Establishing Employee Satisfaction
I am not happy. The printer has still not been fixed and now my chair is broken. The problem with this place is that it is falling apart. The boss is okay but really doesn't seem to have a clue as to what is really going on.
A young lad started last week, no one bothered to introduce him to me and they gave him a job that he had no idea how to do; why didn't they just ask me? I could have told them that a new set of drawings had been issued so even if he did know what he was doing the drawings he was using were obsolete anyway. Sometimes I don't know why I bother turning up.
I went for a drink with some of the guys last night after work. I don’t know anyone who is happy and the lady in the Accounts department has told me that she has just about had enough and is going to ask for an immediate pay rise and if she doesn’t get it she will be off.
The management here just don't have a clue, we are haemorrhaging money through our inefficiencies and they think that sending out memo's telling us that they are introducing new procedures for claiming expenses is going to make a difference – whoopee do.
I’m going to ask for a pay rise, if Sally can get one so should I.
And on it goes.
These are the sort of thoughts that start to go through the minds of individuals when an organization loses touch with their personnel; the chair that is broken, no feeling of appreciation, blaming 'management' and for some even questioning the futility of what they are doing. Trivial problems fester and a cynical and negative mindset develops. Can you be sure that this isn't the sort of thing that is going on right now in your organisation?
What should be social events held outside the office become no more than a forum for complaints and negativity grows among people who feel unable to effect change. Dissatisfaction will often synthesise into a demand for an increase in remuneration, as though like a cheap fix more money will momentarily lessen the pain.
If ignored by management the concerns of this employee will inevitable find empathy with their colleagues own individual concerns, where the only common demand might well be a demand for an increase in remuneration, more paid holidays and a reduction in working hours, all of which will not fix the broken chair, ensure that new personnel are in future properly introduced, trained and managed nor help management identify areas of inefficiency.
Organisations have a habit of pigeon holing people, physically through offices, cubicles or workstations and also in terms of responsibility. It can prove productive if there is effective and strong management in place to support this structure, but over time weak or inappropriate management can infiltrates the management chain and if it does it can be expected that cracks will start to appear.
Looking at an organization from the top down all the corporate garden can appear to be in full bloom as middle management either disguise or are just unaware of festering problems.
Experience shows us that relying on a limited number of indicators gives a skewed perspective just like a person with only one eye has difficulty judging distance. By establishing procedures that sample the mood from different perspectives throughout the organisation good management will be able to form a rounded picture.
The benefits of establishing good, frequent and extensive communication channels are both direct and indirect.
Greater respect will be given to a senior management team that is known to have their ear to the ground and where they keep the middle management honest by knowing that middle managers can no longer shrug away the senior manager’s searching inquiry "How is everything going?" question with a non-committal "Fine"; It is my experience that if someone replies with "fine" you need to dig deeper and ask if they really know what is going on.
Most principals of an organisation will not have the luxury of spending time walking the floor and discussing the issues of individuals but through online employee surveys they can achieve the same benefits and almost become omnipresent.
Online surveys provide an ideal method to establish effective communications between the employee and employer. Using a survey hosting service they can now be created and published with speed and ease.
Using the Internet and intranet surveys can be deployed in seconds, easily completed by employees and results can be displayed in real time allowing 'problems' and common themes of dissatisfaction to be identified early.
Online employee satisfaction surveys have the ability to get to the heart of an organisation, confirm not only that the engine room is working but that there is sufficient coal in the bunker.
There are considerable benefits to conducting online surveys, real issues can be identified and employees feel that they have a forum to express their concerns.
Online surveys won't in themselves resolve a problem but they will give senior management the opportunity to address the problems and concerns of their employees, at least if people then leave the organisation they will be doing it for the right and not wrong reasons.
The grass will always appear greener on the other side but the underlying reasons for good people leaving an organisation are rarely purely monetary (although it is often cited as the reason) and more often to do with one or more of the following:-
- the working environment;
- a lack of accomplishment
- insufficient training and feedback;
- lack of a career path;
- over work;
- lack of trust and respect with their senior managers.
Good communication between the employer and employee can help identify the individual and common concerns of the employees and will give the senior management team the opportunity to address root problems and not just the symptoms of employee dissatisfaction, enabling them to demonstrate to their employees that they are valued as an important resource.
Each individual organisation needs to customised their own employee survey so that it is relevant for them. I invite you to put yourself in the place of an employee and complete the short sample employee satisfaction survey, then view the results of the satisfaction survey and just think of the benefits to management being able to measure so easily the heart beat of the organization.