Asking the Right Employee Engagement Survey Questions?

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Are You Asking the Right Employee Engagement Survey Questions?

6 min

Employee engagement survey questions are vital tools for human resources and management. They provide crucial insights into job culture and performance. These surveys help identify areas where employees feel valued and motivated, as well as highlight opportunities for improvement. However, many surveys fall short by asking generic questions that fail to capture the unique aspects of a job’s mission. To truly understand and enhance engagement, questions should be nuanced and tailored to align with the specific goals and values of the organization. Are you asking the right questions in employee engagement surveys? Let’s take a closer look!

Determine Satisfaction Levels

Determining an employee’s satisfaction levels is crucial for analyzing employee engagement surveys. It provides a foundational understanding of how employees perceive their work environment and experience. 

Employee satisfaction encompasses various factors such as feeling valued, having clear expectations, receiving adequate support, and experiencing personal growth opportunities. It reflects an overall sentiment about their relationship with the company and their role within it. When employees are satisfied, they are more likely to stay motivated, perform better, and remain loyal to the organization.

Assessing satisfaction also identifies potential issues that may need addressing to prevent disengagement and turnover. In one cohort, up to 77% of employees would stay with their jobs if they felt satisfied.

We implore you to ask this critical question on your survey: “How satisfied are you with your company as a place to work?” This simple yet powerful question can provide deep insights into your workforce’s overall happiness and highlight areas for improvement. By regularly measuring and acting upon employee satisfaction, you can create a more supportive and motivating work environment that fosters long-term engagement and success.

Sync Up on Expectations

Clear expectations between employer and employee are fundamental to fostering a productive and harmonious workplace. When employees have a precise understanding of their roles and responsibilities, it sets the stage for high performance and job satisfaction. 

Conversely, ambiguity in job expectations can lead to confusion, misunderstandings, and frustration. This communication breakdown often results in lower engagement scores as employees may feel uncertain about their contributions and unsure of how to meet their objectives.

Unclear expectations can manifest in various ways, such as missed deadlines, decreased morale, and reduced productivity. Employees who are unsure of what is expected of them may struggle to prioritize tasks, leading to inefficiencies and stress. Moreover, this uncertainty can erode trust and confidence in management, further diminishing engagement levels. By ensuring that job expectations are clearly communicated and understood, employers can mitigate these risks and build a more cohesive and motivated team.

It’s essential to assess whether your employees truly understand their roles. We recommend including a true/false question like the following in your survey: “I know what is expected of me at work.” 

This question helps determine if employees have a clear understanding of their responsibilities, which is pivotal for maintaining high productivity and overall workplace harmony. 

Being Set Up for Success

Employees need to be set up for success, which means providing them with the necessary tools and resources to excel in their roles. Ensuring that they have access to the right materials and equipment is crucial for their job performance, overall satisfaction, and engagement.

Being on the front lines, employees often have a unique perspective on what they need to perform their tasks effectively, sometimes even more so than human resources or management.  When employees feel equipped to do their work properly, it fosters a sense of confidence and competence, leading to higher productivity and morale.

To accurately assess whether employees have the resources they need, we recommend including a question like the following in your survey: “I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.” 

Access to necessary resources directly impacts job performance, and by asking this question, HR and management can identify any deficiencies in resources and address them promptly. This proactive approach not only improves productivity but also demonstrates a commitment to supporting employees.

Recognition for Hard Work

Recognition at work plays a pivotal role in maintaining high morale and motivation among employees. When employees receive recognition for their efforts, it reinforces their value within the organization and encourages them to continue performing at their best.

To ensure that recognition is a consistent part of your company culture, we suggest including a question like the following in your survey: “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.” 

Recognition and appreciation are powerful motivators, and this question evaluates how frequently employees feel acknowledged. Regular feedback and praise are essential for maintaining morale and motivation, helping to keep employees engaged and satisfied with their roles.

Bonfyre offers the tools you need to automate recognition, making it easier than ever to acknowledge your team’s hard work. By leveraging data from Microsoft Teams, the Bonfyre frontline app, and other KPIs, Bonfyre provides smart recommendations for recognition and timely nudges. 

Plus, you can enjoy up to 5% cashback on total rewards spent, potentially saving hundreds to thousands, or even millions per year. With over 1,000 reward options available, you can either choose rewards yourself or allow employees to select their own, ensuring that the recognition is both meaningful and personalized.

Encouragement from Supervisors

Supervisors should act as mentors, embodying qualities of approachability, helpfulness, and understanding. They play a critical role in shaping the future leaders of the company by fostering an environment where employees feel valued and supported. 

When supervisors show genuine care for their team members as individuals, it builds trust and encourages open communication. This supportive dynamic not only helps employees navigate challenges but also boosts their confidence and professional growth.

To gauge the quality of these interpersonal relationships, it’s essential to ask employees a question similar to the following: “My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.” Perceived support and care from supervisors and colleagues significantly enhance employee engagement and satisfaction. 

When employees feel that their well-being is prioritized, they are more likely to be committed, motivated, and productive. This question provides valuable insights into the strength of your workplace relationships and highlights areas where improvements can be made to foster a nurturing and inclusive work environment.

Feeling Seen and Heard

Collaboration is the lifeblood of any successful organization. Employees bring unique perspectives and fresh takes that can drive innovation and problem-solving. When these diverse viewpoints are nurtured and encouraged, the entire team benefits from richer, more creative solutions. 

Encouraging collaboration not only leverages the individual strengths of employees but also fosters a culture of teamwork and mutual respect. By working together, employees can combine their knowledge and skills to achieve common goals, leading to enhanced productivity and satisfaction.

To truly harness the power of collaboration, it is essential to ensure that every employee feels heard and valued. We recommend asking a question like the following in your engagement surveys: “At work, my opinions seem to count.” 

Employee voice and participation in decision-making foster a sense of ownership and commitment, making employees feel like integral parts of the organization. When employees believe that their input is valued, they are more likely to be engaged, motivated, and dedicated to their work. This question assesses the extent to which employees feel their contributions are recognized, providing crucial insights into areas where you can improve inclusivity and collaboration within your team.

Is the Company Staying True to Its Mission?

Understanding the importance of an organization’s mission or purpose is crucial for employee motivation and engagement. When employees see how their individual roles contribute to the broader goals of the company, it instills a sense of pride and significance in their work. 

This connection can be a powerful driver of performance. Employees who feel that their job is important are more likely to be dedicated and passionate about their contributions. To gauge this alignment, we recommend including a question like the following question in your employee engagement survey: “The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.”

This question helps the company analyze whether its mission is effectively communicated and embraced by employees. If employees understand and are inspired by the company’s mission, they are more likely to align their efforts with the organization’s objectives. 

Additionally, it provides insight into how well the company’s values resonate with its workforce, highlighting areas where further communication or alignment may be needed. 

Analyzing Your Employee Engagement Survey Answers

Analyzing employee engagement surveys is paramount for understanding the overall health and morale of your workforce. Through these surveys, you can identify trends and patterns that reveal strengths and weaknesses within the organization. 

This insight is crucial for developing strategies to enhance employee engagement, satisfaction, and productivity. By regularly analyzing these surveys, companies can stay attuned to their employees’ needs, fostering a more supportive and effective workplace environment.

The use of AI in analyzing survey responses has revolutionized how companies interpret and act on employee feedback. AI can efficiently process vast amounts of data, identifying subtle trends and patterns that might be missed through manual analysis. This allows for more accurate and actionable insights, enabling organizations to quickly address issues and capitalize on opportunities for improvement. Additionally, AI can provide predictive analytics, helping leaders anticipate potential challenges and proactively implement solutions.

Bonfyre can help make the employee engagement survey process easier than ever. It allows you to incorporate feedback loops with automated surveys tailored to the employee journey. Create meaningful benchmark data by asking important questions at pivotal milestones, like hire date, training program completion, or promotion.

Leaders can easily gather insights and source innovative ideas from their teams using these automated tools. By deploying pre-built surveys that can be launched in just a few clicks, leaders can quickly assess challenges and identify practical solutions to improve engagement scores and overall workplace satisfaction.

Bonfyre can also integrate with your existing engagement survey provider to further enhance the effectiveness of your feedback system. You can automatically generate Culture Coach action plans and nudges based on leader-level survey scores to ensure that targeted actions are taken to address specific issues. This approach not only increases survey response rates from frontline employees but also leverages Bonfyre action-level data for comprehensive analysis. By integrating these various data sources, companies can develop a more holistic understanding of their workforce, driving continuous improvement and fostering a thriving organizational culture.

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