Employee Job Satisfaction Questions
By now we’ve all heard the term ‘Great Resignation’ and many of us have experienced the effects of it first hand. The number of employees that are leaving their current roles for better opportunities has been setting monthly records for the better part of the last year. One area to consider is the communication gap between employees and the leadership team. What are some employee job satisfaction questions that can help you retain and engage employees?
Unfortunately, HR executives are learning about organizational issues during exit interviews. At this point, it’s too late for that employee. We know that exit interviews are simply, “a way to find out what is happening, or what has happened, that may be motivating this employee… to leave,” according to SHRM Knowledge Advisor Yuletta Pringle.
Prior to the pandemic (and the great resignation), Gallup found that 51% of people voluntarily leaving their jobs had no conversations with management about their future with the company or their job satisfaction. And of that group, 52% said the organization could have kept them if they had engaged with the employee.
So more than a quarter of those who left of their own volition would have stayed with their current employer if there was better communication taking place. A recent article in Harvard Business Review looks at five questions that can help managers understand what is important to employees and why they would want to stay.
How would you like to grow within this organization?
Career growth is important for everyone, regardless of role. Gallup notes that lack of opportunities for advancement is the number one reason people start looking for new roles. Consider how you can support employees with their desire to grow and learn. Re-skilling, up-skilling, mentoring, and coaching are a few ways to work with them.
Do you feel a sense of purpose in your job?
We spend a majority of our waking hours at work, so it is normal to look for a sense of purpose in our work. Do we know if our employees have this connection? The purpose is to drive more decisions on where people want to work, especially with millennials and generation z. Make sure you understand your employee’s values and how their work connects them to those values, or where you can develop corporate social responsibility programs that can build the connections.
What do you need from me to do your best work?
Creating honest, open, two-way communications with employees is a hallmark of top-performing managers. One way to take this to the next step is to look inward as a leader and find out what more you can be doing to help your employees thrive. Even with good communication, we too often look at what the employee can be doing to improve and not what we can do to help.
What are we currently not doing as a company that you feel we should do?
Taking the last point one step further, ask employees what they think the company could be doing better? What are they seeing in the industry or internally that could be addressed to help the company? You could use the start, stop, continue the approach, asking them to think of three things the company could start, three things they could consider stopping, and three things to continue. This not only gets them thinking bigger picture but also provides a point of view that leadership may not see.
Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
Everyone has elements of their job they enjoy and elements they don’t enjoy. Do we as leaders know which parts of their jobs drive them? Focusing on what makes them happy and where they want to learn more is a great way to keep top employees motivated, challenged, and engaged.
If you have questions on reducing your employee turnover or have executive hiring needs due to the great resignation, send us a note, and one of our executive recruiters will get in touch with you right away.