Strategies To Measure and Improve Employee Satisfaction

An organization staffed with happy employees can be the difference between a highly profitable company with a stellar reputation and one that has trouble staying afloat and attracting new talent. The highest employee satisfaction companies boast the most motivated and engaged employees. Learning how to improve employee satisfaction — whether through enhancing work culture, creating more career development opportunities — or improvising work-life balance, can lead to numerous benefits for your organization.

Why Employee Satisfaction Is Crucial for Every Company

Employees are the backbone of any company. Taking the time to ensure that your workforce is content with their roles makes for a better work environment and significantly improves the organization’s profitability. By improving an employee’s experience at your company in terms of work-life balance, pay, benefits, recognition, and growth opportunities, you can improve their satisfaction levels.

Companies that prioritize employee satisfaction will benefit from:

• Lower employee turnover: Satisfied employees are more likely to stay with their company for longer periods, improving employee retention rates and decreasing recruitment costs.
• Increased productivity: Staff will be more productive as they will feel more connected to business objectives and will be less likely to take time off.
• High customer satisfaction: Interactions with customers will be more effective because customer service representatives will have increased motivation due to positive company culture.
• Loyal employees: Employees who enjoy their jobs are more likely to remain with your organization over the long term, recommend it to others, and participate in employee advocacy programs.

Understanding staff sentiment and taking steps to improve it can unlock these benefits. To improve employee satisfaction at your company, you’ll first need to know how to assess it.

Tools and Methods for Assessment

Measuring employee satisfaction should be a multi-pronged approach. As an employer, you should give your staff multiple opportunities to voice their opinions to create the best work environment. Companies that use a range of tools and methods for assessment can get a more accurate idea of their staff’s satisfaction and how to improve it.

Surveys and One-on-One Meetings

Getting direct employee feedback is an excellent way to determine how satisfied they are working for your organization. Two of the best ways to collect this data are creating an employee job satisfaction survey and conducting one-on-one meetings.

Employers should create a questionnaire for employee satisfaction that offers employees a chance to give anonymous opinions. These employee satisfaction surveys often result in honest feedback that management can use to improve company culture. You can use multiple-choice and open-ended questions in these surveys to get a base measurement of your workforce’s likes and dislikes. Focus on multiple areas such as employee engagement, safety, growth opportunities, culture, and benefits to get a well-rounded idea of your staff’s opinions.

Scheduling recurring one-on-one meetings with staff members is also essential for improving employee satisfaction. Unlike the surveys, management cannot conduct meetings anonymously, so feedback may not be as honest. However, these meetings allow employees to voice concerns and address issues with a manager in a comfortable and safe atmosphere. 

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)

Among the best tools to measure employee satisfaction is the Employee Net Promotor Score (eNPS). Employers can use these scores to determine their workforce’s loyalty and engagement, which makes them useful employee satisfaction statistics.

You can determine your company’s eNPS by asking employees to rate their likelihood of recommending your organization to others. eNPS surveys ask employees to rate their likelihood on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being not likely to recommend it and 10 being very likely to recommend it.

The eNPS scale classifies staff members who gave an answer of 0 to 6 as detractors. Detractors aren’t happy with the organization and hold a negative view of it. Employees who gave a 7 or 8 are neutral — not unhappy but not enthusiastic about the organization either. Those who gave a 9 or 10 are promoters. Promoters are excellent employee advocates who remain loyal to the company and will actively work to attract new talent.

To obtain your company’s eNPS, subtract the percentage of promoters from the percentage of detractors. eNPS can range from -100 to 100. A score of 0 means your company has an equal distribution of promotors and detractors, so anything above zero is a favorable score. The higher your score, the higher your employee satisfaction.

How To Identify Improvement Areas Based on Feedback

To improve the level of employee satisfaction at your company, you’ll need to first determine which areas are weak. Use your eNPS score to get a general idea of your workforce’s level of satisfaction. With that data as a starting point, craft a questionnaire for employee satisfaction to help narrow down areas of concern. 

The employee satisfaction surveys will indicate specific instances where employees are not content with their jobs and the company culture. Management can make appropriate changes to increase job satisfaction. Managers should also schedule regular one-on-one meetings to determine the effectiveness of the changes and other adjustments they can make.

The Role of Employee Advocacy in Satisfaction and Talent Attraction

Companies with high levels of job satisfaction for employees can benefit from using employee advocacy programs to attract top talent. Employee advocacy programs encourage staff members to promote their employer through social media and other platforms. When employees share their genuine positive work experiences, it can enhance an organization’s reputation and boost brand awareness. Often, this translates into increased interest from outside talent, easing recruitment efforts and improving the company's overall efficiency.

Build a Strong Culture and Attract the Best Talent

Every company aims to build a strong work culture and attract top talent, and this starts with improving employee satisfaction. Satisfied employees will bring in more profits, increased productivity, reduced turnover, and better employee advocacy. Taking advantage of tools and measurements like surveys, meetings, and eNPS can help you foster happier employees. Harnessing the power of social media can also help.

SocialHP is an organization of social media experts that works to help you grow your business and build relationships in the digital age. If you’re looking for tips and actionable ideas for using social media to better your company and increase employee satisfaction, get in touch with us and see how SocialHP can help you.