What really matters to your employees? It’s easy to believe that you know exactly what to offer, but difficult to get the right answers.
While we often talk about the need of treating employees like customers, gathering feedback, and understanding their needs, very few know how to ask the right questions.
This is because employees, unlike customers, are far more likely to fib in response to a survey question – after all, they work for you!
When employees are worried about backlash, they will err on the side of caution. The result? Misleading data that gets you nowhere.
Consequently, you’ll notice that no matter how much of the employee feedback you implement, you’ll have a work culture that simply doesn’t improve, and an employee churn rate that either increases or stays the same.
So, what can you do?
How to capture authentic employee responses?
No data is better than misleading data. However, good data beats it all, helping you transform your office culture and create a space of collaboration.
The best way to go about this is to make it easy for your employees to be candid. To start off, implement anonymous surveys – it doesn’t matter who said what, it matters that they said it. This will help you focus on the problem and not the person, increasing employee confidence in answering truthfully.
However, it might be tougher for employees to feel confident about anonymous surveys conducted by you knowing you are managing the survey and perhaps itisn’tfully anonymous. If you feel like this is holding your employees back from being honest and reaching out, then you can partner with survey companies or request your provider to run the survey for you. Companies like Sogolytics offer Managed Survey Projects on top of the survey platform, increasing employee confidence and enabling you to capture the honest feedback.
However, anonymity is just one part of the problem. The other part is the question you ask.
7 employee satisfaction survey questions to capture the data you need
We are often limited to the usual employee satisfaction survey questions to capture our data. However, to engage employees and capture valid data, you need to ask questions that reveal more.
Yes, asking the usual questions does have its merits. Most businesses will stop at “how satisfied are you with your job overall?” Or “How likely are you to recommend our company as a great place to work?”
However, these are just the first step. While they get the ball rolling, you need to focus on questions that might be focused on different aspects of your organization, helping you pin-point experience gaps at different stages.
Here are some you might not have thought of:
1. How would you rate the level of transparency within this organization?
This question can help you assess how included and valued an employee feels within the organization. Moreover, it can be used in lieu of “how well does your manager communicate with you?”
The latter, while valuable, feels more direct. If an employee isn’t certain of anonymity, they might be worried about answering negatively, even to something so little, depending on their past experience.
By taking the pressure off, this empowers them to be more candid in their response, also allowing you to gauge how they feel.
2. How well does this organization support your personal and professional development?
To assess employee loyalty, you need to begin by understanding if you’re doing all you can to win it. If employees don’t feel like your organization offers that, they’relikely going to feel stagnated and start looking for opportunities elsewhere.
Moreover, by making this is a rating scale question, it allows the respondent to put less thought, boiling the answer down to the rating scale, thereby making it easier to answer.
However, if you are looking for more in-depth answers, you can ask how your employees feel about this, leaving space for an open-text response.
Alternately, you can use that as a follow up to ensure you get the best of both worlds.
3. How satisfied are you with the level of autonomy you have in your role?
It’s common to ask how satisfied employees are in their job, but asking about autonomy places the focus on an important driver for proactiveness – being responsible. When employees feel like they’re trusted and valued, they’re also more likely to take proactive effort, because the onus of getting a job done well is on them. However, when the opposite is true and they feel micro-managed, they’re also more likely to give up on proactively getting a task done, instead assuming they’ll be told what to do next.
Moreover, by asking employees how satisfied they are versus whether their managers are empowering autonomy allows them to be more candid.
After all, they aren’t telling on their managers but simply expressing their feelings!
4. How effective do you think this organization is at fostering a diverse and inclusive workspace?
To understand whether your employees feel included and empowered, you need to understand their perception on whether they feel welcome or not. DEI has become a hot topic, and for good reason. With subconscious biases, we often don’t realize the micro aggressions happening daily. This can lead to an inadvertently toxic workplace if not addressed in time.
By asking about effectiveness, you remove the blame game and instead focus on the effectiveness of efforts. This allows employees to answer honestly, giving you the opportunity to address concerns – if at all – early on.
5. How often do you receive recognition on your work?
Work culture has transformed over the last few years, with hybrid set-ups that are a lot more common. While this increasing flexibility can have many benefits, it does take away from all constant socializing that happens in office and can also lead to employees feeling like they work in silos.
When this happens, it inadvertently increases the feelings of isolation, leading to them feeling like their work isn’t as valued. Recognition is a key aspect of employees feeling like they’re a part of the big picture, showing them that not only is their work valuable, but they are also doing a good job – encouraging them to continue working hard and do more. Moreover, when employees work really hard without recognition, it often leads to a higher dissatisfaction and churn. So by asking this, you will also receive insights into early signs of turnover that need your attention.
6. How would you rate the level of teamwork in your department?
A great work culture isn’t limited to the work done, but to the relationship employees have with one another. Do they feel like they are a part of a team, or are they feeling sidelined, ignored, or in a conflict-ridden workspace? Do they feel like they can count on their colleagues, or that they have to go it alone?
Teamwork can make or break a workspace, especially when employees feel like they have to carry the show on their back without any support. It can increase burnout and of course, turnover.
So, by asking this simple question, you’ll be able to notice red flags early on without having anyone pointing fingers.
7. How happy are you with this company’s approach to wellness and health?
With most desk jobs becoming sedentary, it’s important to focus on wellness and health at work. Employees at the top of their game are often more active – physically and mentally. However, in the hustle-culture of today, this can be difficult to achieve. In order to ensure that your people are giving their very best, it’s important for you to ensure an environment that incentivizes that. This can be in the form of a building gym or even incentives for staying healthy. However, not every program will be a success. So, test the effectiveness of your strategies by asking this one key question every few months to see what works and what doesn’t.
To ensure employees are satisfied in their work and doing their best, you need to create an environment that empowers them. Simply asking their level of satisfaction isn’t enough – and it might not be accurate either!
The generic question gives you an overall idea without diving into the details. That’s why you need to get more specific. By focusing your questions on the different facets that make your work culture, you will get the answers you need to make it a better, more engaging place to work.
Once you have the questions you need, platforms like Sogolytics help you do more than ask them. With powerful analytics that read between the lines, you can make the most of your data to visualize trends, spot red flags and hidden strengths, and identify key engagement drivers to optimize your strategy!
About The Author
Jim Pullman
Jim Pulman has extensive knowledge and experience in Home Building, Construction, and Design. He writes articles in his free time and partners with content creators to share his expertise with the online community. He is also passionate about automobiles.
