A Gateway to a Happy Workforce!
High employee turnover is costing you good employees & that is costing you money?
Many companies have reported losing a lot of money and low productivity due to the high rate of employee attrition which is increasing the overall operational cost. Hiring is expensive for any company. Right from training an employee to investing in their hiring, a dropout not just costs you money but also the value they brought to the table while working for your company.
If we were to highlight the top five reasons for high employee attrition and low productivity, they would be –
- Lack of growth and progression
- Being overworked
- Lack of feedback and recognition
- Lack of decision-making opportunity
- Lack of monetary incentives
A study in the University of Warwick, England says that happier employees are 12% more productive than unhappy ones. If organizations can crack the code of happiness for their employees, they are more likely to gain a competitive edge in their industry. Ignoring workplace productivity and employee satisfaction can result in low productivity and a high rate of attrition in the company – which in the long run is nothing but bad news. Today, companies take control of these situations with the help of employee satisfaction surveys.
“What can we do to make you happier?”
This is the sole mantra a company should focus on while devising an employee satisfaction survey (ESS) for their organization. One of the best ways to measure employee happiness is with well-designed questionnaires or surveys. It’s a study designed to provide actionable insights to boost employee engagement, which can lead to increased productivity.
This survey brings out the deep-rooted feelings of an employee. Right from the work culture to work recognition, the survey attempts to cover all the tiny aspects that reveal the true feelings – both positive and negative. This helps the company in understanding many factors that may or may not lead to a future dropout and how to improve the overall workplace productivity.
ESS is not a standard template that can be applied to all companies. Every sector and organization have some specific nuances which need to be considered to make the survey outcome more effective. It doesn’t matter which methodology is used by the organization; it is a step in the right direction when it comes to better understanding the needs of employees.
The Trick to Designing Effective Surveys
Employee satisfaction surveys are designed to provide enough information to help you create a positive work environment and address any flaws or problems that may exist within your company. Burnout tendencies, loyalty, employee attitudes, management experiences, and other critical factors for employee happiness and engagement are generally measured.
If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to stop assuming whether your employees are pleased and start asking the correct questions to find out how content they are with their jobs.
Your primary goal should be to encourage everyone to take part in the survey and to make it as simple as possible for your employees to offer you with clear and purposeful answers to all your most essential questions. Here’s where you should begin:
1. Use Clear Language
Avoid using corporate jargon that only a few people will comprehend. If you want genuine feedback from your surveys, make sure they read like a normal conversation. Make your phrases short and to-the-point and avoid jargon like “incentivize” and “core competency” — whatever those terms imply. Write your questions down as if you were having a typical coffee chat.
When it comes to language, the way you frame the survey questions is crucial. Avoid uncertainty at all costs. The improper language or choice of words can cause employees to perceive questions differently, resulting in data that isn’t compatible with what you were hoping to learn.
2. Maintain Confidentiality
You want your team to be straightforward. This means you’ll need to reassure them that their responses will be kept private. To strengthen the impression of confidentiality, make the survey anonymous.
3. A Leader In-Charge
Employee satisfaction surveys are best handled by a single senior HR professional. They should be in charge of conducting the survey, summarizing the important findings, interpreting the data, and ensuring that the organization makes the best use of the results. To overcome any bias and ensure effectiveness, many organizations prefer outsourcing the survey to specialist firms like Maction Consulting.
4. Implement Technology
Don’t be hesitant to use software or an app to produce your surveys online. Online employee satisfaction surveys, when combined with the correct follow-up tools, can help you achieve high levels of participation because they are easier to use and implement. Any component of the process that you can automate and simplify should be done so.
5. Analyze Output
Evaluate the information after you’ve collected your survey responses. Plan to enhance the areas that have been identified as needing improvement. Most importantly, inform your team about key results and action plans. Communication that is open and honest fosters the kind of trust and involvement that leads to meaningful change and outcomes.
The Benefits of Employee Satisfaction Surveys
A. Discover Individual Employee Weakness & Cover Gaps:
For any company to grow, it is very important to assess and decode the weakness of its employees. The only viable method to achieve this is through employee satisfaction surveys. These insights can be leveraged for imparting a specific guest and virtual instructor-led training as well. This helps uncover any gaps between employees and bridging the same through the required measures.
B. Lower Absenteeism:
Employee Satisfaction Surveys help identify gaps between the employee and the employer which might be contributing to low productivity and dissatisfaction amongst the employees. Naturally, when this is taken care of, the rate of absenteeism drops, and workplace productivity increases. Studies reveal that highly engaged workplaces observe 41% lower absenteeism.
C. Improved Employee Safety:
The survey helps the employer form an emotional bond with their employees which in turn increases the employee’s safety and health. Research reveals that there are 70% fewer safety incidents in highly engaged workplaces as compared to disengaged ones.
D. Higher Retention & Increased Employee Loyalty:
If the turnover rate of your organization is high, it does not just affect productivity but also affects your revenue and long-term goals. Re-hiring and restructuring employees is an extremely costly affair for employers. Understanding the problem statement and solving it helps in higher employee retention. Furthermore, studies have proven that 46% of employees are willing to accept another job offer if an opportunity presents itself. Hence, if proper measures are taken to retain the employees and provide them proper compensations, employee loyalty is increased.
The Bottomline
A happy workplace and a healthy employee-employer work balance are essential for a productive, happy, and healthy work environment. Through employee satisfaction surveys, this is now both possible and achievable. Successful organizations survey regularly and thereby communicate to employees their feedback and commitment to the organization are valued. Creating stronger employee bonds enhances brand identity and loyalty which reinforces your organizational culture.
