Employee surveys are used by an organization to gain in-depth knowledge about their employee’s feelings, opinions, and perceptions. There are a number of different topics that can be surveyed, and multiple reasons an organization may want to conduct employee surveys.
Some commonly employee survey topics include:
- Job satisfaction
- Employee engagement
- New employee and departure employee surveys
- Employee well-being
Regardless of the reason for conducting employee surveys, the main objective of this type of research is to identify areas for improvement and development.
Think about a company that has a high turnover rate for employees. A survey could be used to discover how satisfied employees are, what level of employee engagement is present, and how the employees feel about their job and work environment. Ultimately, identifying areas that need to be improved, increasing employee retention.
Voice of Employee (VoE) data is powerful, yet often underutilized. In this blog post, we'll discuss the major reasons organizations should distribute regular employee surveys and the benefits to follow.
Don't get caught up in the daily, monthly, or yearly grind of your business. Take a step back and evaluate how you are doing with your employees.
Is Using a Third-Party Employee Survey Company Important?
First and foremost, let's answer the question many human resource professionals ask themselves when considering conducting employee survey research.
Do I have to use a third-party employee survey company?
No. You don't have to. But, should you? Absolutely. Think of it this way. You could cut your own hair, but are the results and outcome more pleasing when done by a professional? Of course they are!
Professional market research companies have the knowledge and ability to design, manage, and analyze your employee survey. It is possible to conduct in-house employee surveys, but there are critical benefits to hiring a professional third-party service.
A market research company will help eliminate bias, maintain confidentiality, and reveal benchmark scores compared to similar or competing organizations in your industry.
A valid survey needs to account for bias. Meaning, the survey needs to adequately represent the population (employees). An employee survey company can ensure the employees are represented, the survey asks neutrally worded questions, the survey options are not leading, and the responses are anonymous. All these considerations help to eliminate bias and ensure valid and reliable data.
Employees are also more likely to answer honestly when they are confident their confidentiality is protected. Using a third-party employee survey company gives the employees the peace of mind that their responses are confidential and will not be reprimanded for speaking honestly of their employer.
Lastly, a market research company has the ability to benchmark scores. Benchmarking scores involves a calculation that provides a way to determine whether scores are high or low compared to industry peers and the country as a whole. Although employee engagement surveys offer a lot of value, benchmarking your data can take your insights to the next level.
An employee survey company like, Drive Research can offer several different benchmarking capabilities for your employee survey. These include industry benchmarks, organizational size benchmarks, and regional benchmarks.
Learn more about how to use employee survey benchmarks.
Reason #1: Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction refers to how much an employee likes their job. Some of the factors can include how much they like the facets of their role, the work environment, and supervision.
According to the CEO of Gallup over 50% of people hate their jobs.
The Conference Board found has reported only 48.3% of United States workers are satisfied with their jobs.
Job satisfaction not only impacts the employee, but also the organization as a whole. When employees are not satisfied with their jobs it can lead to decreased productivity, decreased customer satisfaction, increased negative work environment, and increased employee turnover.
Some possible job satisfaction questions in an employee survey could include:
(1) Does our company give you the tools and technologies you need to do your job well?
(2) Do you feel like your job utilizes your skills and abilities as much as it could?
(3) Do you feel valued as an employee?
(4) Do you think work is evenly distributed throughout your team?
(5) Does management seem invested in your success?
Reason #2: Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is different than employee happiness or satisfaction. Employee engagement refers to the commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.
When employees are engaged they are not simply going to work to collect a paycheck. They generally care about the success of the company and their fellow employees.
A high level of employee engagement leads to increased productivity, collaboration and camaraderie, and extra effort by employees to help reach company goals. Although employee engagement is beneficial to the employee and the overall organization, employee engagement was not found to be high in recent surveys.
In 2017, one-third of employees reported being engaged at work.
In 2019, Forbes reported disengaged employees cause massive losses in productivity, amounting to between $500 billion annually.
Conducting an employee survey geared toward employee engagement can help an organization identify areas that need improvement. Therefore, allowing the company to enhance those areas, increasing overall employee engagement.
Some possible employee engagement questions could include:
(1) Do you think our company offer adequate opportunities for career development?
(2) Do you feel connected to your co-workers?
(3) Do you feel valued for your contributions?
(4) Do you feel like you are a valuable part of the team?
(5) Do you find your work meaningful?
Reason #3: Brand, Company, and Mission Awareness
Brand awareness is just as important for employees’ as it is for the company’s target market. Employees are part of a company’s brand and identity as the “face” of the company.
Employees are often involved with client and customer interaction. If a company is represented by their employees, wouldn’t it be important to know if the employees understand the company’s mission, values, and objectives? Of course!
Conducting an employee survey to discover the level of awareness would benefit the organization and increase the success of the company.
Some possible brand awareness questions could include:
(1) What is our company’s mission statement?
(2) What are our values as a company?
(3) Does your supervisor communicate company news?
(4) Are you aware of what new products/services are being created?
Benefit #1: Increased Employee Retention
High turnover can negatively impact a company, financially and emotionally. Human resource management teams will experience an increase in spending for the hiring process when turnover is high. The morale of the company can also decrease when people are coming and going like a revolving door.
Conducting job satisfaction surveys can help identify perceptions about how an employee thinks and feels. This in turn allows the company to change policies, procedures, offers, structures, or inter-office relationship dynamics so the desire to apply for another job and accept another job offers decreases.
Doing so results in not only happier employees, but also saving time, money, and energy for the company.
Benefit 2: Increased Employee Engagement
As discussed, how committed and dedicated employees are to the company and fellow employees impact the success of the company. Engagement surveys are beneficial because once the level of engagement is identified, steps to increase the level of engagement can be implemented.
When an employee is engaged, it leads to more productivity, motivation, camaraderie, employee well-being, positive work environment, and revenue for the company.
Employees will do a better job when they feel their job is aligned with their skills, they are appreciated and valued, there are open channels of communication, and they feel connected to their fellow employees.
By utilizing an employee engagement survey, these desired aspects of the office environment can be assessed and altered as needed.
Benefit 3: Identify Baselines and Monitor Progress
Lastly, employee surveys can be used to establish baselines and monitor progress of development and improvement. Here is an example.
If employees are surveyed, a company can establish a baseline of job satisfaction or employee engagement. After steps for improvement have been implemented, surveys can be re-administered and the responses can be compared.
The comparison will clearly validate whether the plan for improvement has accomplished the objective of increased job satisfaction or engagement or not.
Another way baselines can be identified is my conducting employee surveys when an employee is hired and when an employee departs. Companies want to attract top talent and retain those employees.
Ask new hires questions such as:
- What attracted you to our company?
- What was it about this position that made you want to apply?
- What was it about the hiring process that helped you make the decision to accept our offer?
Answers to these types of questions can provide insight about who and why candidates are applying. The company then has the opportunity to continue whatever is successfully attracting ideal candidates.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, when employees are interviewed as they depart the company, the company can gain valuable insight as to why they are choosing to leave.
Although a company may not be able to offer a different pay scale or benefits package, they could change other aspects that are causing employees to seek employment elsewhere. Exit employee surveys can be compared to learn if employees are choosing to leave for the same reasons over time.
Learn more about the process of conducting an employee survey with a third-party employee survey company.
In Summary
Employees are a useful tool for companies to enhance employee satisfaction, engagement, and awareness.
When a company has satisfied, engaged, and aware employees there will be increased employee retention and increased employee engagement, as well has benchmarks that are helpful to establish a baseline and monitor improvement.
Ultimately, employee surveys are good for the employees and critical for the overall success of the company.
Contact Our Employee Survey Company
Drive Research is a employee survey company located in New York. We work with companies and organizations across the U.S. to assist with customer and employee survey needs.
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