You’re probably already keeping tabs on benefits in the marketplace so you can stay competitive. Great! But before you make any changes (or decide not to make changes), check with your employees.
Benefits are an obvious reason why employees come on board – and why they stay. But in themselves, they don’t get employees engaged in their work. If you want to get them up to that level, leverage your benefits package by soliciting employee feedback through an email survey.
The benefits to you are twofold: First, you’ll have confirmation as to whether you need to make adjustments and if so, what types. Second, getting employees involved in the process empowers them and boosts engagement. Keep these pointers in mind:
The simpler, the better. Not only does this make creating and analyzing the survey easier for you, it’s less time-consuming for your employees to fill out. You’ll get more responses in a more timely fashion.
Take five. Limit your survey to a five-point scale (Very Dissatisfied, Somewhat Dissatisfied, No Opinion, Somewhat Satisfied, Very Satisfied) rating overall benefits, health care, dental care, vision care, paid time off, and any other specific perks your organization offers.
Rank and file. It can also be helpful to have employees rank their benefits in order of importance to them.
Look ahead. In addition to asking employees to rate their satisfaction with current benefits, find out what enhancements and additions they would like to see. You can offer several for consideration as well as leaving the question open-ended.
Manage expectations. Be sure to get upper management’s approval on any suggested improvements. Dangling a carrot and snatching it away is not conducive to employee engagement! Also, set a date to let employees know when the survey results will be communicated.
That’s right, communicate. It always comes down to communication, doesn’t it? Share the survey results, including what changes might be made and when.
Do it again. Now that you’ve established a benchmark, conduct annual surveys to see how each year’s results stack up against it and determine the success of your responses. As for the survey’s effect on boosting employee engagement, that success should be obvious!