In order to truly understand what makes a company a great place to work, it’s important to explore, evaluate, and improve many different aspects of the employee experience. Our Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey measures eight distinct areas of employee experience, including how satisfied employees are with the training, development, and resources available to them.
It may seem counter-intuitive for you, as an employer, to invest money and resources into employee development; only to watch them take their talents and education elsewhere (maybe even to a competitor). From a Best Employer standpoint, investing in the training and development of your workforce is a necessary risk. And, as it turns out, it’s not as big of a risk as you may think.
Employers with higher levels of employee engagement realize that investing in education and training is well worth it. Resulting outcomes include higher productivity, increased efficiency, and more innovation. Even if this investment begins with something as simple as expense reimbursement for an employee’s partial degree, employees will take note that you care about their development, and begin to build loyalty to you and the organization.
Beyond personal development, this area of the employee engagement and satisfaction survey delves into the need to provide appropriate resources for employees to do their jobs. In addition to asking about general resources, the survey questions explore an area that has fast become a primary source of frustration for millions of employees: technology. Removing obstacles of progress can be one of the most effective ways to improve employee engagement. In doing so, unresolved hardware, software, and other IT issues won’t become roadblocks to accomplishing the work at hand.
The Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey
Our Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey is comprised of 78 questions, rated on a 5-point Likert scale, that measure attitudes in eight core focus areas. Additionally, there are two open-ended questions at the end of the survey in which respondents can share what they love about working for their employer as well as what they’d like to see improve.
We surveyed nearly one million employees in the last 12 months and we asked them each a standard set of eleven questions to measure role satisfaction at their roughly 6,000 respective organizations.
The level of training and professional development provided is explored in the survey with eleven (11) statements. These statements allow you to discern the level of employee satisfaction in the areas of orientation, ongoing professional development and cross-training within the company. Employees will also weigh in on whether the organization provides training, education, and a a clear path for advancement.
1. This organization provided as much initial training as I needed
Onboarding involves not only training new employees on processes, but beginning to assimilate them into the company culture. It’s also the appropriate time to provide thorough explanation of how to access the software, programs, and tools the employee needs to do their job functions and access benefits information. A simple task like requesting time off can be daunting if no one takes the time to train you properly from the get go.
2. This organization provides as much ongoing training as I need
Ongoing training is as equally critical as onboarding. Advances in technology happen so swiftly, that an employee’s expertise can quickly become outdated. It’s also helpful to offer training on new programs, initiatives, and trends within your industry to keep employees sharp and in-the-know. Cross-training can be efficient for the company and allow employees to develop and discover new skills.
3. This organization provides the technology, equipment and resources I need to do my job well
Having the technology and equipment you need to do your job well is another fundamental component that seems like common sense, but is sometimes lacking in the workplace. It’s important to investigate what resources each of the job roles within your organization require to function at top performance and then provide those resources.
4. The computer or other hardware I use to do my job is dependable
Even if your employees have the equipment they need, if it’s not working properly, productivity will decline and they’ll surely experience frustration. Purchase new or upgrade existing equipment on a regular basis to ensure that employees won’t waste time troubleshooting or worse, lose valuable work hours due to malfunctioning computers and hardware.
5. The software and program applications I use to do my job are adequate
Staying up to date with the software used for day-to-day work and human resources functions such as pay and time management software will help to alleviate frustration and mistakes. Investing in new software can simplify and automate tedious tasks and free up your employees to do more strategic and thoughtful work.
6. Technology issues are resolved in a timely manner
Losing hours or even full days due to technical issues will cost you. Having available IT staff members either in-house or readily available to help employees with technical issues quickly will save frustration and time wasted.
7. Technology issues affecting my work are communicated to me in a timely manner
Power and internet outages can occur at no fault of your IT team. It’s important that these issues are communicated to everyone affected, and in timely manner. For example, if there is no internet service in the main office, you should give adequate notice as soon as possible instructing employees to work from home, rather than having them make the commute to work where they’ll be ineffective.
8. I understand what is expected for career advancement
Lay out clear goals and objectives for employees so they understand the expectations necessary for advancement. Providing regular feedback and reviews will help an employee and supervisor stay in sync with performance and expectations.
9. I am encouraged to explore growth or advancement opportunities within the organization
Though advancement may not always be possible within the confines of a specific department, you can encourage employees to explore growth within the organization by allowing crossover into different teams.
10. There is room for me to advance at this organization
Advancement is important to many employees. And though advancement in the form of “moving up the ladder” may not be as readily available in smaller companies, it can take many other forms as well. Advancement for your employees can mean role expansion, growth in compensation, additional education, new skills, more responsibility, etc.
11. I trust that if I do good work, I will be considered for a promotion
Posting job openings internally first, when possible, is a good practice for showing employees you are open to advancement and promotion of existing team members. Make sure they are allowed equal considerations along with external candidates.
Investing in training, development, and resources helps to create an environment that is conducive to growth and motivating for your employees.
