Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Introduction

Do you know how engaged your employees are? Research has found that worldwide, only 13% of employees working for an organisation are engaged.¹

At small companies, leaders are often highly visible, inspiring and motivating employees to stay engaged with their work. Engaged employees delight in what they do, rather than acting like they can’t wait to get the work day over with. But as organisations grow, disengaged employees can slip under the radar as leadership becomes more removed from day-to-day work.

Companies benefit from starting formal engagement programs early on in their growth trajectory. Strong engagement programs help retain current employees, attract new ones, and increase revenue.

Companies with employee engagement programs achieve 26% greater YoY increase in annual company revenue, compared to those who do not have formal programs.²

As your employee count creeps into the hundreds or thousands and the company opens satellite offices, capturing and analysing employee data helps you adjust and grow the business in step with your employees’ needs. The only way to know if your employee engagement efforts are working is to measure them.

In this eBook, we’ll share how you can use data from Glassdoor and internal surveys to monitor and measure employee engagement and help your workforce thrive.

Section 1: Measuring Engagement on Glassdoor

Reviews and ratings on Glassdoor offer you a window into employees’ level of engagement with your company. The combination of satisfaction ratings and review content can help you gauge what’s working well and what needs to be improved to keep your employees engaged.

Satisfaction vs. Engagement

Every employee reviewer on Glassdoor is asked to rate their level of overall satisfaction with their job. Because satisfaction may or may not indicate engagement (e.g., a satisfied employee could be a low-performing clock puncher) employers should consider satisfaction in relation to other measures, such as ‘Culture & Values’ and the percentage who would recommend the company to a friend.

PROS AND CONS

With an Enhanced Profile, employers can compare ratings directly across job locations and titles, and view word clouds from the ‘Pros’ and ‘Cons’ section of reviews.

Reviews as an Engagement Thermometer 

Employee review content offers a wealth of information that can help you gauge the temperature of your employees’ satisfaction. Use your reviews to help understand what employees like and don’t like, what keeps them engaged, and what kind of employee succeeds at your company. As you read reviews, look for specific examples of issues affecting engagement. Keep the following questions in mind:

• What ‘Pros’ do the most satisfied employees share? Note how the company’s culture and workplace values are articulated by employees.
• What repeated trends occur in the ‘Cons’ sections?
• What could be changed to increase engagement?
• Is there any valid ‘Advice to Management’ that would make employees feel more valued and engaged?
• Can you spot any repeated trends in relation to engagement for specific job positions or locations?

Data in Context

As one of the few places candidates can go to find out what it’s actually like to work at your company, Glassdoor reviews and ratings represent a valuable slice of your current and former employee population.

In order to accurately measure and monitor employee engagement, it’s important to have data from the vast majority of your employee population. In the next section, we’ll explain how internal surveys can be used to better understand employee engagement.

Section 2: How to Conduct Internal Surveys

The best way to fully understand employee engagement, especially in a growing company, is through an employee engagement survey. The results from your first engagement survey often act as a baseline measurement for future action planning. As you continue your survey cadence, you’ll be able to compare year over year results and measure changes in employee sentiment.

Creating and Communicating a Survey Plan

The first decision to make when creating your survey plan is how often you will run the survey. As you consider the frequency of your survey, take into account how you will act upon the results. The key to running an employee engagement survey is communicating its purpose with the company.

Use this email template to help you effectively communicate how the survey will work and how the results will be utilised at your organisation:

Hi everyone,

It’s time again for our quarterly/yearly employee satisfaction survey. This is a brief, confidential survey that asks your opinion on a number of different aspects of working at [company name]. The survey provides powerful insights when combined with our own Glassdoor reviews — insights that help pinpoint how we can build an even stronger company, a place where you can excel and grow and thrive!

You can take the survey from your computer, smartphone or tablet. And it won’t take you long — [insert your approximation of the time it will take to complete the survey].

Please plan to complete the survey by [date]. Overall results will be shared [date].

Your honesty and feedback is important, so thanks in advance for contributing your voice.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns,

Employee Satisfaction Survey Questions

Now that you have your communication plan ready to go, it’s time to release your employee satisfaction survey to your employees so you can start gathering data and changing your organisation for the better.

Here are 20 employee satisfaction questions you can input into the surveying tool of your choice to measure key factors in employee happiness.

JOB SATISFACTION

• Do you have the resources to do your job well?
• Do you feel like you have clear expectations of what is expected of you?
• Are you motivated by your Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)?
• How likely are you to recommend [company name] as a place to work?
• Do you feel you are valued by your team and the greater organisation?

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

• How would you rate your work/life balance?
• Do you feel that you can be yourself at work?
• How would you rate your relationships with your colleagues?
• Does your team and your manager inspire you to do your best work?
• Do you feel that our organisation is invested in your well-being?

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

• Do you feel like you have an understanding of your future growth at [company name]?
• Do you feel your manager is invested in your professional growth and development?
• Do you feel our organisation offers you the resources and opportunities to grow professionally?
• How often do you feel the tasks assigned to you will help you grow professionally?
• Are you comfortable having conversations about your career trajectory with your manager?

RETENTION

• Do you see a clear link between your work and the company’s goals and objectives?
• Would you re-apply for your current position given the chance?
• How meaningful is your work?
• Do you believe you are able to achieve your full potential working here?
• How strongly do you feel leadership takes feedback?

Sharing Engagement Survey Results

Sharing survey results increases everyone’s reliance and confidence in the survey analytics. In addition, a group review of survey results increases transparency and organisational accountability.

Use these role-based guidelines as you roll out results:

1. Human resources typically manage and administer engagement surveys, and performs the initial review of all results and reports, including comments.
2. Managers of groups meet the minimum reporting size and can navigate the results of their direct reports themselves.
3. Executives might have access to results from direct reports as well, and often the entire organisation.
4. Individual employees should also be able to view results of engagement surveys. This might be a slide deck of survey highlights shared at an all-hands meeting. Alternatively, direct access to results may be granted, often without the ability to narrow through filters or view comments.

Section 3: Increasing Glassdoor Engagement

Not only does Glassdoor give you valuable information about employee satisfaction and engagement, it gives candidates information they need as they make decisions on where to apply and how to prepare for interviews.

Regularly reviewing Glassdoor feedback in conjunction with your survey results will give you a more complete picture of employee engagement at your company. Requesting reviews and acting upon feedback demonstrates an active commitment to transparency.

Incorporate these steps when evaluating employee satisfaction:

• Review Glassdoor ratings and new reviews on a monthly basis at minimum. Look for changes after hiring pushes or organisational changes.
• Summarise highlights in regularly scheduled reports to management.
• Implement a Glassdoor employee engagement campaign.
• Announce to employees that your company is reviewing feedback.
• Share highlights from positive reviews and changes made based on feedback.
• Respond to reviews.

Conclusion

With increasing expectations of transparency from candidates and employees alike, reviewing and communicating how satisfied your employees are is key. Organisations that regularly monitor Glassdoor feedback and satisfaction metrics in conjunction with an internal survey plan will be well on their way to creating a thriving workplace full of engaged employees.