The adage goes: “If it can’t be measured, it can’t be managed.” Companies often use this saying to focus on analytics and KPIs, but the same can be said about employees and their happiness levels. Staff survey questions provide just one way to measure and manage this very important aspect of business.
Let’s take a look at what an employee satisfaction survey entails and examples of employee survey questions.
We will also touch on other solutions that can offer a more accurate way for employees to provide their feedback to your organisation honestly and anonymously (and on a continuous basis).
An employee satisfaction survey is a survey that asks your staff how they feel about their job, the workplace, and overall feedback about their experience within your organisation.
In most instances, staff survey questions are conducted anonymously so that employees feel that they can answer the survey honestly. However, it is important to note that some employees will still respond with some bias as they may feel pressured to respond with answers that they feel management “wants to hear.” We’ll get to how you can overcome this hurdle shortly.
These days, employee survey questions are typically sent out digitally. They may include many questions, a single question, multiple choice questions, free reponses, or a scale to respond within set parameters.
Measuring employee satisfaction proves to be a vital exercise for organisations. The goal of these surveys is to receive feedback that provides actionable insights to managers, HR teams, and executives that can be applied to improve the workplace.
In the same fashion that a company will perform market research to better understand its target customer, an employee satisfaction survey can be used to deeply understand the people who are most important to your business – your staff.
Organisations look to sustain satisfied and happy employees in order to reduce costly employee absenteeism and increase employee performance. Surveys are just the first step you can take that will reap multiple benefits for your business and bottom line, including:
As we touched on above, employees may feel pressured to answer employee engagement survey questions in one way or another based on what they believe the organisation wants to hear, even when they are conducted anonymously.
To overcome this limitation, organisations are turning to employee wellbeing platforms that allow employees to anonymously self-report how they are feeling over time. With this awareness and insight, management teams can make informed and proactive decisions to support the positive mental health of staff members and ultimately boost employee retention.
Employee surveys come in all shapes and sizes, or more specifically, varying lengths with varying questions. Since you have the power to ask the questions, they will directly depend on what you are looking to discover.
When conducting an employee survey, it makes sense to consider the following:
Depending on your responses to the above considerations, the types of staff survey questions you ask will change. That being said, in order to make them “right,” or more accurately, productive questions, it’s helpful to structure your questions in a way that prompts actionable responses.
To accomplish this, keep in mind the following recommendations:
Be Specific: Keep your questions specific so that you can gain actionable answers and insights. For example, rather than having your employees rate on a scale of 1 to 5 how much they agree with a statement like: “I feel supported at work,” you can get more specific by reframing the statement to: “I feel that my manager provides me with the resources and information that I need to get the task done as expected.”
Employee satisfaction surveys can be broken down into types of questions, with respect to the company culture, specific people, remote working environments, stress levels/wellbeing, personal growth, and more.
Here are some examples of employee engagement survey questions by type.
The above questions are aimed to provide inspiration and serve as a jumping off point to create your own employee satisfaction survey. However, devising your own employee engagement survey can lead to misinterpretation and less than optimal outcomes.
For starters, they can be misunderstood if not written correctly, leading to ambiguity. Unless you are experienced and understand what it is you need to be measured and the right questions to ask to help you measure it you can get invalid information and they can lead to bias. Not to mention incorrect questions will lead to your analysis and interpretation being misleading.
Instead, you can accurately gauge your employees’ level of engagement with the use of an employee wellbeing platform. With the right wellbeing solution, you benefit from questions that have been written by experts, are backed in science, and evidence-based.
These questionnaires are designed to be comprehensive. Plus, with some platforms, the data is analysed by an expert in a fast turn-around time, resulting in less ambiguity. In turn, you can rest assured knowing that the results are more actionable and trustworthy.
As you can see from the example questions above, there are different types of employee satisfaction surveys. The type of survey is based on what you wish to focus on and gain insights about.
For example, you can send out a general workplace culture survey, or you may prefer to focus on a single aspect to gain more clarity about your employees’ sentiments. You may choose to send several surveys at different points in time so you can cover all the bases, like: professional development opportunities, workplace culture, wellbeing and satisfaction, etc.
But instead of having to select different types of employee satisfaction surveys only when you think you need to use them, you can support your teams’ emotional wellbeing year-round with the use of an employee wellbeing tool.
This way, you will always have access to real-time insights on how your employees are feeling. By supporting your peoples’ mental wellbeing, you can promote a more positive and engaged workplace culture.
You can also find staff satisfaction survey templates online. Depending on your need, you can find templates that focus on a variety of topics, such as:
You’re aware of the benefits your organisation gains (reduced turnover, higher productivity, etc.) when you know what your employees are thinking and feeling about their job and the company overall. However, creating staff survey questions can be extremely open-ended and end up resulting in misleading interpretations of the data.
While you’re spending time trying to devise a staff survey and process the results, your employees’ sentiments may very well have changed. Instead, you can skip the time-consuming nature of employee surveys and implement an employee wellbeing tool.
Don’t forget that when it comes to emotions and opinions, constant and timely monitoring is crucial. The same can be said about the importance of transparency and eliciting honest, unbiased feedback.
This is where a wellbeing platform can truly shine as it is inherently unbiased and your team members have access to the platform on a daily basis. Therefore, they feel comfortable to honestly share their thoughts, and then, HR teams and management have access to real-time analysis about their employees’ mood and can better support the workforce.
To find out how LUME can help your organisation to better understand and support the mental health of your employees, just fill in the form and we’ll be in touch.
Unlock your employee potential
.png){kind=spacer}
