In 2017,Huffington Post published a study involving more than 8,000 participants in the UK. According to this study, getting quality sleep at night on a regular basis had a greater impact on employees' happiness. This study illustrates what many of us already intuitively know and has been researched for years. Employees must have their most basic needs met before reacting to other factors.
The most difficult thing for companies and organizations is to distinguish between basic human needs (basic needs such as sleep, for example) and the trendy benefits we see on the HR pages of newspapers every day, which actually have little impact on increasing employee productivity and satisfaction. As the UK study shows, if the elements of satisfaction are not met (i.e. if you are deprived of something as basic as a restful sleep), a salary increase cannot compensate for this loss. The same goes for your job. If your boss or manager is a jerk, if you don't have properly functioning computers and equipment, or if there are three times more men than women on the leadership team, it doesn't matter much whether the company has dry cleaning, a gym, a sleeping room, etc.
Since companies know that employee satisfaction is based on a good employee experience, their tendency is to rush to ask their employees about various elements of satisfaction. However, a poorly prepared survey (focused on the wrong variables) will do more harm than good. Let me explain this a little more:
If you conduct an employee satisfaction survey and ask them about salaries, the organization will invariably find that employees believe they are underpaid. In fact, our DecisionWise database of 15 million Employee engagement survey responses shows that 62% to 68% of employees (depending on the job level) believe that their pay does not reflect the work they do. As you can imagine, they don't say they believe they are overpaid. Similarly, if you do an employee satisfaction survey and ask about bonuses, employees always want more bonuses.
So companies that only ask about elements of employee satisfaction can unwittingly create new demands. The survey itself instills in employees the feeling that they don't have enough. As in the old psychological trick, "don't think about a white bear." Did that warning work, or are you now thinking about a white bear, even though it hadn't crossed your mind before you read that statement? The survey makes suggestions, intentionally or unintentionally, about levels of employee satisfaction that create an idea in employees' minds: "I wonder if I'm getting paid enough" or "more bonuses would be great". For psychology buffs, this effect is related to "ironic process theory" and there are echoes of this theory in employee survey design.
More Than Just Employee Satisfaction
Our recommendation is to use an employee engagement survey or a well-crafted pulse survey, rather than just a simple employee satisfaction survey. Such surveys provide a more holistic view by measuring other factors in addition to satisfaction factors. Our experience shows that by using a broader survey, employers can alleviate many of the problems that a satisfaction-only survey would create. In addition, a broader employee engagement survey has the advantage of providing additional data and insights about the company.
So, if you ask me for my opinion on an "employee satisfaction survey", you will usually get the advice of an employee engagement survey rather than an employee satisfaction survey for the reasons I mentioned above. However, when designing surveys, we work with our clients to include the following question types in their employee engagement surveys.
Employee Engagement Survey Questions
Our experience tells us that the following types of questions do a good job of measuring employee satisfaction without creating artificial demands for higher salaries, paid leave, etc. Consider the following sample questions in your surveys:
Pay attention to whether these questions measure sleep and other basic human needs and factors rather than questions like "Would you rather have salty snacks or fruit in the employee cafeteria?". Otherwise, a question like the one above often results in employees unanimously saying: "I hadn't thought of that. Actually, I'd like both! I want both salty snacks and fruit."
In addition to these, there are points that must be taken into consideration. Employee satisfaction should not be measured sporadically or haphazardly! On the other hand, once you start asking employees to share their experiences with you, it is wise to continue to do so regularly, at least on an annual basis. Some companies also use pulse surveys at intervals throughout the year to check in with their employees more frequently. Such interim checks hold a healthy mirror to the company's development.
Building Employee Engagement
Unlike employee engagement, employee satisfaction is primarily the responsibility of the organization. While your employees help you identify gaps between their expectations and the reality through surveys, it is the organization that is responsible for improving problem areas in employee satisfaction.
Therefore, action planning in the context of employee satisfaction is primarily the job of the organization (i.e. those at the top of the organization) and you need to be ready to act on the answers you receive, otherwise all you will get from the survey is a lack of trust from employees. Immediately afterwards, you'll hear them say, "See, they asked, we were sincere with our thoughts, but they don't really care about us, because they still haven't done anything about it."
So far, I have repeatedly discussed with our clients the approach of simply measuring employee satisfaction, but what is more difficult is how to build and develop satisfaction and engagement from within the organization. In other words, how do you motivate your employees to go beyond the basics and be truly engaged? How can you get them to put their hearts, hands, minds and souls into what they do?
The answer to these questions lies in understanding that meaningful employee engagement requires looking beyond employee satisfaction factors to higher motivators, such as helping a person find meaning in their work, or giving employees the freedom (autonomy) to decide how best to do their work. We call these engagement factors "MAGIC", the Magic of Employee Engagement, which includes 5 elements; Meaning, Autonomy, Growth , Impact and Connection. To learn more about these topics and to build engagement in your organization, I share with you a guide below.
5 TRICKS TO UNLOCK EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT