Most businesses are quick to measure the satisfaction of customers but few companies take the time to measure how their employees are feeling through simple tools such as employee-satisfaction surveys.
Employee well-being has slowly become an increasingly important businesses focus as managers realise the direct link between a company’s long-term success and happy staff. Unhappy employees are less likely to satisfy clients, which will directly impact your bottom line. Thus, measuring a staff’s satisfaction is critical for a number of reasons, including:
- Increasing productivity – Giving your employees the space to voice any concerns they are having and then acting on those concerns have a huge impact on staff. If done correctly, it can encourage increased dedication, productivity and motivation.
- Saving time and money – Unhappy employees are more likely to seek new employment or quit with short notice. Hiring a new employee is expensive and time-consuming and will cost your business money.
- Uncover issues quickly – There may be times when serious issues go unspoken but continue to simmer. Conducting anonymous employee-satisfaction surveys can help to collect honest feedback about management and lingering issues that need to be addressed.
- Direct organisational growth – Knowing how your employees feel about certain areas of your business can help to create tangible items that need to be changed. Feedback offers you valuable actionable data that can be implemented later for growth.
- Benchmark results – Satisfaction surveys offer a benchmark for future comparison purposes. Not only can you compare your data internally, you can look at particular results and compare them with data that is specific to your industry to determine how your company is doing in comparison to industry norms.
It is important to remember that there is a way to measure and develop staff satisfaction levels. After you have identified and measured issues, you must create an action plan, carry out those actions and re-evaluate in the future. Positive relationships in the workplace are necessary for forward momentum and addressing issues goes a long way to achieving them.
Taking the time to conduct a satisfaction survey and making action steps a priority afterward will help to build a happy and engaged workforce for your business.
Saxon Marsden-Huggins, Managing Director, Recruit Shop
