Measuring Employee Satisfaction through Use of Employee Satisfaction Surveys - Essay Example

? Measuring employee satisfaction through use of employee satisfaction surveys Business February 24, Employees are afirm’s most supreme assets. Hence, employee’s satisfaction is critical to an organization, since their productivity depends on it and has a direct bearing on their quality of performance and innovativeness. Kaila (2005) defines job satisfaction as ‘any combination of psychological, physiological and environmental circumstances that causes a person to truthfully say, I am satisfied with my job’ consequently, it is imperative for management to devise ways to get and fathom employee’s feedback. Most of the companies employ survey to gauge their employee’s satisfactions, recruit top prospects and create internal policies. Survey have a twofold advantage; to the employees, they tell them that their input and concerns are important thus boost their morale and loyalty and to the employers, they assist them to map the companies policies. Employee’s survey can be carried out in a manner of ways, depending with the purpose. To begin with, it can be employee Satisfaction Surveys. In essence, the core goal of any employee survey is to gauge employee satisfaction. This type of survey dwells on workplace issues such as benefits, the work environment, commitment to diversity and effective communication. To the management, the feedback from this type of survey helps to paint the real attitude of employees and their opinion concerning the workplace issues. The feedback, also aid the employer to discern the root cause of persistent problems; such as high expenses, low productivity or low morale in work. To add, another method is to employ is exit survey. This method is best in organizations plagued with high turnover. Turnovers are very expensive to any organization. The survey is conducted on employees who are leaving the particular organization, and the aim is to elicit their reasons for doing so. Written exit survey has been shown to elicit more honest responses than interviews, which lend themselves to unrealistic and overly rosy scenarios. The data derived from exit surveys can be used to create policies and procedures that aid to boost job satisfaction and hence counter the costly effects of job turnover. Another method generally employed by organizations is customer care surveys. This mode of survey is customer oriented, and is designed to deliver quality services and products to customers, that best answer their needs. Generally, those people who are in constant and direct contact with the customers are better suited to provide information on the needs of the customers. Consequently, organizations design a customer care surveys to elicit the opinion of the employees and their knowledge about their customers. This mode of survey helps to seal loopholes in customer service delivery and therefore improve areas where service may be lacking, thereby increase their satisfaction. Finally, another mode of survey is survey on specific issues. This kind of survey is conducted whenever companies wish to conduct material changes that affect the employee welfare, such as new insurance providers or changes in working conditions. This kind of survey is designed to elicit the input of the employee and thus reduce chances of the resistance of the new policy at the implementation phase. In order for the survey to be successful, it is important for the management to observe a number of steps. To begin with, the survey must be advertised. The employees have to be informed well in advance. Generally, response rates have been closely linked to the number of times an upcoming survey is announced. The management can do this via emails, memos, bulletin boards or even the organization newsletter. Secondly, it is critical that anonymity is guaranteed by employers who are conducting employee’s survey. Employees may feel threatened, if they hold opinions that differ or does not agree with the company policies. This may make employees choose not to participate in the survey of if they do, they are not honest. Therefore, during the survey, it is important to avoid questions that may lead to identification of the employee, such as their race, age, or position. Another critical thing for employees to observe is to show and establish a clear objective and commitment for the survey. A clearly articulated objective is likely to appeal and draw many employees to participate in the survey. It is important at this juncture for the management to commit them to take action based on the survey results. The goal of this is that employees are bound to take part in the exercise if it is bound to drive change. Moreover, it is important to share results of the survey with the employees. It may not be necessary to give employees a complete copy of the results, but a summary of the results demonstrate openness and seriousness of the management especially if a positive action is taken. Finally, it is essential to give employees time to answer and respond. This should however not means that employees be required to fill out the surveys at their own time, as they are unlikely to do so. This necessitates the use of incentives such as t-shirts, movie passes or coupons in exchange for employee participation. Finally, during the design stage of questionnaire, open ended questions should be avoided. This is because respondents tend to be tired or bored where asked to do too much writing. Moreover, the survey should not be too long and should eliminate all double-barreled questions. This is to prevent instances of where the respondents agree with one part of the question but disagree with the other. Actual survey then follows. The first phase entails developing effective survey plans. Every survey must put into consideration the survey value, survey cost, definition of the project, definition of the Audience, definition of the project and the project timelines. With regards to survey value, the survey has to be defined within its scope, importance to the organization and how the information gathered can realistically benefit the organization. With relation to survey cost, a budget has to be planned for the cost that shall be incurred, for example the actual cost of creating the survey instrument, cost for inviting the respondents, and for data entry and analysis. The next step involves defining the project. This involves setting a measurable objective that help to gauge the effectiveness of the survey. It is at this juncture that the employer should identify how to invite respondents. The next step involves defining the audience. At this step, the employers decide whether to involve all employees or simply sample, in which case the sample size has to be determined and the method of sampling. Then, the team to carry out the project should be defined together with the equipment required. Finally, the timelines within which the research is to take place is defined. Phase 2 involves the development of a questionnaire. During phase 2, it is essential to require the input of the employees, through requiring them to rank factors that are of importance to them. While designing the questionnaire, three things are basic. The employer needs to identify an area of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. For an accurate and reliable survey, the questions need to be developed by professionals who know how to design questionnaire that derives unbiased information. Secondly, the questionnaire should be administered appropriately with due regards to organization’s culture and communication and lastly, it should be analyzed by people who understand survey research and analysis. Phase 3 involves the collection of data through the issue of the questionnaires. Generally, the employer should design the best methodology to implement this phase. For example, the employer should decide whether to use the internet or the traditional pen and paper. The choice, however, should be advised by the access to internet services by the employees. Phase 4 and the last one inculcate data analysis and interpretation. At this juncture, the data derived should be used to satisfy the research objective. Data is analyzed and presented in summarized forms easier to understand. Employees should then be given the result which should be acted upon by the employer. An organization should report survey results and percentage of those who participated in the survey. Results can be reviewed through review sessions. These sessions can involve employees, managers, even CEO’s of an organization. They also can be reviewed in group workshops where they can implement solutions to possible problems or weaknesses noted in the results. The survey helps to pinpoint the employees’ motivation, satisfaction, opinion and goals for achievements. To add, the surveys help the management to formulate policies, work on teamwork, and enhance communication and aid in understanding of mission and vision. Finally, it shall eliminate the chances of employee quitting, which is very expensive on a firm, as it ends up losing experienced employees. References Heathfield, S. ‘Five recommendations For Employee Satisfaction Survey’. Human Resources. Retrieved from http://humanresources.about.com/od/employeesatisfaction/a/surveys.htm 24 Feb 2011 Kaila H L, (2005). Human resource management. Delhi. Kalpaz Publications. Kouzes, J. Posner, B. Biech, E. A . (2008). Coach's Guide to Developing Exemplary Leaders: Making the Most of The Leadership Challenge and the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI). Sanfransico. Pfeiffer. Monk, E. Wagner, Bret.(2008). Concepts in Enterprise Resource planning. Cengage Learning EMEA. ‘The Employee Satisfaction Survey Process’, the business research lab. Retrieved from http://www.busreslab.com/ESATinterpretation.htm. 24 Feb 2011 Worman, L.. (2008).A correlational study between hospital employees' perceptions of senior leadership behaviors and patient loyalty. Cengage Learning. Read More