How Important Are Employee Satisfaction Surveys?

86.9% of people asked think that employee Employee Satisfaction Surveys are ‘somewhat a waste of time’. 

OK, so that’s not a real stat. 

But it sums up the weary attitude a lot of people have towards employee satisfaction surveys.

What do you think? Are they a real – and honest – measure of employee satisfaction? Or do employees just fill them as quickly as possible derisively in the belief that their responses won’t make a jot of difference?

‘Tis The Season

It’s that time of year again when we head towards the end of the financial year. 

For many people, there will be a rush to get budget management, taxes, expenses and all those kinds of details in order.

It’s also around about the time that lots of organisations will be sending out staff surveys. 

You know, the whole ‘please tell us what you think about working here’ malarkey, where you spend 30 minutes clicking on boxes and are given little opportunity to offer anything in the way of commentary or context? 

And then the subsequent results a few months later which throw up some pointless statistic about the percentage of people ‘who do not absolutely hate working’ in the place.

Too Few Organisations Are Willing To Really Learn About Themselves

I’m being facetious, of course. But the majority of employee satisfaction surveys are pretty much pointless because companies very rarely use them as an opportunity to truly learn about themselves. 

Stats are often fudged or questions are framed in vague terms. It really is very frustrating, when you think about the potential power in asking everyone at every level of the organisation how they actually are. 

Nobody really wants to hear the bad things about themselves – and organisations are no different in that way. They will go on the defensive, or simply dismiss any criticism and highlight any praise. 

But, really, what can we learn from praise? We did what we are supposed to be doing (reasonably) well to keep the business performing at an OK level? Isn’t that the point?

Surely finding out about how ways in which we didn’t perform well is infinitely more valuable, because it helps set a new goal – or goals – for improvement? 

And surely this organisational self-examination should take place daily – and not just yearly?

Employee Satisfaction Should Be Measured On A Daily Basis

Obviously, I don’t mean that organisations should send surveys out every day. 

But there should be a way of measuring employee satisfaction and capturing staff sentiment (whether positive or negative) on a daily basis, because businesses need to know now where they are failing or succeeding right now.

Our Tribe365® App is a world-first app that tangibly measures organisational culture by capturing honest, anonymous daily employee feedback, thereby giving businesses crucial insights that they can use to implement changes that improve company-wide performance. 

Interested in learning more? Give me a or one of my colleagues a call on +44 (0) 1325 734 846 or drop an email to team@tribe365.co