Hearing employees’ opinions and relying on inward feedbacks as much as outward reports from clients and customers is a little bit challenging for leaders of both large and small organizations. An employee engagement survey is a promising tool to evaluate and diagnose morales indices.
Conducting an employee survey shows management concern and interest in employees’ opinions and allows them to vote on a series of changing plans and progression activities.
Although it should be kept in mind that in a competitive area of business it is crucial to keep the engaging and motivating policies updated to conduct the whole organization toward its goal and enhance productivity. It is considered as the first step in building a supportive and
communicative working environment. The accuracy of the survey results highly depends on the response rate. Therefore, having good planning before conducting a survey ensures its efficiency. The leading board must define what to survey and for what areas they need employees’ opinions. It has been over 40 years that companies are conducting surveys to find employees’ satisfying and dissatisfying areas. 12 dimensions have been defined for employee morale. Including general bias, the general attitude toward supervision, immediate supervision, pride in the company, intrinsic job satisfaction, satisfaction with job standards, satisfaction with salary, satisfaction with progress, workload, and pressure, treatment as an individual, communications, and coworkers. Other aspects like security and facilities could be the subject of the survey.

Yet it is not possible to cover all the dimensions at once, especially when there is no guarantee that the organization would take any action on that specific area based on survey results. So the data should be collected for a predetermined dimension and the relationships of that dimension to the organization should be clarified.

1. General bias

In this dimension, the designed questionnaires assess company programs and activities besides its bias in making decisions. Gender treatment, fair payment, and the opportunity for advancement contribute to general bias.

2. The general attitude toward supervision

This factor in the survey should evaluate the two-way relationship between employee and employer. Employers’ and supervisors’ fairness and interest in their relationship with workers are assessed in this area. It would be thoughtful to show the employees that their opinion matters and how they are involved in the organization’s progress.

3. Immediate supervision

The supervisor’s interest, consideration, and direction in his/her communication with the employees are the assessing factors in this section of the survey. The more the supervisor shows his sympathy and understanding, the more the employee likes him and is encouraged to report persistently.

4. Pride in the company

How proud the employee is with the company is correlated with absence and turnover rate. Employee’s belief in the prospects of the company and the tendency to defend the company’s policies should be reflected in this area of the survey. A well-satisfied employee defines himself/herself with the company and its objectives.

5. Intrinsic job Satisfaction

This part of the survey should ask whether the employee likes her job or not. How well she can show her abilities and achievements. Whether the current responsibilities suit her talent and are following her expertise or not?

6. Satisfaction with Job Standards

Employers must clarify each job’s responsibilities and expectations from that person. Sending frequent feedback on how well each employee is conducting his role and show him his progress as much as his deficiencies are very effective in defining each job responsibility and importance.

7. Satisfaction with Salary

General viewpoint toward oneself income and its fairness is the main subject of this section. Equity in salary adjustments and non-cash rewards that the company provides are questioned in this part.

8. Satisfaction with Progress

The effectiveness of training and workshops provided by the company and the chance to progress and promote should be asked from employees in this part of the survey.

9. Workload and Pressure

This section of the survey focus on the demands of the job and the physical and mental pressure that the employee endures finishing the job.
Employees should be able to express their personal and professional challenges clearly to their managers and they need to be heard and valued.

10. Treatment as an individual

The employee should feel free to express his or her affairs whether they are personal or professional with their manager. He/she needs to be treated fairly and wants to feel important. Satisfaction in the job is gained through such a relationship. This part of the survey should focus on this area of engagement.

11. Communications

Frequent reports from leaders on their policy changes, company finances, and plans clarify the employee’s job security and their involvement in total decision-making. Survey should always ask about the required communication between employees and their supervisor from employee point of view.

12. Coworkers

Social and interpersonal relationships directly influence teamwork and reliability of their association in finishing the job. Interpersonal relations define the working culture and its ambiance, in other words, the spirit of the working culture is dependant on it. This relationship and its quality is a mandatory part of employee engagement survey.

Other aspects

Feeling secure about job employment continuation is strongly intertwined with one’s engagement and satisfaction in their role. Last but not the least factor is the available equipment and supplies provided in the working environment like parking spots or the accessibility to the gym or other facilities.

Case Studies

Several studies were enrolled to find the strengths and weaknesses of a working culture toward their goal fulfillment. A series of Canadian studies focused on international workplace strategies and innovations in a global marketplace. One of them which was enrolled by Walsworth in 2007 applied Workplace and Employee surveys’ national data to find a positive relationship between autonomy training and innovation in international workplaces.
A British study enrolled by Wake in 2016, explores the employee engagement measures in National Health Service. The study considered an organizational measure of work engagement driven from annual National Health Service staff surveys from 2012 to 2016. The results suggested that employee engagement is affected by patient bed numbers and financial revenue.

 

 

References:

1. “Dimensions of Employee Morale 1 2.
2. “Globalization, human resource practices and innovation: Recent evidence from the Canadian workplace and employee survey.“
3. “Relationship between employee engagement scores and service quality ratings”

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By: Yassaman Djafari . July 2020