Importance of and Employee Satisfaction Your employees have a wealth of information about what it is like to work at your company, and what your customers are telling them about your company and your competitors. Your employees also have considerable knowledge about what can be done to improve your company’s productivity, quality, customer service, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, growth and profit, and what can be done to improve your risk profile. Equally important, your employees know how satisfied or dissatisfied they are working at your company.
They also know how engaged they are and what can be done to increase their level of engagement. While most companies are aware of the need to take action and make improvements to become more competitive, they often miss important hidden actions that can really make a difference for customers, employees and the bottom line. That’s where employee surveys come in, uncovering the hidden information, suggestions and insight you need from across your organization. Highly satisfied employees are more engaged in their jobs, their productivity is higher and they do more to generate profit for your company.
While company financials and other “hard data” measurements are important for assessing your company’s/organization’s performance, they are missing important information, insight and perceptions that can only be gathered by directly asking your employees. Employee employee satisfaction surveys are the best, most cost-effective way to gather comprehensive information accurately from a large portion of your employees about how satisfied and how engaged they are, and what needs to be done to increase employee satisfaction and engagement. Definition of Employee Engagement
An organization’s employees are engaged when employees at all levels of the organization are fully committed, involved and enthusiastic about their jobs and their organizations. • Engaged employees are willing, able and actually do contribute to company success. • Engaged employees regularly go the extra mile, putting effort into their work above and beyond what is expected of them. They willingly and eagerly work extra hours and focus their inspiration, energy, intelligence, skills and experience to achieve success for themselves and their organization. Engaged employees thrive when they are working in a positive, supportive corporate culture. Their inspiration, energy and enthusiasm in turn enhance the corporate culture. How Engaged are your employees? How do you know? How many of your employees are disengaged, how many are somewhat engaged and how many are highly engaged? Assessing employee engagement levels and then taking action to shift disengaged and somewhat engaged employees up the curve will significantly increase employee and company performance.
Employee engagement surveys / employee satisfaction surveys measure employee satisfaction and engagement levels and provide actionable information for driving employee engagement to significantly higher levels. Employee Engagement Surveys or Employee Satisf action Surveys? Which is the right survey approach for your organization? The best approach for companies and other types of organizations is to conduct surveys that include both employee engagement and employee satisfaction issues. It is possible for employees to be satisfied but not engaged, and it is also possible for employees to be engaged but not satisfied.
Surveys that include a wide range of questions about both employee satisfaction and employee engagement gather comprehensive information, opinions, perceptions and insight for assessing employee satisfaction and engagement. Dual-focused surveys identify shortfalls in employee satisfaction and employee engagement levels, and the reasons for the shortfalls. The surveys also generate extensive information, insight and suggestions for diagnosing problems across your organization and for taking action to address shortfalls in employee engagement and employee satisfaction.
So to answer the question, should you conduct an employee engagement survey or should you conduct an employee satisfaction survey, you should conduct a survey that focuses on both employee engagement and employee satisfaction. Characteristics of Engaged Employees Engaged employees exhibit many of the following characteristics, enabling them to achieve significantly higher personal performance levels than disengaged employees: 1. Achieve consistently high levels of performance 2. High energy and enthusiasm 3. Committed to customers and exceeding customer expectations 4.
Understand the desired outcomes of their job/role 5. Professionally and emotionally committed to their job and whatever they do 6. Expect and perceive a direct connection between their effort and reward received 7. Initiate problem-solving, challenge things that need to be changed 8. Innovate and strive for process and product excellence and efficiency 9. Focused on achieving goals, committed to completing tasks and assignments 10. Expect and enjoy autonomy and the ability to make decisions when needed to do their job 11. Initiate and participate in special projects and positive things to act on 12.
Expand what they do and build on it 13. Committed to the company, their group and role 14. Proactive building of supportive relationships 15. Would recommend their company, products and services 16. Attention to details 17. Typically prefer complex, challenging work (as they perceive complexity and job challenge) 18. Communicate willingly and effectively with employees at all levels 19. More likely to identify risks and take appropriate risks 20. Committed to and demonstrate personal and professional improvement 21. Proactive conflict resolution 22.
They get things done! Performance Metrics of Employee Satisfaction Surveys, Employee Engagement Surveys and Employee Opinion Surveys Employee Satisfaction Surveys and Employee Engagement Surveys should be customized to meet your organization’s special needs. The surveys should include sections and questions that gather information, perceptions and insight about both employee engagement and employee satisfaction issues. Following are some of the measurements included in Employee Satisfaction Surveys and Employee Engagement Surveys: 1.
Having resources needed to do the job 2. Confidence in management’s ability to lead the company 3. Clarity and effectiveness of communications within and across organizational units 4. Management’s availability and openness to upward communications 5. Teamwork effectiveness 6. Demonstrating integrity 7. Encouragement for innovation 8. Consideration given to ideas and suggestions 9. Empowerment to make decisions 10. Commitment and effectiveness of diversity initiatives 11. Maintaining balance between work and personal life 12.
Respect for and from manager/supervisor manager 13. Manager understanding what motivates employees 14. Fair treatment from manager/supervisor 15. Recognition from manager/supervisor 16. Commitment to quality excellence and customer service 17. Communication of performance expectations 18. Performance evaluation and feedback effectiveness 19. Effectiveness of training and mentoring 20. Effectiveness of recruiting, hiring and on-boarding processes 21. Opportunities for development and growth 22. Satisfaction with career prospects within the company 23.
Satisfaction with compensation and benefits 24. Commitment to work at the company for the foreseeable future 25. Pride in working for the organization 26. Understanding of the company’s direction, mission, vision and values 27. Willingness to recommend the company as a good place to work Benefits of Employee Satisfaction Surveys, Employee Engagement Surveys and Employee Opinion Surveys Employee satisfaction surveys and employee engagement surveys generate significant bottom-line benefits and a very strong payback when action is taken based on the survey findings.
The survey benefits include: 1. Increase employee engagement and performance 2. Increase employee satisfaction, employee loyalty and employee productivity 3. Identify hidden problems, opportunities and possible solutions 4. Create a roadmap for making breakthrough improvements 5. Focus managers’ energies on areas with the highest priority and the largest payback 6. Execute more effectively 7. Identify internal communications problems, a significant cause of dissatisfaction and poor performance 8. Strengthen the culture of collaboration and change 9.
Reduce costly employee turnover 10. Enhance your “employer of choice” reputation 11. Avoid costly abuse law suits 12. Facilitate innovation and smart risk-taking 13. Reduce the People Performance Gap, the costly gap in performance between the most and least effective people performing each job in your company Summary – Achieving Significant Gains in Employee and Business Performance Companies and other types of organizations have a very significant opportunity to increase their bottom-line performance by increasing employee satisfaction and employee engagement.
Conducting surveys that focus on both employee satisfaction and employee engagement and then taking action based on the survey findings is a highly effective way to achieve significantly higher levels of business performance. Employees are willing to tell you if they are satisfied and engaged in their job, and what can be done to increase their satisfaction and engagement, as long as they are confident that their survey responses are anonymous. Read more: http://www. articlesbase. com/human-resources-articles/employee-engagement-and-employee-satisfaction-how-to-drive-business-performance-higher-1189235. tml#ixzz0ltZGfwtm Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Employee Satisfaction – A Must For A Successful Business Employee satisfaction is an evolutionary step to know whether the workers are happy with their current job and the working atmosphere. To boost the moral of the employee is always beneficial for any organization, as satisfied employees put in more effort, stay loyal towards their company and also work with dedication. A wise and smart employer should implement various methods and ideas to keep his employee satisfied. Methods to Measure Employee Satisfaction
A company needs to implement different methods to measure the satisfaction of their employees such as different types of surveys or personal interviews with the employee to collect the right information. This could be very helpful if handled carefully. These surveys should always be anonymous, so that the employee gets full freedom and answers it honestly without any fear of backlash or pressure. The other way of measuring employee satisfaction is personal interviews, these can sometimes be confining but it surely makes the employee feel that his concerns are been heard and addressed by the higher authority.
Surveys and interviews prove to be fruitful in collecting all the required data regarding employee satisfaction and an employer also understands the problem area that lowers the morale of the workers. One of the best ways to keep your employee satisfied is to develop team spirit, make him feel like a team or like a family, this motivates him to work efficiently as he gets the feeling of being respected Going for outings, trips, parties or company events is helpful in building up strong bonds among the co-workers.
Many organizations participate in events or organize camps, paintball games etc to strengthen the employee relations in a work free environment. This strategy is useful in team building and many employers have succeeded in getting employee satisfaction through this. Appraisals, bonuses and incentives are some other methods to satisfy an employee, as this is a prime factor but not the overall solution for employee satisfaction, an employee may be happy with his appraisals and incentives but if he is continuously working under stress and pressure, soon he may not find the monetary gains that are important due to the stress he as to face in his daily work. If he finds his working environment disturbing it can affect his mental peace and may de-motivate him. Hence an overall pleasant work environment is a very important aspect of employee satisfaction. Certain necessary amenities should be provided for the workers in the working areas, such as drinking water, clean and comfortable rest rooms, cafeterias, clean and hygienic wash rooms, first aid ailments or doctors on call, telephone facilities etc.
This makes the employee feel that he is been taken care of by his seniors and that the company is concerned about all his basic needs. This would definitely make him happy and a happy employee is always a boon for the company. If he feels respected and feels that his work is being recognized, he will always try to give his best performance and this obviously turns the organization into a profit making organization. Read more: http://www. articlesbase. com/management-articles/employee-satisfaction-a-must-for-a-successful-business-2165400. tml#ixzz0lta9A0h9 Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Assessing Team and Employee Satisfaction Through Six Sigma In today’s fast paced and competitive marketplace, businesses who are aiming for their greatest successes consider it vital to rethink their entire functioning strategies in order to maximize the potential of those successes. Among this rethinking process is the effort to satisfy employees. Naturally, employee satisfaction cannot be ensured unless it is first measured and understood.
By understanding employee satisfaction, your business has a much better chance for delivering positive customer experiences, developing and producing innovative products and services, and, of course, achieving a better bottom line. As many businesses are currently using Six Sigma strategies to measure and function at higher productivity and quality levels, they have discovered that the Six Sigma way of thinking can also be applied to measuring the employee satisfaction within their own walls.
It only falls in line with the Six Sigma strategy that satisfied employees will lead to a process of better productivity and quality throughout the organization. Six Sigma is unique in its ability affect employee satisfaction because of its elements of understanding and measurement of different levels of any given factor in a company. To improve the employee satisfaction level in a company, it can be used to provide detailed analysis of strengths and weaknesses.
With these areas identified, improvement initiatives can then be put into place. Within the Six Sigma mindset, they are typically wide ranging and cross-functional restructuring, counseling, and even the initiation of self-development and learning programs. These aren’t just limited to job-specific functions, but extend to cultural initiatives, and work-private life balance management efforts. For each effort, structured feedback and review programs are applied, to monitor and measure the success of every employee satisfaction effort.
Companies that have used Six Sigma strategies to increase their employee mindset have almost universally seen increases in the productive interaction among team members. Furthermore, employees felt more welcome to provide day-to-day problem solving ideas. Employees were also better utilized within the workplace, by allowing them to apply their expertise to different projects, and being included in other projects where new levels of expertise and capability enhancements may be achieved. Six Sigma allows for a full work-culture improvement when applied to employee satisfaction instead of the standard product quality function.
Plans are already in the works to create training programs that allow black belts and other “belts” to extend their Six Sigma expertise to the task of employee satisfaction, and thus better overall quality that will impact the organization’s other Six Sigma strategies… and, of course, the bottom line. Why Employee Satisfaction Surveys And Employee Exit Surveys Make Good Sense In a competitive world with the need for businesses to be more streamlined and productive a company can often find itself with a workforce working under pressure resulting in low moral and high staff turnover.
The benefits of a company having a highly motivated workforce can be considerable and the two goals of having a workforce that is both motivated and productive should not be regarded as being mutually exclusive to one another. Left unattended employers run the risk of alienating their employees, events can cause employee frustrations to boil over resulting in employers finding themselves on the back foot, faced with a problem that cannot be ignored.
Ideally employers would take time to understand the needs of their employees and learn from their experiences of working on the front line, but employers are often themselves tied up day to day fighting their own fires. By automating much of the intelligence gathering process and providing the findings in a format that can be readily analysed online surveys provide employers with an efficient, effective and low cost method to help achieve a pleasant working environment, where staff satisfaction and productivity is high. Dissatisfied & Unproductive
The are many reasons why employees may be dissatisfied with their job and more often than not staff frustration is channelled into a demand for higher salaries and less hours. Employers who tackle these issues head on, making it all about salary and hours, will often find themselves dealing with the symptoms and not the root cause. It’s not about Money The following are common barriers to achieving productivity, none of which are likely to be resolved by increasing salaries or reducing hours:- • Inadequate training • Out of touch management • Out of date working methods Lack of proper tools and equipment Many studies have shown that salaries are rarely the number one priority of employees and providing an employer is paying market rate they would be fundamentally wrong to think that paying higher salaries is the answer to all employee problems. Take the case of a single mother who is juggling a full time job with the need to look after two children. Out of frustration she may demand more money so that she feels that she is able to cope where a better solution, for both her and the company, may be more flexible working hours.
It is About Communication It is important for any company to encourage communication. Company’s that make communication between personnel and management difficult, or take the view that if personnel have a problem they will say something, can often delude themselves into thinking their workforce is content when it is not. It only takes one small problem and one disgruntled employee to feel aggrieved for an entire workforce to develop a destructive ‘them and us’ attitude. Improving Communication
One to one meetings between employer and employee would be ideal but in practice only practical for very small businesses. Regular meetings between management and worker representatives are good in theory but they often become talking shops and can begin to loose their edge as the participants become familiar with one another and the forum runs the risk of being hijacked by the more extrovert personalities. Suggestion boxes are useful but can be viewed as token efforts by management as they wait for personnel to highlight a problem.
Newsletters can be a positive step, but their purpose is generally to inform and not discuss issues. Keeping the Initiative An employee satisfaction survey run on a regular basis is able to ask each employee specific questions and represents a pro-active management initiative where the whole workforce can be consulted on various issues. Surveys are able to provide a level playing field between the quieter and more vocal employees. Consultation should not be seen as a sign of weakness, a confident manager will take counsel from all quarters before making a decision.
By issuing a survey and keeping the initiative the employer is able to tackle problems from a position of strength as opposed to waiting for problems to fester and then develop out of proportion. Small problems left unresolved can lead to a situation where a minor problem might break the camels back and the workforce mood change from positive to negative over night. It’s Quick and Easy For the majority of companies online surveys represent a proactive and low cost solution.
They are quick to design and for many companies, where the majority of personnel have desktop computers, they are quick to deploy direct to the individual. In situations where individuals do not have personal access to a computer there are still many options available to implement the online survey solution such as giving access to a shared computer, operator input or, as a last resort, a hardcopy survey. Job Satisfaction There are many elements that go towards providing an employee with job satisfaction, from the working environment, working methodology, working ethos, company ethics to having good and effective management.
Job satisfaction brings benefits through improved motivation and productivity from a workforce that feels that they are treated as individuals and not a commodity item. Inform and Educate An online survey can also be used to educate and pass on to the workforce important information, the ‘message’ is consistently delivered and does not suffer from the Chinese whisper phenomenon where a message can be distorted as it is handed down. An online survey can explain a difficult situation and get valuable feedback from the employees as to the best solution.
It is rare in this situation that the workforce would appear negative and more likely that they will feel informed and empowered that might in itself turn a potentially negative problem into a positive challenge that unites the workforce. Exit Surveys Exit surveys are an excellent way of ensuring that when personnel leave an organisation they are leaving for the right reasons and not due to reasons that if appreciated earlier could have been addressed and resolved by management.
Although identifying a problem may not prevent a person leaving it could solve an unappreciated issue that may, if left unchecked, result in other key personnel also leaving. Analysing the Results Having consulted the workforce with an online survey the results are available for instant analysis. Common and specific problems can be easily identified and brought to the attention of senior management who will then have the opportunity to address the issues that have been raised. Summary Used regularly online surveys represent a simple and productive method of taking the pulse of an organisation and an easy way to establish a two way
