Employee satisfaction surveys

Employee satisfaction has become a very important determinant of a company’s productivity. Employees are demanding more and more from their organization in exchange for their services. Employee turnover is very high in most industries, and retaining good talented employees has become an arduous task for even the best companies across the world today.

Every company is faced with the challenge of understanding what drives employees most. Satisfied employees not only remain with the company but are more productive. They are also loyal and are most likely to recommend their company’s products and services whenever and wherever possible. They would also help the company to attract the best talent for future recruitment.

Almost every company conducts employee satisfaction surveys now and then to feel the pulse of the employees. The most relevant and important aspects that need to be covered in an employee satisfaction survey questionnaire are: the employee’s understanding of the company’s mission and long-term strategy; the employee’s confidence in the company’s leadership; the employee’s understanding of his/her role in the company; the importance the employee gives to authority and responsibility in his/her job and the extent to which these needs are satisfied; the employee’s trust in the company’s culture; the employee’s idea about the system of communication within the company; the morale, team spirit and professionalism in the company; the employee’s relations with the supervisor/peers/management; the extent to which the company satisfies the employee’s explicit as well as implicit needs such compensation, training and development, vacation and other benefits, personal accomplishments, recognition, empowerment, job security, appreciation and encouragement, and so on. Open-ended questions such as “what is the best thing about working for this company” or “what do you dislike most in the company?” are very useful in understanding the exact cause of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

The questionnaires also generally contain other questions such as the employee’s annual income, age, sex, personal details about the family, marital status, the department working in, previous employment record and others. These are useful in analyzing the data more accurately.

However, most companies do not pressure employees to provide these details if the employee is not comfortable with it. It is also very important that the answers are kept highly confidential so that they are not used against the employee.

The questionnaire should be ideally small enough to take around 20-30 minutes of the employee’s time, easy to understand and open enough to encourage additional comments or suggestions. The surveys can be conducted on paper or online. Online surveys are faster, cheaper, and are found to have a high response rate. They are also easy to interpret, as comments written by hand on paper are sometimes difficult to decipher.

Generally, employee satisfacion surveys are conducted by the HR department, but these days, companies are outsourcing them to third-party survey agencies which are able to provide unbiased as well as expert advice on the survey results. There are many companies today that are offering comprehensive employee satisfaction survey services professionally.