It’s been said that happy employees equal happy customers, and there is much truth to that.
When it comes to customer service and the overall experience, employees play a monumental role. They are the people who interact with customers on a regular basis and sell your product or service – which means if employees aren’t happy, it’ll translate directly to your customer’s experience.
As a tactic to combat low employee morale, employee satisfaction surveys emerged to help identify any internal issues and understand employee sentiment. Using the insight gathered from surveys, businesses can adjust operations and provide a healthy work environment that promotes employee retention and revenue growth. Because when employees get excited about coming to work they show up more committed and enthusiastic.
In this article, we’re taking a deeper look into employee satisfaction surveys, how it correlates with employee engagement, and the questions you should be asking in your employee satisfaction survey. Let’s begin.
What Is An Employee Satisfaction Survey?
An employee satisfaction survey is a tool to measure the overall environment and well-being of employees, company-wide. Usually anonymous, an employee satisfaction survey is particularly helpful in pinpointing areas of company strength and weakness that relate to the rise and fall of employee morale or employee churn.
With its implementation, specific areas like work-life balance, management, communication, overall culture and much more, are measured. Employee satisfaction surveys are highly noted for their impact on engagement and fostering a feedback community that allows the employee to be heard.
Why Is Employee Engagement So Important?
As mentioned, a huge outcome of implementing employee satisfaction surveys is an increase in employee engagement. As it stands today, there is a big disparity where businesses lack the ability to fully engage their employees. In a Gallup poll, it was revealed that 53 percent of U.S employees were “not engaged” and 13% percent were “actively disengaged.” This can be concerning for many businesses, as disengagement can have some pretty big repercussions. According to Gallup, an actively disengaged employee can cost an organization $3,400 for every $10,000 of salary, or 34 percent – a huge chunk of spending that could be used towards customer-facing initiatives.
On the flip side, when employees are engaged in the workplace, businesses can reap a great deal of benefits including, but not limited to:
- 21% increase in productivity
- 37% lower absenteeism
- 65% lower turnover (in low-turnover organizations)
- 48% fewer safety incidents
- 41% fewer quality incidents
- 10% higher customer metrics
- 22% higher profitability
Clearly, employees engagement has an impact on many aspects of your business, which makes it critical to understand and master.
Where Employee Satisfaction Surveys Come In
In order to effectively engage employees, you have to understand them. With employee satisfaction surveys, businesses can measure employee sentiment from a variety of touch points in the employee journey like onboarding or after a promotion. This gives visibility into where employees are the happiest, what they enjoy versus what they don’t and give them an opportunity to express their feelings.
Sample Employee Engagement Survey Questions
Today, in order to create the most effective employee survey that extracts the most information, we’re sharing the 12 questions you should be asking in an employee satisfaction survey.
1. Do you find the work you’re doing meaningful?
In order to feel motivated in the workplace, an employee has to find purpose in each task they’re doing. This question is great for understanding if the work you are assigning aligns with their expectations and desires.
2. Would you recommend this organization as a place to work to a friend?
Based on the common Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey, this question can help identify employee satisfaction. This is great when used in conjunction with other probing questions so you can get a more granular view of satisfaction.
3. Are you are equipped with the tech tools you need to succeed?
If you’re looking to evaluate your current tools or to make an investment in new technology, this is a great question to help you understand what is most useful for your team and what they feel will help your brand succeed.
4. Do you feel objectives are defined and communicated effectively?
This question is insightful to management and their ability to communicate your brand’s objectives clearly. If a large number of employees state that their communication isn’t clear, it might be time for management to have more one-on-one time with employees.
5. Do you feel there is a welcoming and accepting company culture?
This is one of the most important questions to ask, regardless of the industry. In order for an employee to perform at their best and in good spirits, a positive and inclusive work environment is of the utmost importance. In most instances, employees will choose a great company culture, over compensation or office perks.
6. Do you feel valued by peers and management?
Employees should always feel valued for the work they’re doing. Their work keeps your business running so it’s important you recognize them for that.
7. Do you have goals for the future of your work?
If an employee has goals for the future or envisions success for the business, odds are they’ll want to contribute to that success. Having an employee believe in a brand, regardless of industry, can make all the difference in dedication and productivity.
8. Are you able to balance work and personal life? Does your work provide flexibility?
A healthy work-life balance is critical for any flourishing business. Too much work can lead to burnout and underperformance. Similarly, not enough work can lead to laziness and a declining productivity level. Using this question can help you pinpoint where you stand on this spectrum and how to improve.
9. Do you have regular conversations with management?
Transparency is key in any business. Without regular management meetings, it’s impossible to understand what’s working and what’s not. Having this question can help you hold management accountable for holding regular meetings.
10. Are you are provided with the information to succeed?
Relating back to management, this question is insightful in how informative they are with employees. You want to make sure employees are set up for success, and have all that is needed to provide an exceptional experience.
11. Are you excited to come into work?
Especially with younger cohorts, their passion for their career is just as important as their salary. This means if you’re not taking the steps to engage and excite employees it makes it difficult to retain them. By asking employees this question you can see how many team members are thrilled about work and the steps you need to take to excite those who aren’t.
12. Is there something else you think we should have asked you in this survey?
Posed as an open-text question, this inquiry gives employees the opportunity to write out how they feel and what they think could use improvement. This is a great question to use at the end of a survey to finalize any thoughts.
Conclusion
Through the incorporation of our suggested questions, you’ll be able to gain a deeper understanding of employee sentiment and how to improve the overall work experience. Whether you’re asking employees about their overall satisfaction or areas to improve upon, sending regular employee satisfaction surveys is critical to gauge overall sentiment.
