A company’s long-term potential lies in its people and its leaders. If an organization wants to build, it must listen to the needs and feedback of its team members. Gaining insights from internal stakeholders will not only influence meaningful change but doing so will also make everyone feel respected. When a company implements process improvements, employee retention and satisfaction levels will rise.
The best way to obtain these insights is through employee satisfaction surveys. These feedback mechanisms allow employees to voice their concerns. There are different strategies to launching these surveys, and we dive into them in this article. We also guide you through the best question to ask, which will produce valuable employee feedback for the leadership team.
What Is An Employee Satisfaction Survey?
An employee satisfaction survey is a tool that companies use to learn about each team member’s experience. The employees provide a unique lens about the workplace culture and leadership.
These surveys ask a series of example questions about the entire employee experience. Questions could be multiple-choice, open-ended, or scale-based. Companies can also conduct employee satisfaction surveys for a specific division or the whole company.
Why Are Employee Satisfaction Surveys So Important?
The value behind an online survey lies with the data. When the company organizes the feedback, it tells a story about how employees feel about their work-life balance, professional development, and overall opinion about the company. Statistics can guide the company toward implementing new policies and procedures for the benefit of all team members.
Below are some of the key reasons why companies coordinate employee satisfaction surveys. The human resources department used to roll out surveys once per year. Now, it is common for companies to do so on a quarterly or monthly basis.
Motivation
The long-term impact of employee surveys is invaluable. Each person’s relationship with their work will improve. Team members will want to go the extra mile to perform well. More importantly, they will shine even brighter when they see the company integrate their feedback into daily practices.
Long-term organizational success involves constant 2-way communication between employees and upper management. When employees feel connected with all levels of the organization, they will be invested in the long run.
Feedback
Employee satisfaction surveys are equally essential to the company’s decision-makers. An organization is only as good as its people, which is why employee opinions are critical to address. A feedback survey can uncover process gaps and weaknesses that leadership may not notice. These processes include onboarding, current training programs, and workplace safety.
It is vital that the company carefully assesses the feedback. Employees want to feel heard, so the company must send the message that it listened to the feedback. Feedback helps transform the business into a place where talented people want to work.
Appreciation
When companies take the time to develop an understanding of their employees, they will feel important. Team members know they are valued when the company considers their opinions. Sharing feedback will allow employees to get important things off their minds too.
As employees feel more appreciated, they will stick with the company longer. A key benefit of surveys is that they minimize employee turnover. Surveys contain essential information for the HR department and executive team to improve processes.
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.
Which Types Of Survey Questions Should You Ask In An Employee Satisfaction Survey?
So, what are some examples of great employee satisfaction survey questions? Below we broke out the best things to ask related to management, personal growth, company culture, work-life balance, and company growth.
Management Related
How would you describe your relationship with management?
On a scale of 1-10, how much does management motivate you to do a great job with your work?
On a scale of 1-10, how does your manager communicate goals to your team?
On a scale of 1-10, how much does your manager consider your input?
How does your manager work effectively with others?
Personal Growth
Does the current work environment make you a better leader and professional?
Do you have enough resources at your disposal to grow and build with the organization?
On a scale of 1-10, how much flexibility do you have to be creative within your role?
On a scale of 1-10, how engaging do you feel like your role is?
How closely does your job align with your life, career, and personal goals?
Company Culture
Do you feel like your team members are committed to doing their best work?
Do you feel like you get proper recognition when you contribute value to the organization?
On a scale of 1-10, rate the accuracy of this statement: we have a positive and strong company culture
Do you feel respect from the organization, your team, and other employees?
What areas of the organization do you think we could improve to elevate the company culture?
Work-Life Balance
Does your role provide you enough flexibility to fulfill other needs in your life?
Do you feel like you can properly handle the workload given to you?
On a scale of 1-10, how much do you experience burnout from your role?
Do you have enough time in the day to relieve stress outside of work?
On a scale of 1-10, are you able to establish strong boundaries between work and personal life?
Company Growth
When the company goes through a big change, do you understand the reasoning behind it?
On a scale of 1-10, how strongly do you agree with the statement: the growth changes the company goes through align with its long-term vision and mission.
Does the future direction of the company align with your core values and long-term goals?
How confident are you in the organization upholding its core values as it grows bigger?
What are you most excited about as the company continues to grow?
Conclusion
As you can see, there are multiple ways to gather critical employee insights. Feedback from your valued team members will help build better leaders, retain top talent, and achieve the business's long-term goals. No matter what direction you go, the most important thing is to ask the right questions. Make your team members' voices heard with thoughtful questions and survey strategies.
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