Understanding what makes an employee happy or how satisfied he is with his job has always been the key to a successful business. Of course it is difficult to generalize; you can’t know what every individual needs in order to be satisfied. And it depends of course on the size of the business you are running. If you have only a few employees you can try to tend to every individual’s needs, but of course that becomes impossible if you are the head of a corporation. And there are also other aspects to consider, other than money, when trying increasing employee satisfaction. Of course it is never a bad idea if you want to increase morale to give bonuses, but you should also take into consideration that things like adequate equipment, sufficient resources, group cohesiveness, and appropriate work spaces can play a big part in making an employee happy. So, what should you do in order to measure employee satisfaction?

1.    Talk to opinion leaders. The first place where you should start if you want to measure employee satisfaction is at the bar they like to hang out after work. There you can see who the opinion leader is. He is the person you need to talk to if you want to get an answer that most of your employees adhere to. The opinion leaders are the first people you need to talk to if you want to test what kind of effects a decision will have on your staff.

2.    Observe reactions to unpopular decisions. Another very good way to measure employee satisfaction is to announce a decision such as pay checks being late for 3 days, or lack of bonuses for a month. It is inevitable that some if not most people will be unhappy with the decision, but if you are a keen observer you will notice what the mood is inside your team. If everybody will start to protest than you are sure that they weren’t that satisfied in the first place; but if they can find a way to live with it than you can extrapolate that they have a close bond with your business and are willing to stay through the tough times as well.

3.    Ask where they see themselves in the future. A great way to measure employee satisfaction is to see if they want to work in your company in the future. A satisfied employee will tie his future to the success of your business, while an unsatisfied employee will just see your company as a step towards getting to the place he really wants to work.

4.    Make survey asking which the biggest reason for dissatisfaction is. This is a good way to see if there is a major problem inside your company. If the answers will be very diverse than it probably means that there no pressing issues for your employees. But if you notice that a majority of answers refer to a specific problem like a lack of adequate equipment, than that is the problem you need to address if you want to keep your employees satisfied.

5.    Get an expert to devise a psychological test. If you can afford it, than outsourcing the matter of measuring employee satisfaction is definitely the way to go. A good psychologist can devise and interpret a test regarding employee satisfaction without them even knowing that that’s what it referred to. And of course hiring a professional to do this will give you a much more accurate answer than any of the other techniques you could employ.

6.    Ask for anonymous suggestions about what your employees would do if they were in charge in order to make this a better work environment. Turning the tables, and asking your employees to imagine being in charge will produce surprising results. Other than the fact that you might actually learn a new way of improving employee morale, this is an excellent technique to measure employee satisfaction.

7.    Ask for evaluation of superiors. Another good way of measuring employee satisfaction is by asking them to write evaluations on their superiors. Most problems that employees have are ones regarding their bosses. If you see that they believe that their superiors are ill equipped for the job, or unfair to them, you will be able to make the adequate changes so that employees feel like their opinions matter.

These have been just a few suggestions about how to measure employee satisfaction. As I have said at the beginning of the article, I believe that having happy employees that feel attached to the company and have an actual desire to see your business do well, can only be benefic for you. So it is a good idea to always check if your employees are satisfied and to come up with new and creative ways of improving their morale.                 

Incoming search terms:

• measure employee satisfaction
• BARS FOR MEASURING EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION
• suggestion for measuring empoyees bonuses
• steps for hr manager to retain unsatisfied employees
• Opinion of different person Employee satisfaction
• how to measure employee satisfaction
• how to ask an employee if they really want to be there
• how do I measure a happy employee in his job
• difficulties obtaining measures of employee satisfaction
• difficulties in obtaining measures of employee satisfaction

Related posts:

1. Employee Motivation Ideas