Employee Survey: An Important Tool for Employee Loyalty

HR managers use employee surveys to find out how satisfied the employees are, and what is causing dissatisfaction. This is important because satisfaction is directly linked to performance, staff turnover, etc. A well thought-out set of questions can be used again and again, and it will reveal if and where there is a need for action.

You can edit this questionnaire and transfer it to a survey tool. There are free providers, e.g. typeform and SurveyMonkey. When running the survey, please make sure that you satisfy the current data privacy requirements, particularly with regard to the recently enforced General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Creating Employee Loyalty Through Surveys

If staff turnover is high, something is wrong. A drop in performance, too, indicates there could be a potential problem somewhere. But where? You can find out more through personal discussions, or by conducting an employee survey. The latter will give you a comprehensive picture of the general mood in the organization, and a way to make comparisons. How satisfied are the employees in marketing, and those in sales? Do people feel more valued than last year, or less? Learn in this article what a typical set of questions can look like in practice.

Employee Survey – What’s In It?

Why should you ask for this information? The reason is simple: Because the general mood and workplace satisfaction directly affect performance, staff turnover, etc., and thus have business-relevant consequences that will interest your manager(s), too.

So, look at the results while relating them to fluctuation, sick leave numbers, and/or promotions. This allows you to identify correlations and to take action if necessary. What if many employees of one department leave the company and the remaining employees report that their workload is very high? Then discuss with the manager in charge how this can be addressed. Check in the survey that follows whether your actions are showing positive effects.

What Do I Need to Consider When Creating the Survey?

Before initiating a survey, ask yourself what you want to find out – e.g. about employee commitment. Determine the cycle for the survey and think in advance about how you will communicate the results, and when. Importantly, inform the managers within the organization that there will likely be some work for them to do after the survey that they will definitely benefit from. Because only if you know the reasons why employees are (un)motivated can you shape the content and their surroundings accordingly. Ultimately, if less people leave or are thinking of leaving, and performance is high, it helps the department and the entire organization.

What Happens with the Results?

Discuss the results not only bilaterally, but in a wider circle. This way, you are signaling that you live a culture of feedback and transparency and that, when faced with mistakes or weak spots, you look for solutions and not “culprits.” If it is obvious that the behavior of a manager is causing the problem, then you need to address this in a personal conversation directly with the manager before discussing anything publicly. Your interactions should be solution-oriented and collaborative. If the employees of a particular department show a high level of satisfaction and willingness to perform, find out the reasons. The results from this kind of analysis can be very helpful to other department managers.

Tip: Schedule team workshops after the survey. During these, you can discuss any negative results with the respective departments and find solutions together. Example: The score from your marketing team for communication within the company was 3.4. Use the workshop to dig deeper and find out what exactly is perceived as “bad,” or what is missing. Then ask the team for their suggestions to improve the situation.

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