Any business has people at the center of it. Working on ways to improve employee’s job satisfaction must be one of the top priority for companies, to ensure continued success. Conventionally, financial compensation has been the most preferred method of improving employee satisfaction.

But research says that employees look beyond salary and compensations. Today’s employees also focus on company’s values, career trajectory and management roles. When employees are satisfied with their work, they become more productive. Successful companies are propelled by their employees. So, it should be a key focus for companies to maintain employee satisfaction.

But, why do people quit companies? The reasons can be varied from unsupportive bosses to not belonging to a team. Most times employees feel their hard work isn’t being valued. Employees may even feel they’re underpaid. 

Let’s see how we can keep a pulse on employee sentiments. Normally, discussions with employees happen just once a year during the appraisal times. But these once-a-year meetings really do not represent the employee’s feelings throughout the year. The simplest method is to talk to employees regularly are through surveys. 

Employee satisfaction surveys can be based on various aspects like Inclusion and belonging, Compensation, Financial benefits and wellness, Health benefits, Supervisor performance, Career development, Work environment, Gender equity in the workplace and Team performance.

Importance of Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Unsatisfied employees can influence the organization in multiple ways. Since employees don’t like their jobs, it takes a toll on their productivity. Such employees might negatively affect the work environment, and other workers. This affects employee retention and increases attrition. With unsatisfied people in the company, it may also become difficult to attract fine talent.

To improve the organisation from bottom-up, conducting employee satisfaction surveys at regular intervals can always help. Specialists in the field recommend conducting such surveys at least twice in a year. Few companies focused on continuous improvement also conduct it once in a quarter. Anonymous Online surveys help employees to share their true thoughts.

What all can you measure through surveys?

Employee surveys are significant to learn about employee morale, satisfaction and sense of belonging with the organisation etc. Medical advantages, health programs, remuneration, managers’ performance, career progression, work environment: are the areas you can investigate in a structured manner. The more you are aware of your employee’s feelings, the easier it is to motivate them with necessary improvements that they expected from the organisation.

Tips to improve your employee feedback

While building a questionnaire it is essential to ensure as many responses as possible so that you get the most representative set of information about the employees’ outlook. Make the process easy for the employee by:

• Guarantying anonymity - Reassure that employees views will be confidential. This helps in getting honest responses along with employee feeling a sense of security.

• Easy of taking up the survey – Using the right technology is crucial to get most responses. The survey needs to be short with simple language 

Few must ask questions that will help you in knowing more about your employee:

• Employee’s views on the company’s culture? Is the employee’s feedback valued by the manager?

• Does the employee feel that superiors convey company updates adequately and in a timely manner?

• Is the work evenly distributed amongst employee’s team?

• Is the organization offering enough opportunities for career advancement? And so on.

Interpreting the Outcome of Survey

Survey results should be analysed without any biases. HR experts ought to benchmark their survey results alongside industry norms or other benchmarks. Regardless of third-party or in-house data collection, weeding out meaningless results is essential for a balanced survey result. Businesses likewise should also decide how to categorize the outcomes and make necessary segments to increase data utility. Outcomes should not be discounted. Useful insights can be used to mentor senior leaders.

Post survey Actions and managing feedback data

The study on Employees’ perspective on the company is a good thing to have. The outcomes and assessments should be shared with various relevant teams and take necessary corrective changes.

Benchmark your surveys. Follow-up surveys will be more valuable in getting a continuous insight. Comparing two surveys can be a good yardstick of implemented changes and the progress made. External bench-marking is also important as it helps you know the best practices in your industry. 

Once we have the outcomes, it’s time to decide which areas are to be addressed. Prioritize the areas to work upon and form a plan for action. The subsequent stage is to plan for what will be done, by whom and by when. An effective means of producing ideas for improvement activities can be done by brainstorming. It is a continuous cycle of people generating solutions by evaluation or validation. The more thoughts created, the more prospects there are for critical thinking and problem-solving. Planning action for improvement is a journey and not just an event. After deciding upon subtleties of what is to be done, who will be doing that and by when; it’s a smart move to review your plan.

Follow up is fundamental to survey success. Follow-up surveys reinforce the employee’s confidence in the organisation, as it shows that the organisation is serious about their feedback and their opinions / suggestions are being incorporated. These results can be helpful in building cross-functional teams’ efficiencies aswell.

Employee survey should have a life cycle within an organisation. The surveys need to be conducted at regular intervals as wells as employees encouraged to take-up these surveys for continuous improvements in the current system. Prompt corrective measures taken at the right time can improve employee productivity.