Employee Retention Survey

 

 

What Is an Employee Retention Survey?

According to Shelby Farris(August 7,2023),An employee retention survey is a questionnaire distributed to workers to solicit honest feedback about their responsibilities and the workplace. These surveys are an essential approach for a business to assess employee mood and the chance that employees will stay with the team. 

These surveys will typically ask employees questions related to: 

• Job satisfaction
• Compensation and benefits
• Communication and feedback
• Work-life balance
• Professional development opportunities 
• Management
• Rewards
• Recognition                                                                                                                                  

The information your workers submit on these topics might help you identify which of their demands are not being addressed. This allows you to implement substantial improvements that will make employees feel more appreciated and more equipped to accomplish their jobs.

As a result, workers are more likely to be involved with their job and your firm as a whole, reducing the likelihood that they will leave. 

Why Use an Employee Retention Survey?

• Prevent turnover

Of course, one of the two most important reasons to undertake retention surveys is to reduce staff turnover in your firm. 

More over half of employees believe their bosses could have stopped them from leaving. This suggests that staff turnover is an avoidable issue. Using an employee retention survey will help you get ahead of the problem, saving you time and money on hiring new personnel later. 

• Increase retention

When turnover rates decrease, retention rates increase. The other key purpose for using these questionnaires is to increase retention.

Employee retention is described as the rate at which your workers stay with you over time, as well as the tactics you've put in place to maintain them. Employee retention surveys are an essential component of an effective retention strategy. 

 A good retention rate is about 90% and comes with benefits of its own. These include:

• Lower hiring and training costs
• Stronger company culture
• Improved employer brand and reputation
• Increased revenue
• Higher customer satisfaction
• Improved productivity
• Better team collaboration and morale
• Retained knowledge and expertise

• Measure and boost employee engagement 

According to Gallup data, engaged individuals are less likely to leave their employment and are more productive than disengaged ones. However, about 80% of employees globally are either not engaged or actively disengaged at work. 

Employee retention surveys provide a pulse check on your team, allowing you to assess employee engagement and enhance performance. 

Employee Retention Survey Questions

Nearly 70% of employees are unsatisfied with their present wage, and 61% are interested in perks that their company does not already provide.

Asking your employees directly about their salary and perks might help you assess whether you're on track or whether you need to improve your offers.

Questions to ask

• To what extent are you satisfied with your current compensation?  

• 5 – Very satisfied 
• 4 – Satisfied 
• 3 – Neutral 
• 2 – Dissatisfied 
• 1 – Very dissatisfied 

• Do you feel that you’re paid fairly for your work?
  • Yes
  • No
• To what extent are you satisfied with your employee benefits?
  • 5 – Very satisfied 
  • 4 – Satisfied 
  • 3 – Neutral 
  • 2 – Dissatisfied 
  • 1 – Very dissatisfied 
• What benefits would you like to see that currently aren’t offered? 
• To what extent are you satisfied with the company’s paid time off policy?
  • 5 – Very satisfied 
  • 4 – Satisfied 
  • 3 – Neutral 
  • 2 – Dissatisfied 
  • 1 – Very dissatisfied 

• On a scale of 1-10, rate each of our benefits in terms of importance to you. [Insert list of benefits]
• On a scale of 1-10, rate these potential new benefits in terms of importance to you. [insert potential new benefits]  

Overall job satisfaction questions

When surveying employees about their job satisfaction, you’re looking for a glimpse into the day-to-day details of their current role. 

It’s up to you to ensure employees have what they need to be successful—including support from leadership, a manageable workload, and more. The following questions can help you get a sense of how your employees feel about their jobs overall. 

Questions to ask

• To what extent are you satisfied with your current job?
  • 5 – Very satisfied 
  • 4 – Satisfied 
  • 3 – Neutral 
  • 2 – Dissatisfied 
  • 1 – Very dissatisfied 
• Do you plan on working here a year from now?
  • Yes
  • No
• Do you have the resources you need to be successful in your role?
  • Yes
  • No
• How likely are you to recommend working here to a friend?
  • Very likely 
  • Likely 
  • Neutral 
  • Unlikely 
  • Very unlikely 
• How strongly do you agree with the following statement? “The reality of my role aligns with the expectations I had for it at the beginning.”
  • Strongly agree
  • Agree
  • Neutral
  • Disagree
  • Strongly disagree 

 

 

As stated by Lark Allen(3/15/2024),An employee retention survey is a market research technique that solicits feedback from workers on why they stay with a firm.

More crucially, these employee surveys assess several aspects of the worker experience.

The idea is to get insight into these areas in order to understand what drives workers to stay loyal to a company.

As you can undoubtedly guess, there are several elements that contribute to increased employee retention rates.

These surveys seek to cover all of these topics, from general work satisfaction to career growth prospects, and everything in between.

The goal of these surveys is to better identify what factors lead to employee turnover.

With the current rate of employee turnover at over 47%, these retention surveys are a critical tool for firms should be using to hang onto staff. 

Benefits of Conducting Employee Retention Surveys

Gathering honest employee input and conducting retention surveys are essential for management teams to become proactive in resolving existing pain issues.

Retention surveys also help managers grasp the subtleties of employees' demands and preferences. As a consequence, they will be better at managing employee outreach tactics.  

Steps to Conducting Employee Retention Surveys  

Conducting employee retention surveys follows a standard process as any online survey. Below, we'll briefly cover the key steps involved.  

 

1. Contact Third-Party Vendor

Getting in touch with a third-party employee survey company is the first step to a successful survey. At Drive Research, we respond quickly to inquiries and set up a brief meeting to learn the goals of a potential client. 

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2. Proposal

After the initial meeting, the market research team will create a proposal for the client. This includes the basic rundown of how the project will go from start to finish. 

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3. Kickoff Meeting & Work Plan

The kickoff meeting dives deep into the specific needs of the client post-proposal.

Common topics addressed during this time include questions, concerns, and the main goals of the project. After, the work plan will be created.

This document simply highlights important steps like tasks, deliverables, and dates. 

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4. Survey Draft

The most important aspect of this entire project, the survey draft will include questions specific to what the client needs regarding employee retention.

When writing the survey, the research team considers important points like order, flow, wording, bias, and so on. 

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5. Exchange of Employee Database

Typically delivered in an Excel file or CSV, the employee database is given to the research team.

If there are additional fields available in the database, like DOB, date of hire, department, and so on, these can be included for more detailed survey data. 

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6. Survey Programming

The questions are now transferred into an online survey platform. The research team will make sure the layout is compatible across devices like laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. 

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7. Pre-Notice

It's a good idea for the client to send a pre-notice email to all employees.

Doing this prepares the employees for when they can expect the survey invite, why they should respond, and so on. 

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8. Testing

The employee retention survey is tested to ensure things are running smoothly before send-off. This includes factors like grammar checks, comprehension, skip patterns, and so on. 

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9. Invites and reminders

After testing, the survey is ready to be sent out.

Once the email invite to take the employee retention survey has been sent out, there are usually one to two reminders sent out to prompt non-responders. 

During this time, you will have access to a live client portal that shows up-to-the-second results.

  

 

10. Analysis, Reporting, & Debrief

The research team will begin analyzing the survey results in detail. 

By carefully reviewing the data, researchers will be able to create solid feedback and recommendations for the client. After the survey data has been reviewed, it's packaged in a file and given to the client. 

The report contains a detailed rundown of what was found from the survey data. With this, the client will be able to make the necessary changes based on accurate feedback. 

Drive Research always holds a debrief meeting with the client to review survey results with your dedicated project team.

This is great for wrapping up, as it's a chance for any final questions or concerns to be addressed.

On the authority of Joel Garfinkle,Accurate employee retention surveys may benefit firms in a variety of ways. They can demonstrate how many pleased and dissatisfied employees they have. Alternatively, they may provide opinions and percentages of employees who plan to stay or depart.

Surveys may help you learn what makes employees happy or dissatisfied, allowing you to provide them with the tools they need to stay motivated and satisfied at work. They may also boost morale by allowing employees to express their ideas in a confidential atmosphere.

As such it can conclude that,Retention of workforce surveys enable firms in determining the possibility that their staff will stay. Leaders may gain insight into employee opinions inside their firm by running retention surveys. These insights can serve as standards for motivating and keeping workers currently and in the years to come.

 References

Farris S.(August 7,2023),35 Employee Retention Survey Questions to Ask your staff[Online], Available at :https://connecteam.com/e-employee-retention-survey/[Accessed on 8th April 24]

Allen L.(3/15/2024),Conducting Employee Retention Surveys [+Example Questioners[Online], Available at :https://www.driveresearch.com/market-research-company-blog/employee-retention-surveys/[Accessed on 8th April 24]

Garfinkle J.,Employee Retention Survey [Online], Available at :https://garfinkleexecutivecoaching.com/articles/how-to-retain-employees/employee-retention-survey[Accessed on 8th April 24]