Questions About Professional Development And Tuition
Professional development opportunities are a key driver of employee engagement. When employers are able to offer reimbursements for things such as training and course tuition, it empowers employees to achieve their goals. In turn, workers can develop skills that help them excel in their role at your company, and beyond.
Here are a few professional development sample questions you should ask in your benefits survey:
- Do you feel that you have sufficient opportunities to grow professionally/personally while working at this company?
- My employer offers a generous professional development allowance.
- I feel that I can use my development allowance to learn a skill I wouldnt have otherwise studied.
- I understand how to request a reimbursement for professional development training/tuition.
Are You Satisfied With Your Retirement Plan Options
As the workforce changes, especially generationally, so do attitudes toward retirement. Baby Boomers and Generation X are naturally gearing up for their impending retirement, but Millennials and Generation Z have entirely different views on the matter. Millennials in particular are known for their job hopping tendencies to ensure more career satisfaction versus striving for decades of company loyalty in an environment that doesnt consider their perspective. Therefore, as Millennials become the dominant generation in the workforce driving trends, its important to listen to their ideas on retirement, such as boosting savings through retirement accounts like IRAs and 401s.
How To Determine Employee Benefit Preferences
Asking multiple choice questions on your benefits survey will not identify what employees truly value. To get a more accurate assessment, a MaxDiff or ranking question should be used. Both question types are unique to SurveyKing and are included in the survey template. Below is a quick explanation of how they can add valuable data to your survey.
MaxDiff
This question type ask respondents to pick what is least and most important from a set of attributes, or in this case benefits. Data from this question can be used to shape new benefit offerings and even find cost savings. You might notice PTO is more important than a lower health care deductible. This is actionable data that can be used in decision making.
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Dont Read Too Much Into Shrm Surveys Parental Leave Findings Analysts Say
What SHRM is reporting in their survey data is not happening, period, Mercers Rich Fuerstenberg told HR Dive in an interview.
As employers assess the toll the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on working parents and the families they support, parental leave benefits have become an important retention tool. The trend of employers increasing their leave offerings appeared to continue in 2021, according to a survey that year by Mercer, which found that 61% of respondents offered paid parental leave for birth parents and 60% did so for nonbirth parents, up from 40% and 41% respectively in 2018.
Now that the U.S. economy has entered a more precarious state, some have begun to question whether employers are prepared to reel in previously generous leave policies.
Perhaps the most significant finding to this point comes from the Society for Human Resource Management. In the 2022 version of its annual employee benefits survey, SHRM found that the share of organizations offering paid maternity leave, beyond legal requirements, dropped to 35% from 53% in 2020. Similarly, the share offering paid paternity leave dropped to 27% from 44% in 2020.
But the findings are contrary to what others have seen from employers, even during a period of recessionary fears.
Other reasons may boil down to either the survey methodology or sample size, but this is not certain, he added. SHRM did not respond to an HR Dive request for comment about the survey.
Resources To Help Hr Meet The Changing Needs Of Organizations
Human resources professionals are continually challenged to do more with less. According to a survey of 2,000 organizations by the Society for Human Resources Management , the HR-to-employee ratio was 2.57 HR professionals per 100 employees in 2014.1 The report also revealed that the HR-to-employee ratio doesnt increase at the same rate as an organizations growth. In 2018, Bloomberg Law surveyed 700 employers and found that the HR-to-employee ratio was only 1.5 HR professionals per 100 employees.
Although SHRM hasnt yet conducted a post-COVID-19 survey on the HR-to-employee ratio, its clear that HR teams are continuing to shrink and being asked to do more with less when compared to other areas within organizations.
HR professionals have traditionally held a wide breadth of corporate responsibilities such as employee recruitment and retention, learning and development, payroll, compensation, benefits, labor relations, compliance, and health and safety.2 With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, HR professionals faced a new set of challenges. Whether implementing remote work procedures, interpreting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on creating safe work environments, planning return-to-work protocols or considering COVID-19 vaccination policies, responsibilities for HR professionals shifted monumentally.3
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How Satisfied Are You With The Current Health Benefits Provided
Since this question gets to the heart of creating and distributing the survey to employees, its the best place to start. While employees will always want fair compensation for their job position, education, and experience, they increasingly want a better overall workplace experience that includes health, and personal and professional growth potential.
That might sound like a tall order for you as an employer, but its reasonable since your employees offer your business the chance to thrive. It may not be that difficult to provide when you are willing to listen to your employees needs.
According to Forbes, employees ideas of benefits are evolving to focus on overall well-being, so they might be inclined to seek benefits that focus on work-life balance, flexibility, promotion of a healthy lifestyle, and more efficient and effective healthcare plans.
Take note of what employees answer here to explore new options beyond traditional health care packages.
National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits In The United States March 2021
Overview
The National Compensation Survey provides comprehensive measures of compensation costtrends and the coverage, costs, and provisions of employer-sponsored benefits in the United States. Thisbulletin presents 2021 estimates of the incidence and key provisions of employer-sponsored benefits forcivilian workers, private industry workers, as well as state and local government workers by worker andestablishment characteristics.
Estimates are also accessible in Excel format and throughthe benefits database. Estimates for prior years and additional benefits publications areavailable on the NCS publications page.
U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics staff designed the survey, collected and reviewed the survey data,and prepared survey estimates for publication. For information about the survey design, concepts, andcalculations see the Handbook of Methods: National Compensation Measures.
The survey could not have been conducted without the cooperation of the many private businesses andstate and local government agencies and jurisdictions that provided benefits data. BLS thanks theserespondents for their cooperation. Additional information for survey respondents is available onthe National Compensation Survey Respondents page.
Bureau of Labor Statistics2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E. – Suite 4160Washington, D.C. 20212-0001
The contents of this publication are in the public domain and, with appropriate citation, may bereproduced without permission.
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Employee Satisfaction Survey Vs Employee Engagement Survey
Its further important that we define the distinction between employee engagement surveys and employee satisfaction surveys, since the two are often used interchangeably. While there is a conceptual overlap between the two, employee satisfaction is best seen as the emotional component of employee engagement.
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An employee satisfaction survey only gathers feedback around one element of engagementhow satisfied or content your employees are. While it functions as a good proxy measure for engagement, it does not measure the full scope of an employees experience, including the level of long-term dedication they feel toward your business or their belief in overall company goals.
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An employee engagement survey provides a full understanding of your organizational climate. Its possible to be satisfied in a job without necessarily feeling particularly engaged, such as when an employees workload is low or they have good social connections. Conversely, an engaged employee feels completely connected to their work, their colleagues, and the wider business.
Exactly What You Need To Achieve Your Employee Engagement Goals
Own employee engagement
A consolidated system lets you save on costs and streamline your approach to employee feedback.
Turn insights into actions
Visualize where your organization needs help, and deploy the resources needed to improve productivity and culture.
Empower employees
Proven, pre-populated templates let you build, communicate and send surveys to give employees a voice with just a few clicks.
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How Do You Measure Employee Satisfaction With Their Benefits
One huge factor for getting valuable information from a survey is to know what you’re trying to measure. For your employee benefits survey, are you trying to offer better benefits than your competition as a recruitment strategy? Do you want to know whether the new benefits you rolled out last year are well received? Are you looking to revamp your perks and benefits and would like employee feedback first? Keep those top business goal in mind as you decide what your survey questions are measuring. Here are some question types:
Questions That Should Be In Every Employee Engagement Survey
Contributor: Jackie Wiles
Business, geopolitical and economic disruptions affect employee engagement and productivity. Make sure your surveys surface how employees really feel about work.
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If youre using an employee engagement survey to gauge the impact of all these trends, make sure to focus on key performance drivers and ask questions that will truly surface how employees feel about their jobs and workplace.
During disruption, its especially important to make sure employees dont become disengaged or frustrated as they adjust, for instance, to a new hybrid work environment or new business priorities, says Caroline Walsh, Vice President at Gartner. But there are still clearly identifiable drivers of employee engagement and performance that you need to watch.
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Resources To Help Hr Professionals
Employees and their dependents often seek out the HR department to ask questions about their benefits or for assistance with a claims issue. These types of tasks take up time that HR professionals could devote to more strategic initiatives.
USI Insurance Services realized that companies would be better served with a resource devoted to assisting employees and their dependents. To meet this need, we created the USI Benefit Resource Center , a dedicated call center for clients staffed by 40 employee benefit specialists from across the U.S. providing service from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time. BRC specialists are prepared to:
- Answer benefits questions for all lines of coverage
- Assist with eligibility and claims issues with insurance carriers
- Provide claim appeals information and assistance
In addition to the BRC, USI also created the USI mobile app, which provides employees and dependents with:
- 24/7 access to benefits guides
- Summary of benefits and coverage documents
- Carrier contact information
The app can be customized to include videos on how an organizations benefits work, as well as digital images of insurance ID cards.
HR professionals work closely with their USI account teams throughout the year to manage benefits and to implement changes to enhance coverage and control benefits costs. To help HR teams keep track of the various deliverables and deadlines they manage, USI creates custom service calendars.
What Is An Employee Survey
An employee survey is a tool that employers can use to measure workers satisfaction, identify problems, or predict turnover rates. One of the benefits of employee surveys is that they are endlessly customizable. You can utilize them in different ways to understand different aspects of your employees and company.
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Engaged Employees Are The Key To Business Performance
Your employee engagement strategy should be considered when creating any key business goals. Gathering data and feedback is important, but whats more important is what you do with that data after you collect it.
Employees arent assets. An engaged employee is valuable because they see their relationship with the business as reciprocalrather than a subordinate, theyre a full-fledged partner. Providing employees with the correct resources to carry out their work and a positive working environment is a good first step, but high engagement is fundamentally built on a two-way relationship. In turn, a higher rate of engaged employees has consistently been shown to help improve other key performance metrics.
Theres a wealth of research to support this. In the Total Economic Impact Study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Workday, Forrester Consulting estimates Workday Peakon Employee Voice clients achieved a 244% return on investment. The State of the Global Workplace 2022 Report from Gallup further shows that businesses with engaged workers have 23% higher profit compared with business units with actively disengaged workers.
Find out how Workday provides organizations with real-time insights into employee sentiment with our employee engagement solution.
When you embrace employee engagement as a strategic imperative, the positive effects compoundthats what we call the engagement edge. Learn more about the potential positive impacts in this eBook.
Identify The Key Improvement Factors
This critical benefit examines the main areas and characteristics that are crucial to employees and the ones with which they are dissatisfied.
For your management and human resources teams, high relevance and low satisfaction areas become priority action items. It assures that you’ll be spending your time on the issues that employees care about the most after the survey. Hence nurturing a positive attitude and culture in the organization.
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Responsive Customer Service And Tech Support
Your employee engagement survey vendor should be clear and responsive about progress on your launch, timeline, and questions or concerns along the way.
Here are a few questions to use to evaluate your partner:
- What kind of tech support do we receive?
- Can we upgrade to additional support if we need it?
- When I have a question, when should I expect a response?
- Can my employees contact your support line if needed?
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Why Are Organizational Surveys Important
As a major component of a comprehensive engagement initiative, an employee engagement survey offers several benefits:
Provides a listening culture: these types of surveys can measure the mood of the workforce but also allow employees to feel their feedback is valued. This is incredibly important to a sense of belonging in the workplace.
Provides a better understanding of leadership: If part of the survey focuses on managers and senior leaders, it can provide some valuable insights into the failings and successes of those people in charge. This critique can shape ongoing manager development programs.
Offers a place for frank opinion sharing: Not many employees feel comfortable speaking directly to their manager with a list of complaints. Surveys provide a platform for honest and anonymous feedback.
Employee engagement is more than a buzzword. The results from a Gallup poll show that it is business critical: Disengaged employees have 37 percent higher absenteeism, 18 percent lower productivity, and 15 percent lower profitability.
Highlights areas for improvement: Most business leaders would be happily unaware of the various issues within the workplace without the people on the floor highlighting them. This is valuable to the health of the business and the happiness of employees.
Helps develop foresight: Careful analysis of the survey will help you recognize trends, gaps, and disparities. This, in turn, enables you to spot issues before they turn into bigger problems.
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Consistent Features Of High Performers
Our Engaging Growth benchmark tracks companies with the rare combination of fast growth and strong employee engagement. These high-performing organizations are hiring consistently while keeping their people motivated and committed.
Those organisations come from a range of industriesbut they consistently outperform their competition on a range of survey factors. Their scores in Leadership, Company Performance, Engagement, Collaboration & Communication, Innovation, and Service & Quality Focus are 10 points or higher above the average factor scores.
Understanding difference
Would You Like For Us To Offer More Parental And Family Leave Options
Parental leave has long been a crucial benefit for employers to offer employees with growing families. Are you doing enough on that front? Further, are you offering alternative family leave options for adult children of aging parents who might need extended time off to care for ailing loved ones? Your Generation X and Millennials might currently face this challenge on top of caring for their own children, so asking this vital question shows you care enough to take a deeper look at the range of benefits you might provide.
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Test 3 Key Drivers Of Engagement And Performance
Its tempting to rely on sentiment-based survey questions like, Do you receive enough recognition? or Does your manager care about you as a person? Such questions commonly appear on formal annual or biannual employee engagement surveys and the responses reveal some of what employees feel about their jobs and workplace.
But these questions arent very effective at surfacing whether employees remain engaged and productive through a disruption or feel motivated to exert discretionary effort.
Ultimately, the key drivers of employee engagement and performance dont change, but how they are interpreted does. Make sure, then, to test the following three drivers of employee engagement at all times.
Organizational trust
The extent to which employees trust their organization is a great barometer to measure employee engagement and productivity levels. Employees who feel high levels of organizational trust are shown to have high engagement levels as well. Survey questions should help you understand whether employees believe that your organization values its people and will do all it can to ensure their well-being. These questions will also help you gauge whether your communication strategy effectively articulates your organizational values.
Commitment to coworkers
The right capabilities