If you are a business owner you’ve probably heard about different types of qualitative research that can boost your business. A survey belongs to the most effective methods of marketing.

A job satisfaction survey aims to research the satisfaction of your employees and get you to know what they think about their workplace. Surveys are also effective when you have to research your customers, partners, competitors, target audience, or conduct focus groups.

What Is A Job Satisfaction Survey?

A job satisfaction survey is a sum of indicators, which is directly related to the comfort and confidence of your employees when they perform their job. A questionnaire for such a survey may contain only basic indicators or be well elaborated with dozens of questions that measure the level of satisfaction and enjoyment.

Since the start of the tertiary economy and information economy development, thousands of new specialties and employment roles were created. These job positions differ from what normal labourers used to be. These new positions create additional value to the products and services, and skilled professionals can make a great impact on the company’s performance.

The described above situation is common for all the countries in the world. In the 21st century not only senior managers, but also middle managers, and even highly-skilled employees deserve the right treatment. This can literally include everything from the increased wages to the tickets for the evening show. A job satisfaction survey is a specialised qualitative research that studies what stimulates an employee the most.

Find out the advantages of asking the right questions to get the right feedback

 A job satisfaction survey should be properly structured and scripted. This will enable you to get good quality information about your employees.

1. Understand and improve productivity levels

Let’s go over three examples of why it’s vital to conduct such type of survey. First of all, you may conduct a job satisfaction survey to improve productivity levels. Happy employees are going to work better as there are different things that can irritate them and distract them from work. During the survey process, you may reveal a better understanding of your employees’ motivation and things that stimulate them in order to be more productive. Therefore, this type of qualitative research will enable you to extract information about the problems that employees face and fix them.

2. Retain employees

The next reason, which every normal business cares for, is employee retention. As modern people struggle to achieve success, they are willing to receive greater fees for their work and be surrounded by a comfortable working environment. These factors influence employee retention levels, as she/he is willing to stay secure and satisfied. Therefore a qualitative research survey with employee focus will enable you to retain some workers that could otherwise leave.

3. Understand training needs 

The third reason may be the headache of every supervisor: proper training and professional education of employees. The selection of training courses, private mentors, and corporate workshops may be a hard task, as an employee may not even know what he needs to develop. A job satisfaction survey may show the right way to the development of professional excellence, as it may be not a specific skill, but rather a working atmosphere in the team.

Exploring the different categories of job satisfaction survey's questions

Before you start a job satisfaction survey you should learn about different categories that are related to satisfaction of your employees. Below we provide such information for qualitative research. You may conduct separate surveys or create all-embracing questionnaires.

- First, explore the connection between employee satisfaction and organisational relations. You won’t be surprised as in most cases relations are not ideal.

- Second, you may study the relationship between employee satisfaction and teamwork. Most employees due to subordination or other reasons can’t fix problems related to working in a team by themselves, that is where you come into play.

- Third, study how employee satisfaction depends on the information that she/he possesses. Well-informed employees hesitate less and perform assigned tasks quickly.

- Fourth, do qualitative research on supervisor-employee relations. It is the fallacy that frequently occurs in a workplace, as the supervisor thinks that she/he always does what is needed and subordinates underperform because of their own problems.

- Fifth, do not try to manipulate your employees by telling them who they are, rather indulge them to think about themselves. Allow them to think about their top skills as well as about the areas that have to be improved.

- Sixth, learn how feedback can influence employee satisfaction. The lack of feedback may force employees to think that they are insecure about their work.

- Seventh, work/life balance is very important to most employees, as the rest during personal affairs creates a background for productive work. If your employee brings a lot of work home - that is not a good thing.

- Eight, fair rules, and employee achievements impact the level of job satisfaction, as the employee understands that her/his opinion is appreciated.

These are the basic topics for a job satisfaction survey, as they are a perfect first steps to understand how do your employees’ feel at their workplace.