Businesses, whether big or small should routinely conduct employee surveys to understand critical topics like employee satisfaction and company culture. Surveys can help managers or employers to understand how employees feel about work in order to create a more productive and positive environment. One of the most effective techniques to get a deeper understanding of what’s working well and where there are opportunities for improvement is to survey employees.
Here are some efficient ways to survey your staff about any aspect of your business, such as workflow or other procedures, and then use the results to develop strategies that will enhance the employee experience.
Types of employee surveys
In order to get their views on specific topics, you can survey your employees by asking them a series of questions. Managers can use a variety of survey types to gather information. Depending on the type of information you need, you can decide which one is best for your business’s requirements.
1. Performance reviews
A performance review offers managers and employees the chance to evaluate work performance, whether it is done annually, quarterly, or more frequently. Before an employee speaks with a manager as part of the review process, they frequently complete a self-evaluation survey.
2. Employee engagement survey:
With the help of this survey, you can assess how highly valued your staff members are by the top management. In order to lower employee turnover, employee engagement surveys are essential.
3. Employee satisfaction survey:
This survey evaluates how happy and in control the workforce feels. It may address issues relating to work, such as company policies, satisfaction with one’s job, pay, and benefits.
4. Exit interview:
This survey is used to determine employee retention and should not be kept with the employee’s personnel file. You can use the findings from exit interviews to enhance your company as well as the duties and precise job description for the vacant position.
Why surveying employees is important
A business can always make improvements to its operations and procedures for its workers and clients. Managers should constantly seek out ways to improve things, however they might not know where to start. A survey enables employers to identify areas with low satisfaction and high importance that they can concentrate on enhancing. This enables them to focus their efforts on improving the workplace environment by giving employees what they value most.
Employees who don’t feel comfortable directly sharing unfavorable feedback with their superiors or coworkers can feel safe doing so in surveys. Others might be unable to answer a question directly when it is posed in an honest or comprehensive manner.
How to survey your employees
1. Choose a topic of focus
Start by selecting a topic for your employee survey that you want to learn more about. This could be a problem with a specific employee’s performance and work history or a more widespread, corporate problem. Instead of asking questions about a wide range of topics, it is best to keep a survey narrowly focused.
2. Determine how you’ll deliver the survey
Once a topic has been chosen, you must determine the most effective surveying method. Many businesses choose to let their employees complete surveys online via email or survey platforms like Doodle, Survey Monkey, or Google Forms.
These platforms allow managers to make responses anonymous, which incentivizes staff to provide more candid and open feedback. Surveys can also be given out in the form of a paper form that workers must complete and return by hand. In an interview-style conversation, that can also be held in person (or via video conference).
3. Structure your survey
There are many different ways to design and organize your survey to get the data you need. You can ask respondents to respond in a short-answer format, a checkbox list, a yes/no question, a ranking system, or a multiple-choice menu when conducting written surveys. Because they enable respondents to express their ideas and emotions in as much detail as they feel comfortable doing so, short answers are frequently preferred. However, questions with specific, defined answers may be the better course of action when that kind of feedback is not desired.
4. Set a deadline and share results and follow-up actions
Employers should establish a specific deadline for submission of responses. Review the responses once they have all been gathered. When appropriate, share the pertinent insights with your entire team along with how the business intends to use the results.
Bottom Line
As a small business owner, you might believe that your top priority is to maximize customer satisfaction in order to increase sales. It’s true, but that only gives you a portion of the story. Your staff will perform better work if they are happy because they will be more engaged and productive. That serves as a bridge to customer satisfaction. You can build internally to build externally through employee surveys.
SW HR Consulting has been helping companies to build their teams and values for over 10 years. Contact us to find out more about our unique hr outsourcing services and see how our expertise can benefit you.
