Highlights

The Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI) is a measure that helps you understand how satisfied your employees are.
Any value above 0 is a positive ESI score; the nearer it is to 100, the better the employee satisfaction level. 
11 Ways to achieve better Good employee satisfaction index
Transparency in the organization, The choice to make a decision, Feedback System, Work-Life Balance, Hone employee skills, Align goals and values, Cheer up employees with every milestone, Care for their mental health, Create better social connect, Talk to them, Hybrid or flexible workplace

The employer and employee relationship goes beyond the work done, and the salary paid.

If this statement is true, what strengthens the relationship’s foundation between the two?  And, why is it important?

An organization values dedicated, loyal employees who put themselves on the path of organizational growth. Likewise, employees trust an organization that keeps them motivated and satisfied enough to make continuous efforts to make the business thrive. Job satisfaction contributes to the long-term relationship between an employee and the employer while being instrumental in company growth.

According to statistics by Havard Business Review, less than 50% of employees trust their companies, and others face trouble trusting them! 

The stats reflect how strained professional relationships can be if organizations don’t pay attention to their people. It is a wake-up call for organizations to revisit and analyze their work culture, which directly connects to nurturing and motivating their employees. And so, there are measures to understand the motivation levels of an organization’s employees. 

It is imperative for you to know if your employees are satisfied; if not, you cannot retain them, which leads to increased employee turnover. This increases the organization’s overhead—something no company would wish for. So, let us start by understanding the basics of employee satisfaction. 

Employee Satisfaction: what is it?

Employee satisfaction tells us how content an employee is with his or her job and the working environment. A satisfied employee increases their productivity and is hence an asset to any organization. 

You can list quite a number of theories to explain employee satisfaction, like the Job Characteristics Model, Motivator-Hygiene theory, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (A Theory of Human Motivation). They can be woven around different concepts, but they all connect employee satisfaction to one important factor: motivation gained from the organizational environment. 

Employee motivation is not only a cognitive trait of an organization but is also measurable. We have an Employee Satisfaction Index to do the same! 

Employee Satisfaction Index

The Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI), or Employee satisfaction score, is a scale that helps you understand how satisfied your employees are. It measures employees’ perception of their job in relation to their workplace. The ESI can identify problems early on so that they can be addressed before they lead to high employee turnover or low productivity. So you, as an employer or organization, should be equipped to know if you fall between an average to a good employee satisfaction score.

How to measure ESI

Employee satisfaction is not like other KPIs, which can be measured from numbers like sales or outreaches. Rather, it is an emotion index, and you need appropriate ways or tools to measure it, as it provides insights about your employees that you would not know otherwise.

Since face-to-face interaction can hinder an employee’s freedom of expression, ESI is discreet, anonymous, and very much effective. It gives you a candid overview of what your employees think about the organization, their job, and their work environment. Here, you can take liberties with rolling out the survey in a way that best suits the nature of your organization and its staff.

You can draft the surveys in a simple questionnaire Google form, or you can use sophisticated tools like Pietential to find out the intrinsic details of motivation levels among your employees.

The survey must be designed to cover all important aspects of employee satisfaction, like job satisfaction, motivation, working environment, etc. You can also use different rating scales to measure employee satisfaction. 

For example, you can use a 1-5 scale or a 1-10 scale. Once you have designed the survey, you must distribute it among your employees.

You can also use the aid of ready tools like Zoho Survey  available in the market, where you can rework a pre-existing template, as shown below.

Employee satisfaction survey

If you think you need a pre-designed survey that can fetch you elaborate results and immediate data visualization, you can choose tools like Pietential. It gives you overall results and lets you compare against different demographics, as given below.

Pietential , measuring Employee Satisfaction Index

Usually, we follow the below formula to calculate the employee satisfaction score from the survey you conducted,

ESI = ( Total score of the answered questions/Total questions)* 100.

A near 100 value score represents a good employee satisfaction score—something every organization aims for! But with advanced tools like Pietential, the results are directly visualized in the dashboard, simplifying the process.

11 Ways to Achieve a Good Employee Satisfaction Index

In an organization, high engagement leads to increased motivation levels, thus contributing to better employee satisfaction levels.

Here are 11 ways to achieve a good employee satisfaction score:

  1. Create transparency in the organization

Do your employees know the upcoming annual plan for the organization’s goals and targets? Are the employees aware of major changes at the board levels?

If your employees say yes to such questions, you are probably creating transparent communication and operation in your organization, which is much needed to gain the trust of employees and boost the employee satisfaction score! 

Nowadays, platforms like LinkedIn, Microsoft Teams, and Yammer are used to create such a culture. 

Microsoft has a high Employee Satisfaction Index

  1. Offer a Chance to Make a Decision

Everybody has something to contribute towards progress, but not every one of them is given the opportunity to express it. Now, this is where you can score well from your employees. So one of the ways is to conduct informal meetings, where everyone will be allowed to contribute their input! Google, for example, has a small-company-family rapport, where there is a warm environment encouraging the flow of ideas and innovation. Hence, it is a beneficial situation for employees and the organization. 

Offer a chance to make a decision to boost Employee Satisfaction Index
  1. Feedback System

Without feedback, your employees will be clueless about how they are performing within the organization. But as you know, the human mind is a complicated system, so you need to weave your feedback right! Here are a few pointers to creating a healthy feedback system.

  1. Work-life Balance

The Covid-19 pandemic taught us better about work-life balance! It is the most important thing in order to achieve a good employee satisfaction score. A happy worker will definitely be more productive. How can you offer the same? By providing flexible work options and encouraging employees to take vacations. Companies need to be sensitive to personal commitments and  treat employees with compassion. Your employees have  a life outside the workplace, and as long as you help them prioritize, a life balance wouldn’t be hard to achieve.

  1. Hone Employee Skills

Growth is a factor that can keep any human happy, and money and knowledge are two factors to measure it. When you understand this and offer the same to your employees, you will be creating a fleet of loyal employees for your organization with a good employee satisfaction score. Offering training and development programs that can help your people gain new skills. 

Encourage them to participate in workshops, conferences, and seminars related to their field. Support employees who wish to pursue higher education or professional certification. Recognize employee contributions as they are the backbone of your organization, and they need to feel valued.

  1. Align the Goals and Values of the Organization

Employees should know what the organization is working towards. What are its goals? What does it value? When employees feel like they’re a part of something bigger, they’re more likely to be satisfied with their job. Make sure your employees know the company’s mission statement and can explain how their work contributes to the organization’s success. When you give a reason to relate themselves to the organization, you will be creating a highly motivating work environment for your employees.

  1. Cheer Up Employees with Every Milestone

For an employee to be satisfied, you don’t always need to do something huge; some small steps towards recognition and acknowledgment can make a significant difference. For example, celebrating one-year completion of employees at the organization—regardless of their position—can go a long way in creating employee retention. Other types of celebration can be,

  1. Birthdays
  2. Promotion
  3. Baby Announcement
  4. Engagement
  5. Marriage
  6. Retirement
  7. New Recruitment

If you are worried about how to do this exactly, you can create an employee milestone package with platforms like Caroo.

The Platforms like the Caroo have a facility to create rewards to celebrate the milestone of your employees.

  1.  Care for Their Mental Health

It is imperative for employees to be in a strong mental state for them to stay happy inside the organization. We all knowingly or unknowingly happen to carry the emotional burden in our minds. They will be grateful if you can give them a way to unload and feel at ease. A few ways are

Alternatively, you can opt for a Life Balance Realization System like Pietential, which can help the employees in the journey towards holistic wellness. 

  1.  Create Better Social Connect

Offering a place to work better as a team and connect with each other will make the organization desirable to the employees. For example, Apple Inc. encourages team building by

Hence it is no wonder that Apple’s employee score on Indeed is high!

Apple's employee reviews are stellar

  1. Talk to Them

That’s right! In a big organization with more than 1000 employees, it might not seem plausible. Still, having a point of contact for every employee will make them feel assured that they will be heard. How you execute this strategy is entirely up to your leadership efficacy!

  1. Hybrid or Flexible WorkPlace

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations and employees alike to re-evaluate the way they work. For many organizations, the traditional 9-5 office model is no longer feasible or desirable. In response, many companies are adopting hybrid or flexible work models in which employees can spend ample time both working from home and working in the office to give sufficient time to both family and work. Per Zippia’s report, 75% of companies have already adopted the hybrid model!

Hybrid models in the US improve Employee Satisfaction Index

There are many benefits of hybrid or flexible work models, both for employees and employers. For employees, flexible work arrangements can increase job satisfaction and improve work-life balance. For employers, hybrid or flexible work models can improve morale and productivity and reduce absenteeism and turnover.

Hence, as you see, a good employee satisfaction score indicates an organization’s wellness. You can also choose to subscribe to Pietential, where your employees will have access to the life coaching system to reach their full potential. 

As long as you know the value of your employees, you can easily keep them motivated and hold the employee turnaround to a minimum in your organization.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is a good employee satisfaction index?

Anything above zero represents a positive opinion of the organization. 

20-30 is a good employee satisfaction index;

Above 40 is considered a great score! 

  1. Is the Employee Satisfaction Index (ESI) a KPI, and how is it measured?

Yes, ESI is a measure of the happiness and engagement of employees across the organization, and it is usually measured using a survey. 

  1. What indicators determine the low motivation levels of employees?

It is usually reflected in terms of 

  1. How often should I measure ESI?

It is nominal if you measure ESI quarterly.