Breakthrough in Employee Satisfaction Management

The Fundamentals Of Effective
Employee Satisfaction Mapping

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Telecom, IT, ITES / BPO, FMCG, finance, automotive, pharma, retail, heavy machinery,
petroleum and now even the most prestigious power sector. Irrespective of the industry
domain you and your employer belong to, Millennium India is facing the highest employee
turnover ever in the history of machine revolution. Employees are geared up to join any
industry whether they have the related exposure in the past or not. The 30-35% score for
ITES and Telecom, 15-20% for automotive and 5-10% now for oil and power sectors, the
attrition has snatched away the sleep out of the eyes of HR managers and CEOs.

So, what next? Of course the HR heads and the plant managers need to take a call before
they end up with all their top talent drained away by their next door competitor. Employees
are getting sensitive and thin-skinned day by day. The trigger for the decision of hopping is
as basic it could ever be. Tick off your subordinate even in an obvious tone; and be ready
for a job posting to be done the very next day. The condition is even worse with the young
generation. They start looking for a change on bad odour in the washroom or get irate on
the security guard at the main gate who asked for frisking! Yet it’s factual. We have in our
organisation recorded roughly 12% of left employees quoting frisking as a factor during
their exit interviews.

Now how to get into the gravity of “What Employees Want”? There are three different ways
that we follow at Sona:

1. EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION SURVEYS: A proactive traditional method to map the
satisfaction of employees on pre-determined parameters mentioned in the survey sheet.
At Sona the survey sheets are revised every year with fresh parameters based on the
proposals from employees. The sampling process is based on the Control Grouping with
Randomized Block Design of the non-conventional human characteristics. To know more
and get into the process specifications, you may get in touch with the authors.

2. STAY INTERVIEWS: Yet again a proactive tool, but virtually a non-conventional one.
SI rises above the fundamental weakness of the ESS, the responses being on limited
parameters. SI is an open one-to-one conversation with the new employees, ideally in
the range of 18 to 36 months of service at Sona. The voice is captured on blank sheet,
later used for Language Processing to identify the parameters.

3. EXIT INTERVIEWS: Exits are the reactive tool that comes into action after the
employee has put in his papers. The long-established means to get into the insights of
why employees are parting. Although Exits turn out to be a major malfunction when
employees wish to save their goodwill with the employer and articulate fancy words in
praise of the company, thus hiding out the real cause of their detachment.

Dedicated and faithful employees are the most significant factor in becoming an employer of
choice, but it's no bolt from the blue that companies and organizations face significant
challenges in mapping the levels of energy and engagement in their workforces. Factors
such as a booming SENSEX of Indian economy is thus creating an environment where
proficient employees who are discontented in their present situations can easily find a new
place to "hang their hats." In fact in a study done by our 2007-08 internship batch students
illustrate that only 21% of Indian employees feel fully committed to their employers and
only 12% of them agree that their employers are wholly committed to them. It’s not at all
surprising; still, the level of commitment amid employees and employers is directly linked to
the level of satisfaction at a place where they are spending more than half of their lives.

The human psychology specialists lit a spark of hope to the HR Managers. It is vitally
important to make out that all employees normally give signals or hints, those which need
to be captured at the precise time. This means that attrition can be predicted through
survey measurement. This gives employers an imperative window of opportunity to foresee
and address talent loss within specific departments so as to change the environment that is
causing employees to leave. When two people get into a relation, let’s say the marriage,
trust and consideration of the needs and opinions of each other are being considered as
prime traits that keep the commitment strong. At work, these qualities can be even more
important than the value of monetary compensation and rewards - in fact, emotional
rewards can actually have a larger impact than monetary rewards on overall employee
satisfaction. You need to actually trace this satisfaction level.
Employee Satisfaction Surveys provide clear data picture for problem solving. If the ES
Surveys are effectively monitored, they can actually identify critical problem areas and can
help to devise the most optimal path to solutions. This information provides a road map and
priority list for dealing with problems in all areas. However the priority in which problems
are solved is not always decided by the ones employees feel worst about. Yet, ranking the
issues puts some reason into the system of designing a PDCA plan for attacking employee
problems. Also, the ES survey results provide a snapshot of employee attitude. Starting
from this point the company can later identify, in an objective and scientific way, whether
the company is making growth or slipping back. While monitoring a survey is not the only
method of providing this benchmark, the information gained provides a background with
which to interpret other essential data such as attrition information.
The following are few benefits of an Employee Satisfaction mapping process:

1. Employee’s standpoint: Organizations attain a truthful sight of current policies and a
more obvious perspective of issues that are of top priority to employees than others,
such as welfare measures, career development, and compensation benefits.

2. Increased Employee Loyalty: By quantifying and analyzing employee attitudes and
opinions, enterprises can identify problem areas and solutions to create a supportive
work environment encouraging a motivated and loyal workforce.

3. Training Needs Assessment: Employee Satisfaction Surveys aid in developing
individual goals and career potential. With more insight into their opinions and attitudes,
management can establish professional development initiatives.

4. Improved Customer Service: Because motivated employees are critical to improved
organizational initiatives, such as increasing customer satisfaction, enterprises that
value and strive for greater employee satisfaction ultimately create higher customer
satisfaction.

To conclude, wide-ranging Employee Satisfaction processes can be keys to a more
motivated and loyal workforce leading to increased customer satisfaction and overall
profitability of an enterprise.

Reference weblogs:

1. www.haripassionhr.com
2. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/PassionHR

The Author
MR. HARI NAIR, a young Masters in Public, Personnel Management &
Industrial Relations from Osmania University, did his Graduation in
Commerce and has a Degree in Education Psychology & a Diploma in
Journalism. Currently he is at the helm of affairs at Sona Koyo Steering
Systems Ltd, Gurgaon as its Vice President – Human Resources, and
can be reached by e-mail – [email protected] or
[email protected] and on his Mobile No. +91-98-102-89047