Employee engagement surveys in healthcare are crucial to understanding how workers feel about their jobs and finding areas to improve. When employees feel supported and heard, it often leads to better patient care. That's why it's important to take these surveys seriously and act on the findings.
A recent study showed that healthcare workers have some of the lowest job satisfaction scores, which means it is one of the most important metrics to track.
If you aren’t actively tracking your employee satisfaction and engagement as a healthcare employer, you may be leaving both money and employees out to dry.
What Exactly is Employee Satisfaction & Engagement in Healthcare
Employee satisfaction and engagement are vital for healthcare success. Employee satisfaction reflects the amount of content that an employee feels about their job overall. Employee engagement is the amount of commitment they have towards their job or company.
The two terms are different, since a committed employee can be unhappy with their job and a happy employee can be checked out from company affairs. Since both are important, it’s critical to at least track one of them if not both.
Many healthcare organizations use surveys to measure both of these metrics. In our experience, surveys are the best way to go about collecting these since they can be both efficient and anonymous, which are crucial for employees.
Traditional surveys like these are done annually but it’s better to do them more frequently. Especially in healthcare, keeping employees satisfied and engaged can be crucial so at the very least bi-annually or quarterly surveys are good enough to collect the proper data to both save your employees and money for the company.
Levels of Satisfaction For Employees in Healthcare
Levels of satisfaction and engagement can vary based on the scale or measurement that is being used. For example, NPS measures things from 1-10. So any scale can be used that makes sense.
That being said, generally there are at least 4 if not 5 main levels:
- Highly satisfied/engaged
- Moderately satisfied/engaged
- Somewhat satisfied/engaged
- Not Satisfied/disengaged
If you’re unsure of what measurement scale to use in your surveys, ask a survey expert for help. The right third party employee survey company will help you figure out exactly what it is to measure with.
A great survey partner will also help you design the survey, write the questions, help you decide what exactly to measure, and what to make of the raw data.
Why Employee Engagement Matters in Healthcare
Employee engagement in healthcare has a direct impact on company performance.
Here’s a few key reasons:
- Employee turnover costs the practice money by having to hire and train new employees
- Dissatisfied or engaged employees can perform worse, which causes poor patient care/experience which makes patients return less
- The flipside of both is employees that stay longer and are engaged actually make the practice more money by providing great patient care and less hiring costs
In our experience we've seen that engaged employees care more about their jobs, leading to better patient care. We've found that facilities with high engagement scores often have happier patients. When staff members feel valued, they go the extra mile, which can improve everything from brand loyalty to advocacy.
Also, we've seen strong ties between employee engagement and safety. Engaged workers pay more attention to safety protocols. This reduces errors in patient care. Especially since a lot of employees in healthcare are expected to keep regular documentation and patient charts. It could keep the company from any harmful errors or lawsuits.
How to Measure Both Engagement and Satisfaction in an Employee Survey
When it comes to measuring both of these metrics, the main two factors are survey design and survey questions. These two are critical because both of them can affect the answers that your employees give which can affect the data and any decisions driven from it.
You’ll also want to make sure that your surveys for employees are anonymous.Without this employees can feel at risk and give false answers or not answer at all which leaves you with bad data or no data.
If you’re unsure what your questions should be or how to write them, consult with a third party survey company or a survey writing company to decide how to best get that data.
We at Drive Research also use both quantitative and qualitative methods. It helps get a more complete data picture which makes it more reliable. Quantitative questions might include rating scales from 1 to 5, while qualitative questions let employees express thoughts freely. This combination uncovers numbers and stories, like how small issues can grow big without noticing.
Best Healthcare Survey Practices For Employees From The Pros
Set Goals
Setting goals is the first step for your employee engagement survey. It’s hard to have a successful survey project without proper goals to hit.
Goals should be specific and measurable, like increasing employee satisfaction by 10% in a year for example. If you need it, we can help you decide on your survey goals.
Write & Design The Best Survey For Your Employees
Crafting the right questions is an art. You also don’t want to overwhelm employees, so its best to keep surveys short and focused. If needed or applicable, you can mix in open-ended questions with multiple-choice questions in your survey. Open-ended questions reveal detailed insights, while multiple-choice provides data that's easy to analyze.
Use simple logic and language for your survey. Understandably, surveys don’t have to be complicated. Don’t forget to test your survey on a small group first, to can catch any issues before the full rollout.
Collect Data Anonymously
Protecting employee privacy encourages honest feedback. It’s one of the main reasons why so many employers work with us for the employee surveys. We promise and are committed to anonymous employee surveys.
Without anonymity, a lot of employers face false answers or no answers which ruins the data quality.
Analyze The Data & Act On It
Data is only valuable if it’s acted upon. Analyzing the data helps pinpoint areas that need attention. Apart from just the raw data, insights can be pulled from it like trends and more which is where the real gold is for market research data.
At Drive Research, we provide all of our clients with expert-level insights from the project data. Otherwise they would be stuck with just the raw data and forced to interpret it on their own which is hard in some cases.
Implement changes that address the issues raised, and keep staff updated on progress. This shows respect for their input and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.
Why Drive Research is the Best For Your Employee Engagement Surveys
Looking for an expert third party to help you with healthcare employee engagement surveys? Contact us at Drive Research for help.
We promise our dedication to anonymous surveys and expert data analysis and insights provided. We also have tons of experience working with employee surveys so we know all of the challenges and opportunities for them.
We are also survey writing and design experts so we know how to write the best questions and surveys in order to get the highest quality data. Not to mention that we’re with you every step of the project to manage it for you.
Get an expert healthcare employee survey quote today.
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Austin Parker
Austin has an extensive background in SEO as he's been blogging since 16 years old back when the internet was in its infancy. As fitting, he holds a Bachelor's degree in English with a concentration in creative writing.
Learn more about Austin, here.
