Employee satisfaction survey - All you need to know

Employee satisfaction survey

An employee satisfaction survey can help your workplace to improve the company's working environment, which is one of the building blocks of a wellfunctioning organisation.

In this article, we will make you aware of what an employee satisfaction survey entails and how the survey can be carried out. At the end of the article, we will review how your company can work further with the employee satisfaction survey results.

What is an employee satisfaction survey?

An employee satisfaction survey, also called an employee engagement survey, is a tool that can be used to understand how the company's employees perceive the workplace, including work and wellbeing. The purpose of an employee engagement survey is to promote engagement and motivation and create healthy and efficient workplaces.

The employee satisfaction survey provides a snapshot of the company and provides the greatest value when adapted to the local context. The survey can be carried out in different ways, but questionnaire surveys are often used, as it is an easy way for the company to reach many employees. However, other methods can also be used, for example interviews or dialogue meetings. It is therefore crucial that your company finds a method that suits your workplace.

A questionnaire can be an advantage if you want to carry out an anonymous employee engagement survey, as the other methods can have difficulty in ensuring the anonymity of the employees. Furthermore, an anonymous employee satisfaction survey can result in better answers from the respondents, as the employee can experience a sense of security and thus give more honest answers if they are anonymous. On the other hand, the disadvantage may be that it is not possible to follow up on the individual answers if you want the person to elaborate on their answers

Can one complete an employee engagement survey together with a workplace assessment?

The employee satisfaction survey and the workplace assessment both deal with the psychological working environment in the organisation. In addition, both the employee engagement survey must be carried out once every three years.

The advantage of this approach may be that it gives the collaboration committee and the working environment organisation a unified view of common areas of action on the psychological working environment. A joint implementation also gives the opportunity to think together and optimise the process regarding the work with the psychological working environment in the company.

If you would like to read more about how your organisation can work with the psychological working environment, you can read the article here.

How should the results from an employee satisfaction survey be announced in the workplace?

In many workplaces, all employees get access to the overall employee engagement survey results for the workplace, but also for their own team or department. Access to all the departments results can also be assigned. However, this requires careful consideration of how it will affect the workplace.

In the followup process, you can also consider whether the managers should have presented the results before the employee engagement survey is announced to the employees. It can give managers an opportunity to prepare how they want to present the results to their unit.

How can you work further with the employee satisfaction survey results?

It may be a good idea to consider how you follow up on the employee satisfaction survey, including how your company prepares action plans, before you start the investigation. You can ensure openness about the employee satisfaction survey by communicating the action plan as part of the general information regarding the employee engagement survey. In this way, the employees acquire an understanding of what effort they can expect based on the employee satisfaction survey results.

When you have to work further with the results from employee engagement survey, you can e.g. incorporate experiences from previous employee satisfaction surveys from your workplace. If you find that particular areas in the workplace rank low, you can assess whether external assistance should be obtained for further work.

In addition, it may be sensible to evaluate the employee satisfaction survey. It can give you useful knowledge that you can use the next time you complete an employee satisfaction survey or similar studies that cross the company.

What questions can be included in an employee satisfaction survey?

As previously mentioned, the employee satisfaction survey can be carried out in different formats, e.g. via questionnaires and interviews. Below you can find a series of questions that your company can use when you need to get started with the employee engagement survey:

• How meaningful is your work?
• How challenging do you find your work to be?
• How often do you feel stressed at work?
• How often do you find that your work tasks help you to develop professionally?
• How likely is it that you will look for another job outside the company?

If you would like to learn more about wellbeing in the workplace, you can benefit from reading this article: