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For a small company, it's not difficult to know and take care of its employees. This is one of the advantages of a collaborative environment. People know each other in person and communication is relatively easy between them. However, as the company grows, everything gets more challenging. It gets more difficult to keep employees satisfied and make them feel important. When this happens, employee surveys become necessary.
Employee commitment is one of the most difficult things to achieve. According to a survey, about 90% of managers think that employee commitment has some impact on the company's success. To be committed, employees need to feel part of a team. However, this is difficult to achieve in a big company, where executives don't get to know those below them in the company hierarchy.
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Fortunately, in these cases, you can use the great power of employee surveys. These surveys are magical communication tools. They can gather information about the company's employees and change the course if necessary, no matter the company's size.
Opinion surveys can make employees feel heard which is not an easy task. Companies that care about employee commitment should start using these surveys.
5 main employee surveys you should carry out periodically
There are many different types of surveys you can carry out among your employees. But we all know that taking surveys isn't the most exciting activity unless we're surveying SurveySparrow, which is a great experience and guarantees 40% more answers. But that's not the point.
Back to the point, you don't want to overwhelm your employees with long and boring surveys. This is why we have chosen 5 of the most important employee surveys you should carry out. These surveys will change the employee experience at your company.
1. Employee onboarding survey
First impressions are the most lasting; this is a piece of advice often given to applicants. However, it is equally important in the onboarding process. Any company that takes this process seriously should carry out an onboarding survey.
The importance of the onboarding process
According to a study by the Harvard Business Review, 33% of employees look for another job within 6 months after they were hired, which isn't very encouraging. The onboarding process has a great impact on employees' mindset; sometimes, it even determines whether they stay or leave.
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Managers are busier than ever. In big companies, they don't have as much time as they need to pay attention to the experiences of each employee. They don't have the resources to turn the company into a cozy place for new employees; it poses a significant challenge.
Why do you need a good onboarding survey?
A good onboarding survey can provide you with information about employee experience as they start working at your company. Do they feel welcomed? Has the onboarding process helped them with everything they need?
It's important to bring new employees up-to-date. Not taking employee satisfaction in the onboarding process into account can affect management in the future. An onboarding survey helps you find out what's working and what's not.
An onboarding survey is also helpful to know what employees' first impressions are about your company. A pair of fresh eyes can see things senior employees can't. Have they encountered an unexpected situation? Do they feel comfortable with the organizational culture?
An onboarding survey helps you find it out. It also helps you show your new employees you care about their experience at your company.
Questions you can include in an onboarding survey
An onboarding survey is a big opportunity to know the concerns and opinions of new employees. This is why you should choose the questions carefully. In this survey, you also want to know if your new employees are satisfied or have some concerns you can discuss with them.
Below, you can find some questions we suggest you include in an onboarding survey:
- Do they understand the function and the responsibilities of their position?
- Do they know whom to contact in case they have a problem?
- How precisely did you describe their position when they were hired?
- How happy or unhappy are you in this company?
- Have conversations with their managers been helpful?
2. Employee exit survey
If the onboarding process is an important part of employee experience, separation from the company is even more important. It sounds confusing but it's not. Exit surveys are key for employee experience management; here is why.
Why do you need an exit survey?
When an employee leaves a company, usually it's a good exit; if that's the case, you should know what you're doing wrong. If that's not the case, you definitely should know what you're doing wrong. A great part of employee experience management consists in finding out how employees feel when they leave the company; so, exit surveys help you know that.
At this point, we know that retaining employees gives your company a competitive advantage. Companies that have a high exit rate also get low performance in general. There aren't surprises there. However, it's complicated to find out what keeps employees satisfied and makes them stay at your company. Every time somebody leaves the company is a good opportunity to find out why.
When employees leave, they are still useful for your company since they can tell you what parts of the organizational culture are good. If there are some problematic elements, employees can warn you about that too. For example, you should know if a particular manager isn't treating employees well. An employee survey can help you find this out.
Moreover, exit surveys also help you prepare for exit interviews. You already have an idea of what employees think about the company. Next, you can use the exit interview to know more about it. Have the results of the survey surprised you? Ask your employees about it at the exit interview. This is a practice that will help your company self-correct and keep on the right track. The process begins by conducting an exit interview with employees that are leaving the company.
Questions you can include in an exit survey
Exit interviews are a good opportunity to find out what your organizational culture is like. At this stage, it's likely employees are honest. These questions will help you make the most of exit surveys:
- What are the main reasons to leave this job?
- Did you have a good relationship with your manager?
- What parts of your job did you enjoy the most?
- What parts of your job didn't you like?
- Is there any particular issue you want to discuss?
3. Employee commitment survey
We have covered employee surveys for the onboarding and exit processes. It's also important to know how employees are in the middle while they work in your company. Are they interested? Are they motivated by a shared goal? A participation survey will help you answer these questions.
Why do you need an employee commitment survey?
We know employee commitment is a great asset for a company; statistics show it clearly. According to OfficeVibe, greater employee participation leads to a 10% increase in customers' opinions and a 20% increase in sales.
This sounds shocking but it's also apparent. A company with which employees collaborate will have excellent customer service. As an employer, this is part of your organizational culture and can't be ignored. A regular survey about the commitment of employees will help you see how engaged they are with their tasks.
As an organization, maybe you don't realize that your employees are less engaged; it's not something you can tell by just walking through an office. Employees usually manage to look engaged to impress their superiors; however, unless they are, they won't do a good job. The best way to know how they feel is by using an anonymous survey.
Carrying out participation surveys regularly also shows that you care about your employees' well-being. A shocking 80% stated that they would work more hours for a more empathetic employer. If your employees rush to go home or seem disconnected, this survey can be the solution.
Questions you can include in an employee commitment survey
We suggest you make these surveys anonymous so that your employees can express their opinions freely; this is a big step towards getting more honest answers. Another way of getting useful information is making good questions.
For this employee survey, we suggest you have open statements with a scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Below, you'll find some good examples:
- I can see myself working here in five years.
- My superiors acknowledge my potential and make me feel appreciated.
- I always want to do my best at my job.
- I believe in the company's mission.
- I can see how my work has an impact on the company's success.
4. Employee satisfaction survey
As we said earlier, companies that retain employees are those which work better. There are several reasons for this; one of them is that employees work better when satisfied. It is different from commitment and even broader. Employee satisfaction surveys are really about finding out whether employees hate their job.
Why do you need an employee satisfaction survey?
Unsatisfied employees are people that don't enjoy their work. They don't perform well and, in general, don't belong in the company. There are many reasons for employees to be unsatisfied: they can have a problem with their superiors or with coworkers.
It could also be about a personal problem, but, in general, it all comes down to this. Companies need to motivate employees with good working conditions and satisfaction surveys can help you achieve this.
Unhappy employees can even pass their frustration on to customers; this is serious for a company. You care about keeping your employees motivated and aligned with the company's goals. They should interact with customers enthusiastically since this will impact on better sales and customer service. But this all starts with the satisfaction of employees.
You can think that employee satisfaction doesn't need a particular survey since commitment and internal communication are enough and we don't want to overwhelm employees with surveys. However, employee satisfaction is about taking care of their emotional needs; it's different from finding out if they are committed or connected with the team members.
Companies that care about the emotional needs of their employees should carry out surveys periodically. If you can use the results of these surveys to self-correct, retention rates will increase and the workplace will be more healthy and productive.
Questions you can include in an employee satisfaction survey
An employee satisfaction survey is useful when employees are honest. Avoid corporate jargon and ask direct questions. You can also include questions about the workplace culture, the management, and its work.
Below, you'll find some examples of the questions you could make:
- Do you feel connected with your coworkers?
- Do you feel appreciated for what you give the company?
- Do you believe work is equally distributed among the team members?
- Do you think your work is meaningful?
- How happy are you at work?
5. Internal communication survey
As regards annual surveys, few are more important than this employee survey. Companies are, by definition, places where people collaborate. Employees should talk to each other and managers have to keep them posted. This is why you need internal communication surveys.
Why do you need an internal communication survey?
An internal communication survey is an important part of the communication strategy of a company. First of all, these surveys help you identify weaknesses in your employees. You can spend a lot of money on hiring consultants to help you improve your communication strategy or you can keep it simple and profitable and ask your employees.
Moreover, these employee surveys give them the possibility of expressing their opinions since inefficient communication may make them feel they are not part of the company's decisions; that's how employee commitment is broken. Companies should provide employees a channel to express how they feel and it could be more important than you think.
A study by Salesforce has recently found out that employees that feel heard have 4.6 more probabilities to do their best at work. At this point, we understand why internal communication surveys are important. Let's take a look at the questions you can make your employees.
Questions you can include in an internal communication survey
One of the main goals of this survey is to find out how much your employees know about your company. You can also find out what communication practices are adopted among team members and managers. Below you'll find some questions to guide you:
- How do you currently get information about the company?
- How much effort does your manager put to keep you posted?
- Does your team help you finish your work?
- Do you think the company pays attention to your concerns?
- How could you describe your knowledge about the company's goals?
Conclusion
As companies grow, it gets more and more difficult to know how your employees are feeling. Companies, usually, have problems for not knowing what's happening with their teams. This leads to the resignation of the best employees and to keep unhealthy work patterns. Employee surveys are a way of finding out what's happening and using knowledge to improve the situation.
However, we know that too many surveys can be overwhelming; nobody likes to make them regularly. But this is a problem that SurveySparrow can solve with its intuitive design and conversational surveys.
Surveys are just tools to get useful information that shows the status quo at the workplace openly. Are they communicating with each other well? Are they happy with their work? Do they find it meaningful or attractive? All managers would kill to know the answers to these questions. Fortunately, with the right employee surveys, you can find it out.
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