How to Measure Employee Satisfaction: Choosing the Best Method for Your Organization

Most employees spend a staggering 90,000 hours at work—a substantial chunk of their precious time.

And let's face it, when one invests so much of their life at work, they want more than just a paycheck. They want to feel happy and content, aka satisfied with their job.

Surprisingly, only 17% of employees feel their on-the-job experience is exceptional, and employees are twice as likely to give their company a poor rating.

But navigating the waters of employee satisfaction can be like exploring uncharted territory. You know it's crucial, but how do you accurately measure it? 

Choosing the right method is vital. It's not just about asking how satisfied your team is; it's about uncovering deeper insights to drive meaningful change.

In this guide, we'll:

• Discuss proven and tested methods to measure employee satisfaction. 
• Help you find the right tools and resources to understand how employee satisfaction works.
• And guide you with the employee satisfaction methods that suit your company's needs.

🕵️‍♀️ How to measure employee satisfaction in the workplace? 5 Methods

It's easy to assume your employees are happy because you never hear them complain. 

But it could actually mean they don't trust you enough to share their feelings about their jobs.

That's why it's so important to get feedback from employees.

Here are some effective methods to measure employee satisfaction:

Set up company-wide surveys 

Conducting an employee job satisfaction survey is a proven and tested method to assess your employees' feelings about the workplace. You can run these surveys monthly, quarterly, and annually and make comparable analyses to learn more about what your employees like and dislike about their jobs. 

You can ask about: 

• What do they expect from the management.
• How good/bad their relationships are with co-workers.
• How high or low their stress levels are.
• Do they see themselves growing their careers within the company.

Ensure your employee satisfaction survey is easy to understand and applicable to everyone. 

But don't be afraid to include open-ended and multiple-choice questions to get qualitative and quantitative insights. 

Keep your questions to a minimum; you do not want to burden your employees with multiple pages of surveys that will take up so much of their time to answer.  

Employee pulse surveys are the way to go if you want real-time feedback and results. Pulse surveys are brief and more frequent check-ins that capture your team's reactions to workforce transitions, current work set-up, and other company plans.

Conduct one-on-one interviews 

It's unlikely that all team members share precisely the same experience at work. So, set up one-on-one interviews with your employees to understand their needs and address them directly as soon as possible.

You can set it up around 30 minutes or longer, depending on the situation and their needs. 

It's best to have these one-on-one interviews regularly, whether weekly, biweekly, or monthly, so you can adequately assess how to support them better. 

During the one-on-one interviews, ask employees about: 

• their current emotional and mental state;
• their work performance;
• career goals;
• workplace challenges.

You can ask these questions during a stay interview, which is a more strategic and direct way of asking questions. Conducting these kinds of interviews helps you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your onboarding processes and what motivates employees to stay or leave. 

You can also gain additional insights when you organize skip-level meetings where employees can directly coordinate with a senior-level executive, bypassing their immediate supervisor. This type of meeting is particularly beneficial when employee challenges may be related to their supervisor or when higher managers want to build rapport with the team. Hence, all your people will know that even the higher-ups listen to their concerns. 

 ➡️ Setting up 1-on-1 meetings can be tedious and overwhelming. Make your job easier with the best one-on-one meeting software to guide you. 

Organize focus groups

Focus groups are commonly used in advertising to gain customer insights but are also helpful in the workplace. Conducting employee focus groups can help you discover the level of employee engagement and understand their opinion about specific issues and trends in the workplace. You can also use this to collect qualitative data from employee opinion surveys and understand behavior.

Compile the employee net promoter score

The Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a metric that helps you gauge employees' satisfaction and loyalty to your organization. To calculate your score, you ask employees: On a scale of zero to ten, how likely are you to recommend our company as a place to work?

From their responses, you can divide employees into the following groups:

• Promoters are those who rated your company nine or ten. They are your happiest and most satisfied employees and would recommend your company as a great workplace. 
• Passives are the employees who gave a score of seven or eight and are neutral. They are usually content but aren't fully committed to the company. Your goal is to turn them into promoters.
• Detractors are those who have responded with a rating between zero and six. They are highly likely to leave their jobs because they aren't happy at work. 

To compute your total employee net promoter score, you would need to deduct the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters, giving you a score between -100 and 100. 

Generally, this means a positive score is good, while those below zero mean you need to improve employee satisfaction.

Coupled with other methods like evaluations and employee surveys, eNPS can give you a more accurate view of employee satisfaction in the workplace to craft effective strategies. 

 ➡️ Want to measure results for your pulse surveys? Add these 30 questions to your eNPS survey to gauge employee satisfaction and loyalty.  

Measure the Employee Satisfaction Index

The Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI) is another method that directly measures your employees' job satisfaction level. 

You can measure the employee satisfaction index with these three questions: 

• How satisfied are you with your workplace?
• How well does your workplace meet your expectations?
• How close is your workplace to your ideal job?

Employees must answer all three questions on a scale of 1 to 10.

Here's how to calculate the total score: 

1. For each of the three questions, calculate the average score based on the responses. This is done by summing all the scores for a question and dividing by the number of respondents.
2. Combine the averages by adding the average scores of the three questions.
3. Divide the combined score by the number of questions (which is 3 in this case) to obtain the overall average.
4. To make the index easier to interpret, you can convert the overall average score into a percentage by multiplying by 10.

The result will give you a score ranging between 1 and 100, a higher score indicating greater employee satisfaction. 

Suppose you also want to identify their satisfaction rate for specific aspects of their roles. In that case, you can modify your questions as you see fit. 

"When it comes to measuring employee satisfaction, the choices about methodology become threads that are carefully woven into the fabric of the success of the company." Draven McConville, CEO at Klipboard.

💡How to measure employee satisfaction without surveys: 5 Innovative methods

Although employee satisfaction surveys offer valuable insights through quantifiable data, feedback, and benchmarking, they often concentrate on surface-level metrics. As a result, they might miss the nuances of your company culture, diversity, and inclusivity. They might not reveal issues that employees might be reluctant to express directly to the company, whether anonymously or not.

If you want to do a deep dive into data and insights, consider trying alternative methods to gain additional POVs from your employees.

Sentiment analysis through AI

Sentiment analysis is a popular method for analyzing customer behavior. However, companies can use it for other purposes, such as analyzing employee satisfaction surveys. It evaluates people's feelings, sentiments, and emotions hidden behind text or subjective information using machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and data mining.

Sentiment analysis helps companies gather insights into employee sentiment, whether they're expressing positive, negative, or neutral feelings. You can use AI-based sentiment analysis in two ways: 

• Rule-based sentiment analysis uses a predetermined set of rules and natural language processing (NLP) to identify words and compare them against a sentiment-labeled dictionary. The sentiment score can then be based on several factors, like negations. However, this method cannot detect sarcasm or the context of words in a sentence. 
• Machine learning trains a machine learning model to detect sentiments from new texts and identify complex languages or tones like sarcasm. 

➡️ The future of HR involves AI. Find out how AI can play a role in employee retention.

Virtual suggestion box

A virtual suggestion box is a digital platform where employees can submit suggestions, feedback, or concerns in a centralized database. It makes the process more accessible and efficient as you can easily organize and analyze employee responses.

Employees can submit anonymous feedback with virtual suggestion boxes, promoting open communication and honest feedback.

Key features of a virtual suggestion box:

• Customizable to fit your company's culture and branding
• Option to remain anonymous
• Option to reply directly to employee feedback
• Notifications that will remind employees to fill out suggestion surveys and forms
• Visual data and analytics to interpret results 

Assessing referrals from employees

An employee referral program is a recruiting strategy and a way to assess employee satisfaction. Recognize patterns or trends that you get from referrals. Do you see familiar names referring your company to others? To measure the impact of employee referrals effectively, you can use data and insights through surveys, analytics, or reports to understand what employees like about your company that makes them want to refer it.

Employer reviews on specialized websites

Take a look at company reviews on specialized websites like Glassdoor and Fairygodboss. What are previous and current employees saying about your company? Are you noticing patterns or similar workplace concerns? Getting insights from these employer reviews can help you get more honest feedback and address issues as needed.

Analysis of indirect indicators

You can also gauge employees' satisfaction without directly asking them through meetings or surveys. Metrics such as your company's absenteeism and employee turnover rates can provide quantitative insights into employee satisfaction. The less likely an employee is to resign, the more satisfied they are.

Workplace absenteeism can indicate various issues, including a hostile work environment, a poor working environment, or a lack of work-life balance. However, it can also show dissatisfied employees. While absences cannot be avoided, keeping an absenteeism rate of 1.5 percent is considered healthy. This means that an employee missing 3-4 days of work due to illness will not significantly impact your absenteeism rate.

Other indicators of employee satisfaction

Employee engagement: Engaged employees can also mean they are motivated and satisfied with their jobs. Understanding key metrics related to employee engagement can also help you measure their level of job satisfaction.

Employee retention: The longer employees stay, the higher the chance they enjoy working with your company. Assess insights from employee retention rates and use these strategies to create programs for new and current employees.

Employee attrition rate: Aside from the retention rate, you can also assess how many employees leave in a given period and see how this can be relevant to job satisfaction. Employee attrition rate recognizes voluntary and involuntary departures, so it's best to identify factors leading to their resignation.

🏢 How to choose a measurement method that fits your organization: 3 Critical factors to consider

It's easy to get swayed with plenty of critical metrics and numbers to measure employee satisfaction. But without a strategic approach, you might be setting your company up for failure. Understanding how well these methods fit with your company helps you achieve the best results.

Here are some key factors to consider when choosing a measurement method:

Company culture, size, and industry considerations

The number of employees in the company can also affect how measurement methods work. A company-wide employee satisfaction survey may be effective for a large-scale company. Still, a focus group or 1 on 1 interview might be better for start-ups.

The existing company culture is equally crucial. You must ensure that the chosen method seamlessly integrates into the workplace without imposing undue burdens on employees.

Industry specifics matter, too. For instance, a tech-savvy environment might favor digital polls and surveys. In contrast, more traditional industries may find comfort in conventional survey methods.

Pros and cons of anonymity

While surveys are a great way to collect real-time data and feedback, they have pros and cons. Getting anonymous employee feedback is a great way to gather honest feedback and gauge satisfaction without employees fearing repercussions. The anonymity factor enables organizations to gain valuable insights into employee sentiments and perceptions that might otherwise remain unspoken.

However, some employees may use anonymous surveys to provide exaggerated or untruthful responses.

➡️ Create a judgment-free work environment. Find out how to run your anonymous survey that measures unbiased employee satisfaction rates.

Frequency of feedback 

These measurement methods aren't just a one-time thing. You cannot run one employee satisfaction survey or set of interviews and not think of following up because otherwise, you wouldn't be able to track any progress.

You must also consider how these follow-ups might affect employee engagement. Running too many surveys can be overwhelming for you and your employees, so be conscious of the frequency of feedback you do for the year. You can set up annual and quarterly surveys to see how receptive your employees are to them.

Choosing the right frequency involves asking questions such as:

• What are my goals for the survey?
• What data needs to be collected and updated?
• What is the timeline of the survey process?
• What do the employees prefer?
• How do I communicate these survey processes?

Automating employee feedback can save you time and avoid human errors for more frequent surveys. Plus, you can easily track progress and make adjustments as needed.

➡️ See how the best employee survey tools on the market can help.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all formula for employee satisfaction. Don't be afraid of combining methods to find the right one that fits your organization.

➡️ Measuring is the first step, but the work is just getting started. Learn how to improve employee satisfaction.

➡️ Measure, understand, enhance: The path to employee satisfaction with Zavvy

Your employees are the heart and soul of your organization, so it's essential to keep them satisfied. Implementing effective measurement strategies, including regular surveys, feedback mechanisms, and data analysis, allows you to gain valuable insights into their needs, concerns, and aspirations.

Leveraging an advanced platform like Zavvy can help you streamline these processes. Zavvy has features that can help you gather and analyze feedback and improve employee satisfaction.

With Zavvy, you can:

• 🤫 Collect team-level feedback, pulse surveys, and more using our anonymous employee feedback tool.
• 🔢 Keep a pulse on people and get deep insights with the eNPS software to plan your next action.
• 💬 Understand individual employees better through structured alignments using the one-on-one meeting software.
• 🤩 Track important employee engagement critical metrics with the employee engagement software.  

📅 Drive better employee experience and boost employee satisfaction with Zavvy! Book a demo to learn more about its features.

❓ FAQs

What is a KPI for employee satisfaction?

A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for employee satisfaction is a measurable metric used to evaluate and track employee satisfaction within an organization. You can use several KPIs to measure employee satisfaction, like eNPS (Employee net promoter score) and ESI (Employee satisfaction index).

Create a motivated and satisfied workforce with these most important KPIs to measure success.

What is the most common way to measure job satisfaction?

Surveys are the most common way to measure employee job satisfaction as they can give immediate general results and real-time feedback.

What are the five scales used to measure job satisfaction?

The Job In General Scale (JIG) uses 18 items to assess global job satisfaction, independent from satisfaction with various facets of the job.

The Job Descriptive Index contains 72 items measuring five facets of job satisfaction: 

• work;
• supervision;
• pay;
• co-workers; 
• promotional opportunities.

The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) measures the employee's satisfaction using 20 aspects, including activity, independence, variety, social status, and supervision (human relations and technical).

The Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) results in an overall satisfaction score and nine facet-specific scores. These facets include pay, promotion, supervision, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating conditions, co-workers, nature of work, and communication.

The Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) assesses employees' perceptions of their jobs based on job characteristics such as skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback.

What are the 5 major components of job satisfaction?

The five major components of job satisfaction include engagement, respect or praise and appreciation, fair compensation, motivation, and life satisfaction. While external factors such as compensation or benefits are significant, internal factors can significantly contribute to employees' job satisfaction.

How do you calculate employee satisfaction rates?

You can calculate the employee satisfaction rate through the ESI. The Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI) is another metric that calculates job satisfaction using three questions:

• How satisfied are you with your workplace?
• How well does your workplace meet your expectations?
• How close is your workplace to your ideal job?

After getting the rate from 1 to 10, here's how to calculate the total score:

(Question mean value/3) - 1) /9 x 100 = ESI

The result will give you a score ranging between 1 and 100, a higher score indicating greater employee satisfaction. 

Suppose you also want to identify their satisfaction rate for specific aspects of their roles. In that case, you can modify your questions as you see fit.