If not repaired it doesn’t take long for a building with one broken window to quickly turn in to a building with a lot of broken windows. Resolving problems when they are small will prevent them from developing into larger problems.
When considering the level of employee satisfaction the same is true. Dissatisfaction can spread like wildfire and in the blink of an eye you can have the type of morale problems that are notoriously hard to resolve.
Ensuring your employees are happy is mostly about being tuned into what their problems are and, importantly, dealing with them early on. Keeping the initiative is really important and the secret is that it is better to give a little and often.
This turns out be just a vicious circle. Fixing problems when they are small is also when they are at their cheapest to fix. The majority of employees would prefer their managers to act without being prompted and by doing so they prevent the situation where they have to address employees’ concern while on the back foot. Staff like strong, confident management and this approach generates respect not least because someone has taken the time to understand some of the employees’ issues.
Compare that with managers who are out of touch. Arriving late to a problem they are on the defensive, their credibility at risk as they may have to concede to demands which can lead to further and less reasonable demands. It is not big and it is not clever.
The issue, then, is how to go about monitoring the morale of a company without a big budget and without much spare time?
The most obvious solution is to conduct an online employee survey. They offer a quick, easy and cost effective solution. Surveys can be created in minutes and deployed in seconds, with the results compiled in real time; and by using email and websites they cost nothing to disseminate.
The perfect delivery platform is the corporate internet.
By linking through to an online survey website a company can regularly conduct surveys so they become part and parcel of the daily operations.
With the real-time results that are a by product of online surveys the mood of the employees can be accurately gauged and individual and collective concerns highlighted.
Organisations can use survey results to highlight problem areas and then use follow-up surveys to target specific concerns. With good information managers are able to identify specific problems and prepare a considered response.
A major advantage of regular surveys is that it allows a company to address small problems in a timely manner avoiding ‘the straw that broke the camels back’ syndrome where a relatively insignificant incident unleashes a torrent of pent up concerns.
It should not be forgotten that most employees appreciate being consulted and asking their opinion is not seen as a sign of weakness but an indicator of good decision making.
Once in a blue moon a manager’s problem can be solved with something that is quick, easy and won’t break the bank; that looks like a blue moon.
Tags: employee, employee relations, employee satisfaction, employer, feedback, human resources, management, Online surveys, personnel, satisfaction surveys