Top tips for employee satisfaction surveys

A strong company culture is key to business success. It can affect business strategies and growth, be a major influencer in attracting top talent or, conversely, cause employees to leave. In fact, a huge 46% of job seekers cite culture as a very important factor in deciding whether to apply to a company.

Companies with strong cultures are associated with increased productivity, better employee engagement, and higher profitability. So how do you know if your culture is on track? How do you know if it’s thriving or surviving? 

Employee satisfaction surveys

This is where employee satisfaction surveys can help. An anonymous exercise, it’s an opportunity for staff to bare all; to really share how they’re feeling within their role, about their team and leader, and about the company overall. Valuable insight that can then feed back into strengthening the company’s culture and overall performance.  

It’s not enough to just conduct an employee engagement survey, you must conduct it with purpose and effectiveness. Consider the following before conducting your survey:

• Communicate the survey effectively – ensuring employees understand the ‘what, when and why’ of the survey is essential. This not only boosts participation but also encourages employees to share open and honest feedback.
• Respect the employees time – acknowledge that your employees have hectic schedules. Ensure the survey is quick and easy to complete, it should take no more than 10 minutes. Anything longer than this and participants might just rush to get it finished and this will lead to inaccurate feedback.
• Get manager buy-in – recognise that managers play a crucial role as they share the most one to one interactions with employees. Managers are best positioned to communicate the survey’s importance and drive participation.

Example survey questions

To get the right insight however, requires the right questions. We’ve put together a few example questions to help you on your way: –  

How valued do you feel within the company? 

The more valued a person feels, the more engaged they will be and the more likely they’ll want to prove their value to the company. A winning combination.  

Are the tools available to do your job well? 

Poor performance could be down to not having the right tools available but it’s not just about physical assets. This question should also be to check that they gain the right emotional support too.   

Does your manager invest in you? 

Good or bad leadership can make or break a business, affecting morale and culture. So, this question is critical to gather honest feedback that employees could be bottling up, afraid to share in person. It’s important though not to get too personal here with any feedback.  

Are you proud to be a member of your team? 

Pride can be a sign of a positive culture and stems from having a sense of purpose and responsibility in a role. Check employees have pride and purpose in their job, giving them space to shine and free of any micromanaging.  

How confident is your understanding of your organisation’s goals and vision? 

If your organisation has invested in company culture and communicating their visions – expect to see a cohesive and similar response from this question. Don’t worry if you don’t receive a positive response though. Regroup, review and retry.  

There are many more questions you can, and should, ask as part of an employee satisfaction survey. The overall aim is to gather honest, authentic feedback that can help you continue to refine and enhance your organisation’s culture. For help with your employee survey questions or for further HR advice or support, please get in touch today.