When mentioning Employee Satisfaction surveys, at times you may hear the following various responses from employees and employers:

Employees:  Our voices are not heard, why bother filling it out since nothing changes and I don’t want anyone to know what I wrote

Employers:  I complete this because I have to, feedback from employees is unreasonable and I’m unable to change the workplace.

While employee satisfaction is not part of the HRSA Program Requirements, employee satisfaction surveys are used to gauge employee feelings within the workplace, to receive constructive feedback with hopes to make an organization better. As health centers continue to work throughout the pandemic, employee satisfaction surveys are an effective tool that can help to measure the culture within the health center. Satisfaction of employees can affect patient surveys. If a patient doesn’t feel welcome, doesn’t receive the level of care expected through appropriate customer service because an employee is not satisfied with their work environment, this can cause significant challenges. 

The following are some ways to ensure your employee satisfaction survey is meaningful:

• Choose questions that will generate actionable results.  The most important part of a survey is WHAT to ask. It’s important to ask questions which will result in feedback that can be acted upon. Three areas that can generate actionable results are engagement in the health center, satisfaction, and performance. Be specific in what questions are asked. For example, “What additional training/education would be beneficial to your job?” Additional training could allow for improved workflows and improved efficiencies.

• Consider the timing of the survey. In health centers, the biggest commodity is time. Asking employees to fill out a survey means time away from patient care, from rest breaks, and/or other tasks. Using electronic surveys will improve efficiency and can ensure anonymity. Employee surveys do not have to be lenghty and should take less than 10 minutes to complete. Forward thinking organizations are using shorter surveys that take less than 5 minutes to complete, and sending them more frequently.  For example, health centers can ask employees to fill out a 3 minute survey once per month.  

• Timing is everything. “Playing it safe” means asking employees to fill out surveys when things are going “great”. Forward thinking health centers will want to know how to improve during times of weaknesses. Implementing tele-health during the pandemic may have been a challenge for health centers that did not have the resources. Asking employees for feedback on implementation, or technical challenges experienced, will provide real time data for other projects that may need to be implemented instantaneously. 

While there are no “wrong ways” to complete employee satisfaction surveys, it’s important to share results with employees with specific steps on how to address their concerns.