Employee surveys have evolved significantly over the past few years to become a critical component of effective HR management, regardless of what type of employee survey is used. In the past, many organizations viewed employee surveys as simply a human-resource driven initiative that gave their employees the opportunity to "let off steam" but had little strategic value. As a result, the results were often not regarded highly enough outside of HR for any positive action to be taken. It's quite a different situation today, with employee surveys now being seen by many large and small organizationsas a major business improvement tool.