Using Surveys to Encourage Employee Feedback and Gauge Satisfaction

For most businesses, a growth in sales and revenue translates into a larger staff. This seems to be a positive outcome on the surface. However, as departments grow in size, the level of communication that takes place between them suffers. So too, internal feedback becomes a far more constrained mechanism. As directives are handed down from the top, communication becomes stifled and employees begin to feel less compelled to share their thoughts.

In this article, we'll explain the reasons your company should use surveys to encourage feedback from your staff. We'll also describe a few factors to consider when looking for an online survey provider. Lastly, we'll take a look at questions you should avoid asking your employees.

Reasons For Surveying Your Staff

Workforce turnover is expensive. New hires must be trained, which hampers an organization's overall productivity. Meanwhile, the customer relationships that are left unattended by departing employees must be managed by a smaller group of people. This is why companies go to great lengths to retain their workers. Studies have shown that using surveys to solicit ideas from your staff encourages them. They feel valued, engaged, and satisfied with their respective jobs. As a result, they are less likely to leave.

By surveying your staff and encouraging their feedback, your company can take advantage of their unique insight. Managers have discovered that those who report to them can offer an invaluable perspective regarding day-to-day processes and customer relationships. It is not uncommon for an employee to submit an idea that evolves into a successful new product.

Another reason to periodically survey your staff is that it improves the communication process throughout an organization. A top-down structure in which communication flows only one way discourages workers from sharing their ideas. That prevents managers from leveraging suggestions which can only come from people on the front lines of the business.

Online surveys solve this problem. You can use them to tap into a reservoir of fresh ideas from employees who are intimately familiar with the daily operations. In doing so, you'll emphasize their value, improve their level of job satisfaction, and increase your staff retention rate.

Factors To Consider When Choosing A Vendor

There are many vendors that offer software that you can use for surveying your employees. The challenge is that these vendors offer different feature sets, customer support levels, and pricing structures. Identify the features that are important for your current and future surveying goals. For example, you might initially want to create employee feedback questionnaires. But, in the future, you might also want to create market research and customer satisfaction surveys.

Next, consider each vendor's pricing structure as it relates to your company's budget. Some software providers only offer one price level while others offer several to give their clients more flexibility. Some require a long-term contract while others don't.

Finally, opt for top-notch customer support that is available around the clock. Most people underestimate its value until the moment they most need it.

Questions You Should Avoid

Designing an employee survey that encourages a high response rate and attracts useful information is an art unto itself. While an exhaustive treatment of this topic is beyond the scope of today's article, there are a few questions that you should avoid asking.

First, identify what you can solve and what you cannot. It does little good to ask questions about problems that you cannot fix. Second, eliminate any question that is not directly related to your survey's goal. If it's superfluous, get rid of it. Third, avoid questions that delve into the demographics of your staff. Not only is there seldom value in this type of data (from a corporate perspective), but such questions can agitate the recipient.

Online surveys can engage your staff, make them feel more valued within the organization, and improve their job satisfaction. You might discover that they also have an enormous influence on your company's employee retention rate.