Research employee satisfaction via the employee satisfaction survey (ESS) 

An Employee satisfaction study ESS) helps you identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats from your employees’ perspective. How loyal are your employees? Are they satisfied with you as an employer? What do your employees like about your policies?

Employees are the face of your organization. They have a major impact on your customers’ satisfaction. In addition, engaged employees drive innovation, lower absenteeism, and lower turnover. 

An Employee satisfaction study ESS) helps you assess your employees’ satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty by utilizing tools such as the Net Promoter Score and the loyalty model. We use the NPS to provide insight into the extent to which your employees would recommend your organization as an employer and the services your organization provides. The loyalty model combines satisfaction and recommendation intent to segment your employees.

The most common research method is online research. This allows your employees to be surveyed quickly and in a targeted manner. If the research requires it, qualitative research can also be chosen in the form of, for example, in-depth interviews.

Achieving a positive change in employee satisfaction and engagement is a major undertaking. It is therefore essential to know which levers to pull in order to achieve maximum results. We believe it is important to ensure that you can make decisions based on the best and most relevant insights.

Using regression analysis, we map out the relationship between the various aspects and overall engagement. By translating this into a priority matrix, you gain concrete insight into the improvement actions.

A market research agency must be a good fit for your needs, but also for your company. We have a checklist of the important variables you should pay attention to.

Click here to download it.

Markteffect is a strategic market research agency serving as a one-stop-shop for its clients. From our offices in the center of Eindhoven and on the Herengracht in Amsterdam, our team of over 120 professionals works daily to uncover the most relevant data and insights for a wide range of clients.

We are part of The Relevance Group. The Relevance Group consists of several international agencies, each with its own specializations in market research, data science, marketing technology, and AI.

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Most organizations ESS a comprehensive ESS once a year. In addition, pulse surveys (conducted monthly or quarterly) provide a continuous snapshot. The exact frequency depends on the size, dynamics, and pace of change within your organization. The more changes taking place, the more frequently it makes sense to conduct these surveys.

A response rate of 70% or higher is considered solid for an ESS. At 60–70%, conclusions are still valid but less representative. Below 60%, caution is advised: non-response can significantly skew the results. Effective communication, support from management, and ensuring anonymity are the key factors for achieving a higher response rate.

Costs vary significantly depending on the size of the organization, the depth of the research, and whether you opt for a standard tool or a customized solution. A simple digital survey using the ESS op orde tool can be relatively inexpensive; a fully guided external ESS project ESS in-depth interviews, benchmarking, and presentations costs more, but also yields richer and more reliable insights.

The Employee satisfaction study also known as an employee survey, staff satisfaction survey, or ESS not be confused with an employee engagement survey. The satisfaction survey measures how satisfied someone is with the current situation; engagement measures the extent to which someone feels connected to the organization and is willing to go the extra mile. Both insights are valuable and complement each other.