Identifying and Fostering Employee Satisfaction

The term “employee satisfaction” is frequently used to describe how your employees are feeling at work –  whether they are unhappy or fulfilling their professional wants and needs. Studies have shown that employee satisfaction is a crucial factor in goal achievement, motivation and can impact workplace employee morale.

Employee satisfaction is generally a positive concept and can significantly help your business. However, if average employees stay because they are happy and satisfied with your work environment that can become a problem.

There are many contributing factors to whether an employee is satisfied while they are at work.  This can include being treated with respect, receiving recognition for work, getting quality benefits and above-average compensation along with a positive management team. Employee satisfaction varies from one individual to the next. What may make one person enjoy their work environment could make another dislike it.

One crucial factor to keep in mind when it comes to employee satisfaction is that if your employees are satisfied but they are not doing their job to the best of their ability, then everything an employer does to provide a workplace environment that promotes satisfaction would be for nothing.

Measuring employee satisfaction can be done in several different ways. If you have employees who love collaborating and working together, then consider having meetings with them for feedback. If your workplace is more segmented, then try employee satisfaction surveys. Either method can provide some great insight.

Measuring Satisfaction

Survey

Before you can determine whether or not your employees are satisfied when they are at work and if any changes need to be implemented, you must first learn how to measure employee satisfaction.

Employee satisfaction is typically measured by employee satisfaction surveys that are given periodically to gauge and track overall satisfaction. In most cases, your employees will be more than happy to participate in the employee satisfaction survey. This is especially true if you assure them that their answers can contribute to changes in the workplace.

When crafting your employee satisfaction survey, you should add questions that touch on the following areas of your business:

• Leadership
• Mission and Vision
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Empowerment
• Coworker Engagement

Keep in mind that the questions you add to your survey will vary based on your company culture and the business you are in.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are some general employee satisfaction survey questions to tailor to your business.

1. The company clearly communications to employees things that will affect us.
2. My daily tasks and goals are clearly defined.
3. My co-workers treat me with respect.
4. My work contributes to the success of the business.
5. Overall, I am satisfied with my job.
6. My work gives me a feeling of accomplishment.
7. My manager provides useful constructive feedback.
8. My job uses my strengths and abilities daily.
9. Collaboration and teamwork are valued.
10. Employee safety is important at my workplace.

Meetings

Another great way to measure employee satisfaction is by meeting with team members in small groups of people and asking them all the same question. If you work in an environment that thrives on collaboration and communication, then this may be a great option over the survey.

Exit Interviews

Exit interviews are another excellent way to assess employee satisfaction at your place of work. Satisfied employees will rarely leave a company, so by evaluating an individual that is leaving you can determine which areas of your business are cause for dissatisfaction.

For example, if an employee leaves due to not enough accessibility, then you can look to improve that specific part of your business.

Employee satisfaction surveys shouldn’t be used just once and then tossed aside. Historical data should be kept so that you track employees’ satisfaction levels throughout the duration of their employment.

Make the Most of Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Satisfaction surveys are often used by businesses to measure happiness with a particular group of stakeholders, a work environment or culture, and employment. Specifically, the employee satisfaction survey is the most frequently used.

A satisfaction survey contains a series of questions or statements that employees can answer to inform their employer about how they feel about there place of work and its environment or culture.

The employee satisfaction survey often contains questions that ask an employee to rate a specific aspect of a work environment along with open-ended questions that allow them to expressions their opinions freely.

With carefully crafted questions that don’t lead to a specific answer, an employer can get a general feel for an employee’s happiness, satisfaction, and general engagement level. When an employee satisfaction survey is administered at specific intervals, such as quarterly, an employer can track employee satisfaction over time and can determine whether or not their overall satisfaction levels are improving.

If you don’t do anything with employee satisfaction surveys, they are useless. If you find through the employee satisfaction surveys your employees don’t like their current time clock, then consider looking at new employee time clock software.

Satisfaction Surveys Require Action

If a business does decide to use a satisfaction survey, they must commit to making improvements in the workplace based on employee responses. It is the bottom line for any employer who is considering administering a satisfaction survey.

An employer who chooses to utilize a satisfaction survey must be committed to reporting results to all within their organization. Additionally, an employer should commit to making changes in the workplace with the help and involvement of their employees and teams.

As an example, if after employees take your survey, you find that they are concerned about their employee time clock software and whether or not it’s accurately tracking their information, you should consider looking for a new solution or a way to improve that experience. Buddy Punch is an excellent employee time clock software that allows you to keep track of work hours and can improve employee satisfaction.

Being transparent about the changes that will take place, their impact, along with future plans, are all part of an efficient and positive satisfaction survey process.

Without transparency, result reporting, and frequent employee updates, employees will be mistrustful of the employer’s motives in collecting the data in the first place. If this trend continues, employees will either not respond at all or only respond with answers that they think the employer wants to hear. It makes the data collected from the survey completely useless.

By involving employees in improving their workplace based on survey results can create a culture of shared responsibility. An employer should avoid misleading employees by making them believe the employee satisfaction survey is the employer’s responsibility. Employee satisfaction is a shared responsibility and should be treated as such.