3 Tips for Conducting Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Whether you’re a restaurant, a university, or an assisted living facility, employees are a valuable resource; not just a cost to be managed but an investment to be nurtured and developed. Think about it this way, they are human capital with skills and knowledge that can give you a competitive advantage over other businesses at their best. So, you want your employees to be satisfied as it means increased productivity, lower turnover rates, and a more positive work environment. For example, a satisfied employee is more likely to put in extra effort to complete a project on time and to a high standard, which will benefit the company as a whole.

One way to do this is to conduct surveys to gauge employee satisfaction and act on the results. Here are 3 tips for an effective employee satisfaction survey.

Clear and Concise Questions

You want your surveys to have clear and concise questions that are easy to understand. Otherwise, employees may give inaccurate or incomplete answers, resulting in unreliable data. Not only that, confusing or vague questions can also lead to frustration among employees and lower participation rates in future surveys.

So questions should be focused on specific aspects of the workplace such as work-life balance, compensation, benefits, career development opportunities, and management practices.

For example:

• How often do you feel overwhelmed or stressed by your workload?
• Do you feel that your salary is competitive compared to others in your industry?
• Are there any additional benefits you would like to see offered by the company?
• Do you feel that there are enough opportunities for career advancement within the company?
• Are you given enough autonomy and support to perform your job to the best of your ability?

Confidentiality and Anonymity

For accurate results, it’s best that surveys are anonymous and confidential, as otherwise, employees may be reluctant to provide honest feedback for fear of retribution.

To make sure your employee surveys are confidential and anonymous:

• Use a neutral third-party survey platform for increased privacy
• Don’t ask for any personally identifiable information such as names, employee ID numbers, or job title
• Only share aggregated results such as overall trends or averages instead of individual responses that could potentially identify employees

Actionable Feedback

Once survey results are in, you want to share them with employees and management as it allows for targeted improvements, fosters transparency, and trust and sets the stage for future surveys. For example, giving employees feedback on how their responses will be used to better their work life will, besides improving employee satisfaction, likely help increase participation rates in future surveys.

To properly share survey results:

• Compile results into a comprehensive report that includes charts, graphs, and tables to help visualize the data. Try to make reports easy to understand and clearly highlight the key takeaways
• Schedule a meeting with employees and management to present survey results. This way you get to discuss the findings and gather feedback on potential improvements
• After the meeting, share reports electronically with all employees and management via email or intranet. Make sure it’s easily accessible and can be viewed by all employees

Conducting surveys to gauge employee satisfaction can be effective when done correctly. Asking clear and concise questions, ensuring anonymity, and guaranteeing actionable feedback is a good place to start.