What is employee satisfaction? And what is its impact?

Month: January 2016

Employee satisfaction or job satisfaction shows the extent to which employees are satisfied with their jobs within the organisation. Employee satisfaction is usually made tangible by using satisfaction questionnaires. These questionnaires often contain questions or statements around the work itself (job content), conditions in which a person works (working conditions), relationship with supervisor(s) and colleagues (labour relations) and the method of compensation (terms of employment).

The above issues are important to understand the satisfaction of employees. This allows organisations to respond in a timely manner to any dissatisfaction within teams or departments, for example. After all, dissatisfaction can be unwanted staff turnover push back.

However, employee satisfaction is just one component that makes employees truly happy, effective and loyal. For some organisations, employee satisfaction is actually secondary to true loyalty to the organisation.

Therefore, a distinction is often made between employee satisfaction and employee engagement. It is not always clear what the difference between these concepts is. As a result, they are regularly used interchangeably. In any case, it is a good start to state that employee satisfaction creates the most important conditions and is therefore often used in employee survey is put in as a concept. This only says, for example, to a limited extent whether someone is proud to work for the organisation or whether the employee can identify with the organisation's core values.

Difference between employee satisfaction and employee engagement

Both concepts are therefore important to get a complete picture. Therefore, they are explained below.

Definition employee satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is the extent to which employees are happy and content with their work and associated environment. A satisfied employee is less likely to leave the organisation voluntarily.

Employee engagement definition

Employee engagement refers to the extent to which employees are engaged with their work and the organisation. An engaged employee tends to take extra steps when needed.

If this distinction is made properly, it is possible to distinguish motivated employees from those who are only satisfied in their current role. With this distinction, it is possible to look at why employees are less engaged. With the identify of reasons, barriers to achieving engagement can be removed. This ensures that departments, divisions and/or teams can become more effective.

The main objective of employee survey is often to identify areas for improvement within the organisation. But when the results are negative, it is tempting for managers to do nothing, or worse: to pretend the results are wrong. Taking no action after employee survey therefore often leads to a more negative situation than before the questionnaire was distributed.

To avoid this, it is important to actually take action after the investigation. But how do you go about this? Below, 7 steps explain how best to deal with negative results.

Step 1: Acknowledge areas for improvement

Don't hide the results that came out of the questionnaire. Not even when they show high levels of dissatisfaction. Keeping the results away can actually increase dissatisfaction further and even lead to mistrust. Always share results with employees in a way that highlights both the positive and negative results. Acknowledge that there are areas for improvement to work on and ensure that the initial follow-up steps be clearly communicated.

Step 2: Select focal points

Make sure you make a good selection within the improvement points put forward. This is because the pitfall is to tackle all problems at once. This is often not realistic. Indeed, tackling points for improvement puts extra pressure on involved employees and especially the managers. Therefore, select a few focal points to work on. Depending on the results, departments can work on their own challenges.

Step 3: Clarify the problem

It is not only important to be clear what problems will be addressed. Also clarify exactly what "the problem" means. For example, suppose the employee survey showed that communication between departments is an area for improvement. What does this mean in concrete terms? Is it about the amount of communication or is there something lacking in content? Ask employees within relevant departments about what is not going well to create clarity.

Step 4: Brainstorming

Organise a series of brainstorming sessions focusing on ideas for improvement. It is important here that input from previously collected results is also used (anonymously). Also ensure that not only employees but also managers attend the sessions. This leads to greater support and, as a result, greater impact.

Step 5: Set goals

After the brainstorming session, it is time to turn the best ideas into actions. Here, it is important to make concrete what exactly needs to be achieved and who is responsible for this. Formulate clear objectives and milestones to motivate those involved. It is important that all employees and managers agree to both the objectives and milestones.

Step 6: Evaluate

Make time to discuss progress in the interim. When the goals have been achieved, this is usually a good time to re-run the questionnaire. This way, it becomes clear what the impact of the improvement actions has been and whether changes have actually taken place.

Step 7: Continue

The process does not stop after another measurement. Maybe for now all goals have been achieved, but there is always a new challenge. This ensures that you are never quite done.

Employee survey is often a good tool to measure satisfaction and engagement within organisations. However, without follow-up, questionnaires are actually useless and can even lead to lower employee satisfaction. Negative feedback can be annoying but the best response is a clear action plan devised by concerned employees and managers. As a result, the employee engagement not only measured but actually improved.