Research Tips
Reasons Why More than a Few Questions Must Be Asked
Several different survey companies have claimed that they can measure the only issues that matter to employee satisfaction with a small number of questions.
That's an attractive claim, for it means that the employee satisfaction questionnaire can be very short. The short questionnaire takes only a few minutes to complete, data analysis is quick and easy, and the whole process costs very little.
However, closer examination reveals that the basic claim is seriously flawed.
- If the issues were truly the only ones that matter, then they would be the same from company to company. That not the case.
- If the issues were truly the only ones that matter, then no other issues would be more important to overall satisfaction. That, too, is not the case.
- Indeed, it is not reasonable to expect that the rich variety of experiences and attitudes that shape employee satisfaction could be captured in a handful of ratings.
"The only issues that matter" should be the same.
Each list supplier claims that their list is supported by empirical evidence to prove its validity.
Obviously, if there is a small list of issues that represent all that matters in employee satisfaction, there can only be one such list. If there are different lists, then plainly there are more key issues than either list acknowledges.
Of course, no two offer the same list.
| Vendor A | Vendor B |
|---|---|
| Know what’s expected of me at work | Job uses skills and abilities |
| Have the materials and equipment I need | Coached and developed |
| Supervisor, or someone at work cares about me as a person | Recognition |
| Mission of company makes me feel my work is important | Supervisor listens to ideas |
| Co-workers committed to quality work | New ideas encouraged |
| Have a best friend at work | Workload |
| Have opportunities to learn and grow | Feel valued |
| Have the opportunity to do what I do best every day | Resolve conflicts |
| In last six months, someone has talked to me about my progress | Cooperate |
| Someone at work encourages my development | Changes announced |
| In last seven days, received recognition or praise for good work | Get information |
| My opinions seem to count | Safety and health |
| Decision-making | Good coping |
| Low work pressure | |
| Effectiveness |
Only four items from the two lists are similar, and even these items are not identical. In other words, though each company claims to have the list of essential attributes, each picks almost entirely different attributes.
In short, each company's list is just their pet list. That is not to say they don't believe their items are important to employee satisfaction; they may believe it firmly. Nor does it mean their items are trivial. It simply means that they do not, in fact, measure all that matters to employee satisfaction with their small list of pet items.
Other issues should not be more important to overall satisfaction
If the short list contains all the issues that matter, then no survey should reveal other issues that are more important to overall satisfaction.
Indeed, if only the short list is used, that will always be the case. There will never be any other issues that show up as more important, simply because no other issues are asked about. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
However, when other ratings are included, the supposedly essential items do not always fare very well.
| Low Importance to Overall Satisfaction | High Importance to Overall Satisfaction | |
|---|---|---|
| Large Regional Company: Short list ratings | Opportunity to learn and grow My opinions count | |
| Other ratings | I am proud to work for this company I have confidence in the leadership of this company | |
| Medium-sized service/sales company: Short list ratings | Received recognition or praise in last seven days In last six months, talked with someone about progress | |
| Other Ratings | I feel part of a team working toward a shared goal Individual initiative is encouraged in this company |
In short, so long as surveys use only a handful of ratings, there's no opportunity to find out whether those ratings are or are not the only ones that matter. The list of ratings has to be enlarged to find out which factors truly drive overall satisfaction.
Indeed, surveys among a number of different companies shows that not only are the factors that drive overall satisfaction often different from the short lists, but also that the key factors vary from company to company.
A final note
Both logic and experience argue that employee satisfaction is shaped by any number of issues.
Organizations are not all alike. Some organizations are loosely structured, others more formal; some emphasize teamwork, others individual initiative; some are devoted to production, others to service; some are growing rapidly, other slowly or not at all; some are afflicted with political infighting, others are cooperative, etc. In other words, there are any number of different corporate cultures and a wide range of job stresses and pleasures.
Any reasonable estimate of this variety compels the view that it is simply not possible to capture it in a dozen or so ratings.
