A friend of mine recently gave a letter of resignation to his manager. To say his boss was stunned was an understatement. As one of the top performers in the organization, the manager labeled him “low risk”, which made it difficult for her to comprehend his reasons for moving on.
So, what happened? My friend told me that for months he expressed dissatisfaction with various aspects of his role and the desire for more responsibility. And for months the manager brushed off those concerns. His years of stellar service certainly proved his value and earned respect among his colleagues. However, in the end, the manager’s inability to engage with her employees led to him feeling frustrated and marginalized. He ultimately had no choice but to leave.
How Happy Are Your Employees?
This story made me think about employee engagement and what organizations can do to ensure not just customer satisfaction but employee satisfaction as well. Luckily, more companies are now beginning to see the tremendous value that Employee Satisfaction Surveys offer. This is great news considering a Gallup report recently showed organizations with highly engaged employees have nearly four times the growth rate compared to organizations with low engagement scores. That data alone is compelling enough to amplify your employee feedback efforts!
Making a conscious effort to understand what drives employee engagement and satisfaction is a critical component for organizational success. Employee Satisfaction Surveys are an ideal tool to help management understand what drives satisfaction and examines the three key drivers that impact the employee’s satisfaction with their employer. These drivers all affect the employee’s perception that senior leadership will be open to their ideas and concerns:
– Rapport with supervisor
– Trust in senior leadership
– Pride in the organization
Open communication is a key element of effectively engaging employees. However, on a day-to-day basis, it can be difficult for senior leaders to assess the level of communication and camaraderie between managers and their teams. Employee Satisfaction Surveys provide a window into the relationships, creating a clear vision of the level of employee satisfaction and engagement within the organization.
Cultivating a Strong Company Culture
A manager’s ability to foster lasting relationships with employees creates an empowering atmosphere in which employees perform at the highest levels and subsequently project that engagement onto their customers. By supporting employees in creating a clear career path and setting goals, a manager can build confidence within each employee. This confidence easily translates to a high level of employee satisfaction and a sense of pride in the organization.
Looking at my friend’s situation, we can assume that had his previous employer implemented Employee Satisfaction Surveys to help the manager listen more effectively, the organization might have discovered that although highly motivated, he was disengaged and in serious danger of moving on.
The key takeaway – employees who are engaged outperform those who are not; and engaged employees can hugely impact an organization’s success. Therefore, effectively identifying employee engagement issues facilitates the ability to repair factors affecting employee satisfaction and ultimately, fuel growth.