How To Measure and Analyze Employee Sentiment (+Survey Questions)

Positive sentiment means employees are generally happy with their work environment and motivated to perform well. Positive sentiment is linked to higher productivity, lower churn rates, and greater customer satisfaction.

Neutral sentiment reflects neither positive nor negative feelings toward work. Employees may feel indifferent, uncertain, or have mixed emotions. While not necessarily harmful, neutral sentiment presents a challenge for HR as it could tip toward the negative.

Negative sentiment shows employees are dissatisfied, disengaged, and unhappy with their jobs or workplace. Indicators include low morale, decreased productivity, and increased absenteeism. If left unchecked, it can spread across the company and worsen overall employee sentiment.

Consider these metrics when designing your employee sentiment surveys:

• Job satisfaction: Overall contentment with job roles and responsibilities.
• Leadership and management: Perception of leadership’s ability to support and motivate employees.
• Company culture and values: Employee alignment with company values and culture.
• Compensation and benefits: Perception of pay and perks relative to peers and competitors.
• Work environment: Physical environment, available tools, and team dynamics.
• Inclusivity and diversity: Level of diversity and integration in the team, department, and company on the whole.
• Development: Availability of career growth and advancement opportunities.
• Work-life balance: Perception of the balance between work and personal lives.

Understanding the root causes of low morale can enable you to implement targeted strategies to raise employee satisfaction. Here are six key areas to focus on to foster positive employee sentiment:

1. Targeted communication

Once you’ve analyzed your employee sentiment data and identified specific concerns, address these issues with a strategic communication plan. To foster trust and transparency, provide regular, honest updates on company performance, its challenges, your plans to address issues and progress updates.

2. Culture enhancement

Do your policies promote DEIB? If not, review and update them to ensure they facilitate diversity in hiring and equity, inclusion, and belonging for all employees regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or age.

Giving employees a sense of purpose is also important. According to McKinsey, 70% of employees say their work defines their sense of purpose. You can help them realize how meaningful and impactful their work is to the organization and the communities it serves.

Additionally, support forming employee resource groups to create a greater sense of belonging and community amongst your staff. At the same time, encourage open communication by implementing regular feedback channels, such as surveys, suggestion boxes, and one-on-one meetings.

3. Career development

Start by designing personalized employee development plans based on each employee’s unique aspirations and skills. After this, give them access to ongoing learning resources to help them build up their skills and expertise.

You can also implement mentorship programs to provide employees with guidance and career advancement opportunities, which you can support with internal promotions and transfers.

4. Work-life balance initiatives

Consider options like remote work, flexible hours, or compressed workweeks to accommodate employees’ personal needs. Regularly review and optimize your company’s PTO policies, including vacation, sick leave, and personal time to prevent burnout.

To support employee wellbeing, offer comprehensive wellness programs supporting the workforce’s physical, mental, and emotional health needs. However, make them optional as some employees prefer to simply take time off instead of participating in such programs.

5. Recognition and rewards

Establish employee recognition programs to acknowledge and reward top performers. At the same time, encourage employees to recognize and appreciate their colleagues’ contributions to build a supportive, positive work culture.

Most importantly, ensure your compensation packages are competitive and align with market standards so your employees know the organization is paying them fairly.

6. Leadership development

Equip managers with the hard and soft skills they need to foster positive team dynamics and employee engagement. Additionally, encourage managers to embrace an open-door policy to allow employees to share concerns and request support without hesitation.

Finally, offer leaders coaching and mentoring opportunities to further develop their existing skills and improve their effectiveness in managing their teams and individual staff. This way, they can contribute to better employee sentiment and satisfaction.

Get hands-on experience on how to measure and analyze employee sentiment metrics.