Employee satisfaction is how content employees are with their jobs.
Measuring Employee Satisfaction:
Satisfaction is typically measured using an employee survey or questionnaire. Questions can include topics about compensation, workload, attitudes about management and organization leadership, work-life balance, staff relationships, improving working environment, work climate, and company culture. These metrics influence and help measure employee satisfaction. Employee surveys can assess satisfaction with:
- Compensation
- Workload
- Attitudes
- Work-life balance
- Staff relationships
- Working environment
- Company culture
These defining factors are important to companies who want to keep their employees happy and reduce turnover, but employee satisfaction is only a part of the overall solution. In fact, for some organizations, satisfied employees are people the organization might be better off without. This sounds counter-intuitive, but it is important to understand satisfaction doesn't mean high performance or engagement. HR ideas and strategies focused on how to improve employee satisfaction oftentimes have results that demoralize high performers.
Employee satisfaction and employee engagement are similar concepts on the surface, and many people use these terms interchangeably; however, they measure different outcomes. The importance of knowing the difference is critical for an organization to make strategic decisions to create and improve the culture of engagement. Employee satisfaction covers basic concerns and needs in the workplace. It is a good starting point, but it usually stops short of what really matters. Satisfied employees are content. Engaged employees show up every day to give their best to help their companies succeed.
Employee Satisfaction versus Employee Engagement
Employee Satisfaction Definition:
Employee satisfaction is the extent to which employees are happy or content with their jobs and work environment.
Compare that with this definition of employee engagement.
Employee Engagement Definition:
Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and put discretionary effort into their work.
Engaged employees are motivated to do more than the bare minimum needed to keep their jobs. Examples of an engagement attitude include: their strong sense of purpose and leadership; their love to be challenged; their passion and commitment to improve performance and workplace results.
Engaged employees are the engine of a company, and their performance is proof of this.
Engaged employees are the engine of a company, and their performance is proof of this. The importance of engagement cannot be overstated. Satisfied employees are merely content with their jobs and the status quo. For some, this might involve doing as little work as possible. An employee satisfaction survey will not diagnose key factors that can help an organization improve engagement and performance.
Turnover vs. Unwanted Turnover
Talented and motivated employees expect more from companies. For these employees, job satisfaction includes a different set of criteria. They want to be engaged and empowered. They want to be challenged and pushed. They want their work to have meaning. They want a sense of purpose. A culture of continuous improvement and the importance of professional development opportunities for employees to grow and advance their careers, to better their performance, are key factors that contribute to the engagement of high performers.
Why is employee satisfaction a potential problem?
The problem with employee satisfaction is that it does not focus on the things that are important to your most talented staff. A happy or content employee might be quite satisfied with a job that requires very little effort. This employee might be perfectly content doing the bare minimum required to keep his or her job. These employees are likely "very satisfied" with their jobs. They usually lack leadership and purpose. Their performance might be "good enough". They are unlikely to leave the company, but they are not necessarily adding value.
As opposed to satisfied employees, engaged employees add value by pushing limits, driving growth and innovation. As opposed to satisfied employees, engaged employees add value by pushing limits, driving growth and innovation. Companies with an engagement strategy provide informal and formal learning experiences in order to create significant opportunities for employees. Engaged employees will often snatch up these opportunities, satisfied employees often will not. In a culture of engagement, employees feel valued and recognized for their work.
Employee satisfaction surveys can lead an organization down the wrong path. As a company, if you focus on increasing the wrong kind of employee satisfaction, you risk entrenching those employees who are adding the least value while driving your most talented employees out.
See also: What is employee engagement?
Satisfaction and Engagement Semantics
By employing an engagement survey, asking the right questions, measuring the right factors with benchmarked results, questions and results backed by statistics, your organization can construct a strategic plan to improve employee engagement and, in turn, performance. If this is what you're doing, call it what you like.
Popular Employee Engagment Article Topics and Resources:
- What is Employee Engagement?
- Employee Satisfaction vs. Employee Engagement
- Sample Employee Survey Questions
- Employee Engagement Dashboard Examples