“The cost to replace an employee can range between one to two times the employee’s annual salary”.
To be successful, a business should maintain a low turnover rate. A high turnover rate is costly and disruptive, whereas a low turnover rate can save a company money and maintain stability.
More than half of exiting employees say their manager could have done something to keep them from leaving. This indicates that there is much you can do to reduce turnover and prevent the departure of employees before it’s too late.
It is easy for your organisation to determine how employees feel about their workplace by conducting surveys. Employee surveys provide your organisation with clear evidence of how employees feel in their workplace. In addition to monitoring trends, employee surveys can identify current and future issues.
Different types of surveys
Onboarding Survey: These surveys help organisations measure the effectiveness of their onboarding from those who have recently experienced the process first-hand. The feedback can then be used to improve the process moving forward. An example of this is Google’s hiring process – to cut down on the time to hire, Google’s staffing team examined past interview data and survey results and determined that four interviews were enough to make a reliable hiring decision.
Company Culture Survey: Employees and future employees value company culture as a critical component. You can learn more about what your team thinks about your company’s culture, the areas where it is succeeding, and where it needs to improve by having them complete a culture-based survey.
Exit Interview Survey: An exit interview or exit survey, taken at the end of an employee’s time with you, is the best way to find out why people leave your organisation. The exit interview can be vital for future decision-making and help you identify any potential correlations or common reasons why staff are going.
Employee engagement survey: This measures how valued employees feel by your organisation and leadership. Employee engagement surveys are critical for reducing employee turnover so we will discuss this further below.
The importance of asking the right survey questions
Money is one of many concerns for employees. Although it can be a crucial factor for low retention rates, many other elements, such as lack of growth, recognition, and little opportunity for decision-making, can sometimes be overlooked.
When you carry out company surveys, you can identify employees’ concerns about the company. You can shape the questions and include enough so that you can understand how the company is performing from the employee’s viewpoint.
There are a few key questions you should always ask:
Most employee surveys are completed anonymously to gather honest feedback. However, there could be an option to follow up with in-person appraisals to allow specific topics to be bought up in conversation. For example, if someone has come back to the survey stating that they are unhappy about the current benefits, you could re-word this to ask every employee if there are any benefits they would like to add to the existing ones that would benefit them.
Your feedback will allow you to identify concerns, implement changes, and increase employee satisfaction. In addition, it can identify any knowledge gaps employees may have that have gone unnoticed, so more training could be a great way to retain them.
Conducting employee surveys correctly, however, takes months of planning as well as careful execution and follow-up. Employee morale can be destroyed if the results are misinterpreted or if no action is taken after receiving feedback.
Here is an example of a plan:
Creating an action plan
The fact that the company is conducting a survey can send a positive message to employees that their opinions are valued. Furthermore, a carefully designed and conducted employee survey can reveal much information about employee perceptions that management can use to improve the workplace.
When you catch these internal issues early, your team leaders can resolve them before they become unmanageable, enhancing your employees’ experience, improving employee performance, and reducing employee turnover.
It is crucial, however, not to jump into making changes quickly without truly understanding what the results of your employee engagement survey are telling you.
Follow these 5 steps to get the most value out of your employee survey results:
Director of People and Culture, Cheryl Jones speaks about how completing employee surveys has improved the morale and employee retention at our sister company Searchability:
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After receiving results from our employee surveys, we have taken several measures to improve employee morale and satisfaction at Searchability. We implemented our HR platform BOB to make achievable and trackable goals for each individual, which managers can review weekly. We also created a clear “roadmap to success” so employees could make career goals and plans. We introduced “feel sound” hours to give employees more flexibility; these can be taken at any time as they don’t need to be pre-approved, so they are perfect for when you need an extra hour in bed or an early dart on a Friday. #Third Thursday also came into play, which focused on employees’ well-being – Each month has a different focus, with initiatives including personal finance, mindfulness, life coaching, yoga and much more. Our Searchability campus has also been improved YOY based on feedback from trainees. Overall, we have improved employee satisfaction, and employees feel more engaged with their goals and how they can succeed, which has resulted in us being voted one of the Top 100 small companies to work for, for 3 consecutive years.
Cheryl Jones – Director of People and Culture
Wondering how an employee survey can improve retention at your company? Get in touch by email at [email protected] or give us a call 01244 739 350.
