The critical value Employee Satisfaction and Engagement surveys

Are you satisfied?

I have been in my new role as an HR director for about four months. I have many ideas about programs I want to create to help improve the lives of the employees I work with. Something that has been nagging at me is how I determine if a program is effective or not in helping employees. How can I measure the impact of a new program if I don’t already know the baseline for employee satisfaction? For me, that is where an employee satisfaction and engagement survey comes in.

Creating an employee satisfaction survey that isn’t just a cliche

One of my goals with this survey is not to create something that wastes employees’ time. I want them to see real change based on the data that we receive. I want the results to be anonymous but transparent to the staff. Below are the steps I plan to take to help this be an effective and appreciated tool.

1. Use this first survey to establish a baseline of satisfaction
2. Share aggregated and anonymized results with all staff
3. Share information on how upcoming programs are designed to address specific areas of satisfaction and ask for feedback
4. Start the revised program
5. Ask employees to complete another survey after a period of time
6. Used the results of the survey to determine if the program is making an impact or now
7. Rinse and repeat
   

Sections of the satisfaction survey

As I built the satisfaction survey, I realized the questions should be grouped into sections. The questions then are asked to gauge employee satisfaction in the following areas.

• Organization Overall
• Job Responsibilities
• Work Environment
• Stress and Health
• Compensation and Benefits
  

I believe this grouping will help us split the results into more meaningful analyses. For example, suppose satisfaction with Compensation and Benefits is low. In that case, some of our first programs should be geared toward improving satisfaction in that area as much as possible with the resources available. I think a critical part of this plan is to continually check in with staff to make sure that each section is asking relevant questions.

A couple of upcoming programs I have in mind

A couple of programs will depend on the results that I get from the first survey. However, we have a plan to start working annually to visit and rewrite job descriptions with the help of employees to make sure that job descriptions accurately represent the work that people do.

A program that I have already put into place is regularly occurring performance and goal check-ins. You can read more about the program I created to improve my organization’s performance and goal systems here.

Lastly, I want to work on a robust rewards and compensation program. I feel that our organization could benefit from creating a structure for employees to pursue rewards based on different accomplishments or other criteria. I am actually scheduled to take a course in April to get some ideas on some rewards and compensation programs that we could put in place. That class will align well, as I am hoping to get the first employee satisfaction survey out at the beginning of March.

If you have implemented such a system and have some lessons learned to share with me, I would be grateful for any comments you could provide.