them up. Especially these days.
NAED has grown into an extremely flexible machine when it comes to providing information to its members from the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of that information comes from you.
“Participating in our research and surveys and engaging with us and letting us know what you are thinking helps us a lot,” Erin Prinster, Research and Data Analyst for NAED recently said during a DistributED with tED magazine podcast. “And this is why data is so important, and to have that data, and the more of it the better. We rely on data to assist our members, and we get a lot of data from our member participation.”
Like many of you, travel has been extremely limited for NAED and its staff members. Now is an essential time to provide information about what is happening in electrical distribution throughout North America, and the best way to do that is through NAED surveys. “We at NAED learn from your opinions and the facts that you are willing to share with us,” Prinster added. “That data provides more benchmarking, more insight, and it assists us in solving industry-wide problems. So, the more participation, the better. And the sample size gets bigger, and the higher the chances for good statistical analysis comes into play, too. And that means better results for you to help you drive decisions that you are making in your day to day business.”
A number of NAED surveys are created to capture reactions to what is happening at the moment. One example is with all of the information related to strategy and the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, NAED created shorter, more immediate-focused surveys for members. “It doesn’t take long to fill out,” Prinster says. “Right now—perfect example—we have opportunities for people to be engaged. The surveys take less than 2 minutes to take part in.” The NAED research team turns those results around quickly for NAED members to review.
Erika TenEyck, NAED’s Director of Research and Development, reiterated the importance of participation to reflect current mindsets, concerns, and successes. “We want to make sure we have a good sample size because Erin and I do not work in a vacuum. I’d love to take credit for all of our ideas, but, frankly, they don’t all come from us—they come from our members. We need that input and we need that guidance because we want to provide that industry specific information for you. There is a lot going on and a lot to wade through, and we want to help you break through that noise, and in order to do that, we need to hear from you.”
NAED is still creating the larger, benchmarking surveys for members, like PAR and employee compensation. But, many of our members need immediate information, and the NAED research team provides that as quickly as possible. To take a survey, you should watch for an e-mail from NAED Communications, which will usually have a very short and very specific subject line.
Tagged with NAED, survey