|
Staff satisfaction and engagement is a management topic that has been widely discussed. It matters most when organizations have to compete to keep the experienced and the talented, or when staff morale needs to be closely monitored so that performance at the individual and collective organizational levels could be maintained both before and after major changes, e.g., merger and acquisition, organization down-sizing, significant change in the corporate vision and mission due to the changing business context. Benefits derived from the staff satisfaction and engagement survey include informed decisions concerning performance and efficiency improvement, level of job tenacity, suitability of monetary and non-monetary rewards, corporate image, and early warning signals for most aspects of human resource management in an organization where people count.
Theories concerning people s needs, motivations and satisfaction can serve well as conceptual frameworks for this subject, but how related staff satisfaction is to actual performance is a matter worth detailed investigation and validation. Because of its valuable multipurpose uses, staff satisfaction and engagement survey should be undertaken and results measured in a cautious way. A good survey should be able to identify exhaustive causal effects concerning staff satisfaction, e.g. causal links between certain corporate activities and staff s perception, or between staff satisfaction and staff performance. The minimum requirement is the answer, for each organization within its unique context, to the question of “what makes people tick?”
Once the elements contributing to staff satisfaction and engagement in an organization are clearly identified, we can then move on to details. A good survey should be able to reveal the real satisfiers and dissatisfiers, as well as the severity of the impact. Armed with this information, organizations can then turn their corporate good intentions into informed judgments and right action plans.
The same survey should be undertaken regularly to check whether previously planned activities yield expected results, such as improved staff satisfaction and morale. hence better performance, etc., and what is left to be done. The survey result renders more benefits if used in combination with other tools, e.g., performance statistics, staff/focus group interviews.
Don t be tempted to resort to ‘cheap tools that merely list the ‘nice to haves which are not the real drivers, or you will be misled into less fruitful activities. If Frederick Herzberg is right, people usually express dissatisfaction towards certain job-and organization-related aspects the fulfillment of which does not lead to motivation, but keep silent on the others which are the real motivators. It is very important, therefore, to ask the right questions in a correct way, if scarce organization resources are going to be put to efficient use in addressing issues that really matter to your people.
PeoplePoll - a questionnaire-based Staff Engagement Survey Methodology by Signature Solutions
|
