Feedback as a concept is important for the mutual growth of both employees and employers alike. Employee Satisfaction Surveys helps a business to be focused towards its goals. Over the years research has proved that an organisation which has satisfied and motivated employees contribute towards generating higher customer satisfaction and thereby influences organisational growth and performance in a positive manner.
It is critical to conduct regular pulse checks of employee satisfaction and engagement. When employees get a sense that their opinions matter to their organisation, it aids in boosting not only their morale but also their productivity. The feeling of being giving the opportunity to contribute to the workplace gives employees a great sense of responsibility and ownership. Employees feel valued if they get to share their appraisals in a safe manner.
Employee satisfaction surveys help organisations to understand and measure the attitude of their employees, satisfaction, honest feedback, and motivation. Pulse surveys conducted at regular intervals help the management of an organisation to stay up to date with the level of employee satisfaction. With the results derived from these surveys, companies can make subtle yet focused changes that help to create an enormous impact on the satisfaction level of employees.
This article is an attempt to help you understand the dynamics of an employee satisfaction survey and to conduct it in the right manner to elicit the desired outcome.
Key Points to Remember while Conducting Employee Satisfaction Surveys:
- As an organisation, always ensure that your employees feel supported, safe, respected, and comfortable throughout the feedback process.
- Do not assume the satisfaction level of employees. Always ask your employees their aspirations and provide them with ample opportunities to explore their ambitions.
- It is crucial to keep the employee satisfaction surveys crisp and to the point. Ensure that the content of the survey is relevant and ask only what matters from eliciting an effective feedback perspective.
- Come out of the traditional mode of conducting surveys once in a year. Carry out your surveys at regular intervals so that the feedback comes in a timely manner and important points do not get skipped from the mind of employees while taking the survey. If surveys are conducted at frequent intervals, you can keep your surveys shorter because there will be fewer questions.
- Do not wait forever to take action after getting the survey results. A faster implementation instils confidence in the employees that their feedback is bearing outcome.
- Ensure to keep the senior management of your organisation in the loop during these surveys. This is important because a better understand of the employees paves the way for a favourable working environment.
- After you derive the results from the survey, ensure that you share a summary of the key results. Also, share the positive outcome after implementing the employee led ideas and promote your success. This kind of transparency will encourage the employees to participate enthusiastically in your future surveys.
Things to Include in Your Employee Satisfaction Survey for Eliciting Best Results:
- Always assure the employees of anonymity, so that it encourages active participation from them. Without this assurance, you are less likely to receive honest answers.
- Give your employees a sense of where the information from the survey will be channelized and how it is going to be utilised. This will motivate them to participate in the survey.
- Ensure that you provide the employees with advice, guidance, and point of contacts in case of any troubleshooting issues while taking the survey. This ensures that you do not lose out on effective feedback due to technical glitches.
- Always provide your employees with the results and the actions taken from past surveys that were conducted. This will help in gaining the confidence of the employees that their thoughts are valued, and their opinion is given due importance. Also, by conducting such surveys at regular intervals will provide you as well with a better idea of the bigger picture. It will give you a holistic picture of how well the implemented changes are working and how it is impacting the morale of your employees.
- Create a benchmark for yourself by utilising the data collected from the survey and compare it with the data from the previous survey to derive a comparison in the satisfaction level of your employees. If your employees are aware of the effort that you are taking by comparing results of the past and present surveys, it makes them more positive about their workplace.
Employee Satisfaction Survey Failure Reasons and Corrective Measures:
- Usually, employees find it weary to take these surveys, as these surveys are mostly lengthy.
- The intent behind the surveys is clearly communicated to the employees.
- The time gap between the surveys leaves a lot of scope for too many issues to remain unaddressed because it loses its timeliness if conducted once in a year.
- The delay in implementing the plans post the survey takes away the confidence and faith of the employees.
- Conducting a survey once in a year is not enough to analyse the satisfaction level of employees.
- Do not waste the time of your employees if you do not have plans to utilise the results to implement changes within your organisation.
Corrective Measures to Fix the Flaws
- Educate your employees regarding the value and significance of these surveys and how it is going to impact them positively.
- Plan your survey well in advance by formulating the survey questions thoughtfully and plan the measures to take after deriving the results.
- Elicit frequent feedback from your employees by checking with them frequently. Do not leave open issues.
- Understand that lesser the number of questions asked, the higher the response rate of employees.
- Ask relevant questions in the surveys.
- Frame questions in such a manner that it does not make the employees uncomfortable.
Critical Success Factors for Employee Satisfaction Surveys:
- Understand the fact the when you create a survey, it generates expectations in the employees. Ensure that you manage these expectations of your employees. Communicate to them the purpose of conducting the survey and what plans you have in the pipeline post deriving the survey results.
- Encourage maximum participation by conducting floor walks by the HR team where everyone gets the message as to why the survey is conducted and how it is going to benefit them. Encourage the HR team to take questions from the employees during the floor walk.
- Share the data collected from these surveys in a simple format and promptly so that the information collected does not become stale. Take the help of user-friendly tools and provide data in a well-formatted manner so that it is easy to comprehend for everyone.
- To measure results, you must ensure to conduct these surveys periodically so that the employees get ample scope to communicate their feedback on time.
The importance of employee feedback is paramount as it helps you to gain an understanding of the current dynamics of the workplace. It also identifies the key training requirements of employees. By conducting regular surveys, you can easily figure out potential issues at an early stage and take appropriate action and thereby promote a healthy working environment.