It likely comes as no stunner that satisfied employees tend to foster happy customers, which ultimately has a favorable bottom-line effect. And in today’s shaky business environment, in which employees seem to be collectively mulling where they want to work, and why, it behooves you to get to the bottom of what your people are thinking. Such insight is key to understanding, gauging, and improving the employee experience, which is vital to attracting and retaining talent.
Surveys are a tried-and-true way to learn how your employees see things. Here are some questions to ask in employee satisfaction surveys, and more.
What is Employee Satisfaction?
Let’s start there. Employee satisfaction can be defined as the measure of an employee’s contentedness with their employment, in other words, whether they like the position and its duties. It was posited back in the 1970s that “satisfaction” hinges on the gap between what an employee expects from a job – and what they get.
What are Employee Satisfaction Surveys?
These are feedback tools that allow organizations to learn how employees feel straight from the employees. This type of survey allows employees to share their opinions and experiences, and gauges individual’s feelings of empowerment and contentment. Such surveys inquire as to the organization’s culture, employee advancement, collegial relationships, and recognition by leaders.
What are Questions I Should Ask in Employee Satisfaction Surveys?
To learn whether employees are satisfied with their gigs, you may need help from a consultant for your employee experience survey. In any case, here are some questions to get you started:
- Do you enjoy the company culture? This goes to intangibles such as collegial relationships, work environment, etc.
- Do you feel connected to colleagues? It’s an impossibility to be genuinely happy on the job is an employee feel so connection with coworkers.
- How open to change are we as a company? You want to find out how your people perceive your willingness to shift gears.
- Do your managers appreciate your feedback? Employees want to know that their ideas or opinions are valued.
- Do feel that your contributions are valued? Employees are more likely to stay if they feel their hard work is recognized.
- Is company news relayed effectively and in a timely manner? People don’t like to be surprised by news that affects them. Make sure they hear it directly, not from someone else.
- Do you feel like management is invested in the team’s success? Employees won’t be motivated if they sense that managers are just in it for the paycheck.
- How transparent is management, in your view? Employees won’t work effectively if they feel like they never know what’s going on.
- Do you feel as though work is evenly allocated across your team? Employees want to feel like everyone’s pulling their weight.
- Do you feel like your work is meaningful? These days, “meaningful” employment is more important than ever.
- Do we offer sufficient advancement opportunities? Your employees can’t be happy if you don’t actively support their career growth.
- Do you have what you need to do your job? If any tools or resources are lacking, or if employees constantly seek them out, that affects employee satisfaction.
The employee experience is key to a happy, motivated workforce and your ability to gain insights necessary to make strategic decisions, and to lure and keep employees. Surveys are a sure bet, but you need to do better than the annual, perfunctory survey, particularly if you haven’t been following up the surveys with action. You might want to do yourself a favor and enlist the help of the consultant Mercer, which offers a listening program for throughout the employee lifecycle.
