What an Employee Survey Can Achieve

According to § 5 and § 6 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, a risk assessment by the employer or other specialist staff should ensure that the work of all employees is characterized by safe working conditions and a safe working environment to protect health.
However, it is not only the legally prescribed standard that should prompt you to include a risk assessment in an employee survey, but also the fact that employees who experience even mild work-related stress are 10 – 14% more prone to temporary absence from work¹. A professionally conducted employee survey can not only measure the stress of employees, but can also identify factors (e.g. an inappropriate leadership style) that lead to an increased experience of stress.

¹ Leontaridi, R. M., & Ward, M. E. (2002). Work-related stress, quitting intentions and absenteeism.Open in new tab

The level and type of remuneration have long been part of many employee surveys. However, this aspect has (wrongly) fallen into disrepute – mostly due to the supposed antagonism to the new giant of motivation research, “intrinsic motivation”. However, more recent research emphasizes the synergistic effect of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives on work performance¹. Through an employee survey you can uncover the maximum motivation potential of your employees!

¹ Cerasoli, C. P., Nicklin, J. M., & Ford, M. T. (2014). Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict performance: A 40-year meta-analysis.Open in new tab Psychological bulletin, 140(4), 980.

Closely linked to globalization and digitalization, the innovative power of companies is a key factor in economic success. A scale for the climate for innovation in your company can be used to determine the current status. The results obtained will enable you to better position yourself in your competitive environment and take proactive action. Current scientific studies show the crucial role of the innovation climate for a competitive advantage in the performance of a company¹.

¹ Shanker, R., Bhanugopan, R., Van der Heijden, B. I., & Farrell, M. (2017). Organizational climate for innovation and organizational performance: The mediating effect of innovative work behavior.Open in new tab Journal of Vocational Behavior, 100, 67-77.

Important for every organization, vital for commercial enterprises: the quality of service and thus customer satisfaction. Your customers only see what they get – your employees and managers experience every day how the service is achieved and often know the real causes of defects, errors and additional costs much better than any external consultant. If the right questions are asked, a professional employee survey often provides crucial information about where the internal processes are going wrong and what obstacles need to be overcome on the way to optimal performance.

Why do we lose so many employees to the competition? Why do the number of days off work in our company vary so much? Targeted diagnostics of commitment and engagement can lead to effective answers to the above questions if the results are used correctly and appropriate improvement measures are derived. A high level of perceived commitment among employees to their own company is proven to be associated with high productivity, low levels of absenteeism and low termination rates¹. Companies with high employee engagement scores have higher return on assets, profitability and company value than companies with low employee engagement scores².

¹ Mowday, R. T., Porter, L. W., & Steers, R. M. (2013). Employee-Organization linkages: The psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover.Open in new tab Academic press.
² Macey, W. H., Schneider, B., Barbera, K. M., & Young, S. A. (2011). Employee engagement: Tools for analysis, practice, and competitive advantage (Vol. 31).Open in new tab John Wiley & Sons.

Can our employees develop positively and make full use of their abilities? Are the high costs and effort that we put into personnel development worth it? These questions have always preoccupied everyone who is responsible for budgets for the development of managers and employees and who ensures that suitable young talent develops within the organization. If you look at each measure on its own, you get an incomplete picture, because only the assessments of all colleagues show where the overall “shoe pinches” and where further training and development have overshot the target or are urgently needed. An employee survey can shed light on the topic of development so well that highly relevant findings can be derived from it.

The assessment of general employee satisfaction plays a major role in almost every employee survey – and for good reason. In particular, linking employee satisfaction with specific factors such as the specific job characteristics, the scope for development, the existing cooperation opportunities or the communication of decisions has proven to be useful in practice. Improvement measures derived from this have been proven to contribute to the success of a company.

Work should be interesting, varied, as autonomous as possible and have a certain degree of complexity – that’s the theory. In practice, in addition to all – well-intentioned – work design, the perception of employees’ work tasks and the associated working conditions is extremely relevant. Use an employee survey to uncover data-driven areas of action and optimize the framework for your employees’ work!

Transactional leadership, paradoxical leadership, transformational leadership – there are a variety of more or less promising leadership approaches in theory and practice. Perhaps one of these concepts is being specifically pursued and taught in your company. But what about implementation on the basis of individual managers? How do employees experience the behavior of their superiors? An employee survey can provide specific information about the experiences of your employees and, in conjunction with other scales, provide valid information for improvement.

An employee survey can provide objective data on the subjective understanding and support of the company strategy. Based on this knowledge, follow-up measures can be initiated, for example in the form of information material about the strategy, training for managers or strategy workshops with employees.

How do our employees perceive the corporate culture? Is the corporate culture lived by all managers? These are the questions that need to be asked if you want to create a positive working atmosphere that is closely linked to the corporate culture. An employee survey can determine the status quo among employees. Based on this, follow-up measures can be used to achieve significantly measurable added value for many scalable areas¹.

¹ Kotter, J. P. (2008). Corporate culture and performance.Open in new tab Simon and Schuster.

Globalization, digitalization, demographic change – all of these phenomena bring about far-reaching changes for the entire company and the individual within the company. Preventive surveys of employees on organizational changes increase the willingness to accept and support changes. Through an employee survey, employees are no longer objects of change, but participate in the change as subjects and support the decisions of top management when implementing follow-up measures.¹.

¹ Weber, P. S., & Weber, J. E. (2001). Changes in employee perceptions during organizational change.Open in new tab Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 22(6), 291-300.

Do our employees trust the decisions of the management? The employees of a company should be able to trust the decisions of the top management. Many factors that are themselves correlated with economic success are influenced by trust in management, as recent studies show¹. Ask for the trust of your employees, recognize the resulting opportunities and strengthen your company through targeted improvements!
¹ Mahajan, A., Bishop, J. W., & Scott, D. (2012). Does trust in top management mediate top management communication, employee involvement and organizational commitment relationships?Open in new tab Journal of Managerial Issues, 173-190.

Is it possible for your employees to work in a team? Is this encouraged and supported by their superiors? How well does teamwork work? What can you change to use teamwork efficiently and purposefully? An employee survey can answer these and other questions and provide valuable information for improving any potential deficits.