Employee satisfaction survey

What employee survey do you need?

Employee satisfaction survey, culture surveys, employee engagement surveys, employee opinion surveys, climate survey; we receive enquiries from organisations all the time using a wide range of descriptions. Often when we ask what they want from their staff survey the answers we get suggest that many use these different terms interchangeably.

So, is there a difference between for example employee opinion surveys and a climate survey or a culture survey or an engagement survey? Here is a short guide to what we think are the most commonly accepted definitions of each of the main types.

Employee satisfaction survey

Simply put, an employee satisfaction survey will seek to measure how satisfied an employee is at work. The question set will therefore be designed with a range of questions on how satisfied they are with a range of aspects of their work and working conditions. This would usually include how they are paid and rewarded, how they are managed, how satisfied they are with their working conditions and the job itself. An employee satisfaction survey will measure satisfaction against the individual’s expectations.

Climate Survey

Climate surveys are designed to measure how people are feeling at work, sometimes described as 'taking the temperature'. Often clients will commission a climate survey if their organisation is going through significant change such as a merger or acquisition and they want to know how it is affecting the workforce. A climate survey will typically ask questions around how employees feel about changes that are taking place, how they feel about their current work experience, management style, workload etc.

Culture Surveys

Culture surveys are slightly different. If climate is about how things feel, culture is about how things happen and how people behave. There are a number of different methodologies that are used to measure culture. A culture survey will usually be commissioned when an organisation wants to understand from the employees' perspective how things work in practice. Culture surveys are often used when employers are interested to assess to what extent the values and behaviours that they want to encourage are the norm. With a culture survey the client will set out the culture that they want to achieve and measure against that using a set of criteria that might include factors such as customer orientation, openness, teamwork etc.

Engagement Surveys

An engagement survey is becoming the most popular term used within the HR community when talking about employee surveys. Employee engagement is concerned with creating the conditions where employees are likely to be more highly motivated, more emotionally connected to the organisation and more willing and able to contribute to the organisation’s success. Employers benefit through higher levels of retention, more discretionary effort, less absenteeism and ultimately a more positive and productive culture.

Employee engagement surveys are designed to look at all the aspects that can influence an employee's attitude to work as well as his/her engagement level. This will include many of the topics included in climate, satisfaction and culture surveys as these aspects are important to engagement.

Edgecumbe Research can help you with whatever kind of staff survey you require. We will listen carefully to you needs and then design a research approach that will provide you with the insight that you require. Many of our surveys are a mixture of the different types of survey described above. Our questionnaires are therefore tailored to your exact needs and whether it is an online opinion survey or on paper, we will manage all aspects of the process to your exact requirement, and, at a cost to suit your budget.