For companies to achieve their business goals, they need satisfied employees.
Yes, satisfied employees are happy employees, but their long-term value is far greater than that.
When a company has a high level of employee satisfaction their employees’ commitment towards their manager, peers and tasks is increased.
This increase in discretionary commitment leads to top performances, which then lead to great business outcomes.
Every company wants employees who are excited at the prospect of coming to work – not because they have to – but because they want to.
Here are 7 reasons employee satisfaction can lead your company to success;
Satisfied employees are:
- Self-motivated to do great work
- Receptive to collaboration
- High-performing within a team
- Overall happier
- More productive
- More likely to remain at your company for a longer period
- More likely to say positive things about your company
But how do you measure employee satisfaction at your company? How can you determine whether your employees are in fact dissatisfied? And, even after you have figured out how to resolve the dissatisfaction how do you make company-wide improvements to boost employee satisfaction levels moving forward?
Here are a few ways to measure employee satisfaction.
1. Make time to talk.
Whether you are a small team of 10 or a big team of 100, with meetings, projects and everything in between it is unrealistic to have a one-on-one discussion with each employee.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Make the time to talk to your employees; weekly or monthly.
Schedule it in and be transparent about the intended outcomes are for the discussion. The objective; is to find out how satisfied your employee is within their current role and their role within the organisation in its entirety.
Ditch the agenda for a series of open-ended questions that give you more insight into the overall sentiment of your employee.
The key is to listen to understand.
Here are a few examples of a few questions that you could ask:
- Are the task expectations of you realistic?
- What would you like to do more of?
- Is this a company that you see yourself growing with?
- What are some of the things we are not doing well?
- Do you have all the tools and resources to do your job?
- Do you think you team works well together?
- What could they do better?
- Do you still find your work meaningful?
Remember listen to understand, not to reply.
Ask questions to clarify their responses but don’t try to solve the problem at that time.
2. See how your employees are feeling.
Employee satisfaction surveys provide a stream of continuous feedback so that you always know how your employees are feeling.
Employee surveys are a great tool for employees who find it difficult to engage with their manager for fear of reaction, and it is conducted in a non-threatening way that extracts open and honest feedback and often, some innovative ideas and helpful suggestions.
If you want to increase employee satisfaction, you need to understand your employees.
But first…
You will need to know the right questions to ask them.
Gain insights into their peer-to-peer and manager relationships, job satisfaction, their experience of the company culture, personal growth and more with these 20 key survey questions:
- What should our company do differently next year?
- How could our company encourage more career growth?
- Do you think our business is currently making an impact in the world?
- How could we make meetings more efficient?
- What do you like about your job? (Please list 2 things)
- What motivates you to come to the office every day?
- How could we help you make your work more meaningful?
- What would make you look for employment at another company?
- What motivates you to stay at the company?
- Do you receive regular feedback about how you are doing at work?
- What do you like most about your job?
- What don’t you like about your job?
- Have you received the necessary training to do your job effectively?
- If you could change one thing about this company, what would you change?
- What do you like most about our company culture?
- What do you like least about our company culture?
- Is your relationship with your manager good? (On a scale of 1-10)
- Have you actively looked for a job in the last three months?
- What was the most important reason you joined our company?
- Are you happy at work? (On a scale of 1-10)
Are you worried about uptake?
Rewards are a great way to motivate employees to complete a survey. Think free lunch at the office cafeteria or two tickets to the cinema.
3. Do regular resource check-ins.
Employees need the right tools and resources to do their jobs. Imagine how frustrating it must be if your job was to make coffee but the coffee machine was straight out of the 1990s.
Connecting employees to the right resources leads to a more connected workforce and a better employee experience.
When employees feel equipped and empowered, they take on more responsibility.
4. Align company benefits with employee satisfaction.
Everybody loves to be taken care of. But benefits alone won’t increase employee satisfaction or engagement.
Try working closely with HR and other business units to determine which employees are overdue for a vacation and which tasks can be done remotely from time to time.
When your employees spend all of their extra time at work, encourage some downtime, as burn-out doesn’t lead to effectiveness.
According to Gallup; ‘People who work too many hours and don’t take days off for vacations show increased stress levels as opposed to people who work flexible hours or have work-from-home opportunities.
5. Let them suggest it.
Don’t underestimate the power of a suggestion box. You will never get a good sense of what your employees are feeling and thinking if you’re not asking them. While you won’t necessarily be able to garner deep-dive insights it will give you an opportunity to improve on the small stuff.
It is important for employees to feel that their employer is concerned about their well-being not just as it relates to work. When they feel as though their challenges are being addressed, it can lead to higher productivity and feelings of satisfaction.
Satisfied employees lead to satisfied customers which leads to great business outcomes.