Details of Article: Employee Satisfaction Surveys Drive Business Performance

Important information is often locked up in employees’ heads

Employees have a wealth of information about what it is like to work at their company, and what customers are telling them about their company and its competitors. They know if they have the training, information and tools necessary to do their job well and to satisfy customers. They also know what it is like when internal communications is ineffective or their manager fails to provide the support and leadership they need.

Most important, employees know what can be done to improve their company's productivity, quality, customer service, customer satisfaction, growth and profit. Unfortunately, employees often lack an effective way to share information with their company.

Employee satisfaction surveys unlock hidden information

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 bottom-line performance.

Important decisions are often made without information needed for making informed decisions. Why guess about what is on the minds of your employees? Well designed and executed employee satisfaction and engagement surveys uncover hidden valuable information, insight and possible solutions from employees, enabling you and your organization to make better, more confident decisions for achieving breakthrough improvements.

Employee satisfaction surveys are a powerful way to identify the need for change and to measure and manage change. Surveys provide a cost-effective listening post. Employees are much more likely to respond to an anonymous survey than provide honest feedback in other forms. Employee surveys identify where to focus resources and initiatives to get the most value and avoid costly mistakes.

Performance Metrics of Employee Satisfaction and Engagement Surveys

Employee satisfaction surveys should be customized to meet your organization's special needs. Please go to www.quantisurve.com to view a sample employee satisfaction survey. Following are some of the measurements typically included in these surveys.

• Having resources needed to do the job
• Confidence in management's ability to lead the company
• Effectiveness of communications
• Clarity and effectiveness of communication between divisions
• Teamwork effectiveness
• Demonstrating integrity
• Encouragement for innovation
• Consideration given to ideas and suggestions
• Empowerment to make decisions
• Commitment and effectiveness of diversity initiatives
• Maintaining balance between work and personal life
• Respect for and from manager/supervisor manager
• Manager understanding what motivates employees
• Fair treatment from manager/supervisor
• Recognition from manager
• Commitment to quality excellence and customer service
• Communication of performance expectations
• Performance feedback effectiveness
• Effectiveness of training and mentoring
• Improving the recruiting/hiring process
• Opportunities for development and growth
• Satisfaction with career prospects within the company
• Satisfaction with compensation and benefits
• Commitment to work at the company for the foreseeable future
• Pride in working for the organization
• Understanding of the company's business objectives
• Willingness to recommend the company as a good place to work
• Risk of employee law suits due to abuse from managers

Benefits of Employee Satisfaction and Engagement Surveys

Satisfied, engaged employees are a pre-condition for achieving satisfied, loyal customers. Employee satisfaction and engagement surveys can generate significant bottom-line benefits and a very strong payback, including:

• Increasing workforce engagement and performance
• Enhancing customer loyalty and retention
• Creating a roadmap for making breakthrough improvements
• Focusing managers' energies on areas with the highest priority and the largest payback
• Executing more effectively
• Strengthening the culture of collaboration and change
• Reducing costly employee turnover and enhance your "employer of choice" reputation
• Avoiding costly law suits from employees
• Facilitating innovation and smart risk-taking
• Reducing the "People Performance Gap©" , the costly gap in performance between the most and least effective people performing each job in your company (please see www.quantisoft.com for more information)

Summary - Surveys provide value

Employee satisfaction and engagement surveys send an important message to employees that you care about them and value their opinions. Surveys also raise expectations that you will be taking action based on survey responses.

If you take appropriate action based on survey responses, employees will know and respond favorably. If no action is taken in response to negative opinions, low satisfaction levels and suggestions, employees will conclude that the organization doesn't really care and they will react negatively.

The bottom line: Surveys are a powerful and cost-effective tool for gathering important information and for identifying and diagnosing problems and opportunities, but only if survey results are acted on. Please see Survey Tips for tips and information for conducting effective surveys.

Howard Deutsch is the CEO of Quantisoft, LLC, a survey company that conducts employee satisfaction/engagement and other surveys. Our clients include businesses and governmental organizations ranging in size from Fortune 500 companies to fewer than 100 employees across many industries. For more information please visit www.Quantisoft.com or contact Howard Deutsch ay hdeutsch@Quantisoft.com.