If you’re undertaking an employee survey, the aim is to unearth invaluable insights to help improve the employee experience. As the market becomes increasingly competitive, understanding survey findings is critical in attracting and retaining top talent.
We’ve conducted research in the past that shockingly found only one in five employees would recommend their company as a place to work. It’s clear there is room for improvement. Employee surveys aren’t just a tick-box exercise. Organizations need to listen and take visible action on the feedback and commit to an ongoing dialogue with employees.
There is a need to implement improvement programs in areas such as work-life balance, compensation, training, company culture. It’s only when organizations do this that the needle starts to move from being a good employer to being a great employer.
Surveys are vital in helping the internal communication or employee engagement teams make strategic decisions about how they deliver the overall employee journey. There are several different types of employee surveys, and while the terms are often used interchangeably, they have some distinct differences:
- Employee satisfaction survey: This type of survey focuses on measuring how content or satisfied staff are with various aspects of their role and workplace environment. This could include compensation, benefits, work-life balance, management, or company policies. It gives a general overview of employee happiness. Organizations may use an employee satisfaction index, which is a composite scoring method that quantifies overall employee satisfaction levels within an organization, providing a standardized way to track and benchmark findings over time.
- Job satisfaction survey: This is very similar to an employee satisfaction survey but looks specifically at how fulfilled employees are with the work duties and responsibilities in their specific role. It evaluates satisfaction with the job itself rather than the overall organization.
- Employee engagement survey: This goes a step beyond just measuring satisfaction. It aims to assess employees’ emotional commitment, motivation, and sense of connection to their work and the company’s mission or goals. It gauges aspects like intrinsic motivation, discretionary effort, intent to stay, and advocacy. Engagement surveys tend to be more comprehensive in understanding the overall employee experience and relationship with the company.
The importance of benchmark data
Employee surveys offer an immense range of data on a wide variety of factors that form the employee experience. Looking at previous data is a good place to start. For example, are your employee engagement levels improving or declining, or would more or less employees recommend you as a place to work?
It’s also useful to benchmark how you compare with competitors’ employee survey results. It’s always fascinating to peek behind the curtains and see how we’re doing in relation to others. Benchmark data is invaluable in illustrating how an organization rivals others in the same industry, across other sectors, by company size or by geographical location.
There’s always room for improvement
The results from employee engagement or employee satisfaction surveys are only useful if you know how to analyze the findings, and subsequently act on them:
- What does 73% employee engagement actually mean?
- What’s causing 11% to feel unsatisfied in their job?
- How can you improve work/life balance when 33% continually work late to meet deadlines?
- Why do 21% mistrust the leadership team?
- How about the 7% who feel the company is failing to nurture a culture of DE&I?
Savanta helps companies become great employers by understanding what employees want, how to engage and retain them, and how to adapt in ways that address concerning workforce trends.
With an approach grounded in data and its implications, we’ll deliver actionable insights to inspire change. We also provide benchmarked data that identifies how your employee experience compares. We’ll help you understand what the research means and the actions you should prioritize.
Want to become great? Find out more about our approach to employee research.
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