What is the Best Way to Conduct a Satisfaction Survey?
There are many ways to conduct surveys and improve employee performance, engagement, and satisfaction. Depending on what type of data you want to collect, there is a survey for every goal.
Pulse Survey
A pulse survey is a shorter survey that goes out every week, month, or two weeks. It is a quick gauge of the company’s health. Employees can have effective insights on things like workplace safety, good work environment, satisfaction with job responsibilities, and cross-functional communication.
Employee Net Promoter Score
Employer net promoter score is a spun-off metric from net promoter score or NPS. This survey format is an accurate measure of employee loyalty. Employer net promoter score will tell you how likely an employee is to recommend your organization to their friends or family.
Talent acquisition is an important component of your organization. An employer NPS will explain gaps in the employee experience that would prevent people from referring new talent to your company.
Net promoter scores will do a great job at gauging feedback because of the scale aspect. Instead of yes/no questions, the survey will ask employees to rate topics from 1-10. Here is a breakdown of what the different scores mean for your employee advocates:
- A score of 0-6: employees who score in this range are not satisfied with the company and will spread negative things about the organization.
- A score of 7-8: these scores include “passive” employees or are not disengaged with your organization, but they are also not invested in the company for the long run.
- A score of 9-10: these are the most loyal team members and satisfied employees in the organization and will spread the good news about your company wherever they go.
Employee Engagement Questionnaire
An employee engagement survey will gauge how important your team members feel. The answers will give you an idea of how well leadership treats employees and how valued they feel. This survey is especially important because it can provide insights on how to decrease employee turnover.
Onboarding
An onboarding survey does to employees that just start working with the company. While the survey will not yield feedback about the working experience, it will give insights into the onboarding and recruiting process. Companies can apply this feedback to optimize the onboarding process and get new employees started on the right foot.
Exit Interview
Companies deploy exit interview surveys when a team member is leaving the organization. These survey results will be separated from the ex-employees file and can help improve the organization in many ways. For example, the employee can give you feedback on how to improve the specific position he or she is leaving.
Exit interviews are effective because the employee may be more candid with you. Because they are leaving the organization, they may not hold back with any negative feedback. The key is leveraging this feedback to obtain an even better employee next time.
5 Tips for Getting More Productive Answers with Employee Satisfaction Surveys
Now that you understand the different ways to conduct a survey, you must understand best practices when implementing the survey. If you want to obtain meaningful data for process improvement, your team must plan the survey extremely well.
Many factors go into creating a survey that gets a lot of engagement. These components include the topic, timing, survey length, quality of questions, and format.
Decide on a Clear Topic
Every effective survey is a clear, end goal in mind. The survey may have a wide range of questions, but each answer will contribute toward a single theme. As the employees navigate through the questions, they should not be confused about the intent of the survey.
The best topic should revolve around the company and its current state. Each question should relate to how the employees perceive the current health of the organization. Health can be measured in different ways, such as workplace safety, culture, communication, and the relationship between leadership and employees.
Choose the Timing Wisely
When it comes to launching an effective survey, timing is key. You want your team members to assess their most recent work experience but form a more wide-ranging perspective. Before you launch the survey, it would be best to consider what events are going on from top to bottom in the organization.
For example, you would not want to launch a safety training survey within 24 hours of doing the training. You want your employees to take a couple of weeks to reflect on the training and how it helped them do their work better.
Consider the Length of the Survey
As you develop the list of questions for the survey, you want to remain relevant throughout. Each question should contribute to the organization’s goals in one way or another. This concept leads to the importance of striking a balance between a survey being too long or too short. For example, an annual survey may not give you enough insights, but a weekly survey may create fatigue among the workers.
External company events are also good indicators for surveys. For example, the recent pandemic changed a lot about the way companies do things. Launching surveys to gauge employee morale during these times is critical.
Ask Meaningful Questions
The most important thing about your survey is the quality of the question. You want to ask questions that produce actionable and insightful results. Some questions may apply to a specific set of events, while others will gauge progress over some time.
Decide on a Proper Format
As you decide on the best survey format, pick an alternative that communicates the best answers. Perhaps you can mix in a variety of multiple-choice questions, open-ended questions, and scale questions. That way, you can satisfy all communication types and get the most insights from your employees.