Employee Retention Strategies: Ready to Use Questionnaire

Employee turnover has adverse effects whose impact is much more than the strain of acquiring new talent. The sheer cost of replacing an employee who has been doing well and adding value to the company is hard to quantify. Therefore, retaining employees who bring value is always a great option compared to hunting for talented candidates who will contribute to the company’s future success.

 

While there are several ways to engage employees better and implement various strategies to improve employee retention, the starting point is to know what is it that needs to be changed and improved. Without that knowledge, you would be working with assumptions alone, and the changes made based on them are unlikely to be effective in the real world.

 

So here we provide a ready to use employee retention strategies template. Use it to acquire highly useful insights on how you can ensure employee retention and also reduce churn - and ultimately make excellent human resource decisions.

 

Questionnaire

 

Setting expectations to the employees answering the questionnaire

 

Please be assured that your feedback is strictly confidential, and that it will be well utilized to improve your relationship with the organization as well your personal well being. We are looking forward to you being very candid and open in reporting your observations, suggestions and opinions. We truly appreciate honesty in all forms. We thank you for your time and value your relationship with our organization, and look forward to gaining insights that will help strengthen our bond to mutual benefit.

 

Questions that require a Yes, No, and Feedback

1) How likely are you to recommend your friends or family members to join our organization?
    a) Very likely
    b) Little likely
    c) Unlikely
    d) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

2) Do you see the scope and opportunity to achieve your full potential for our organization?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

3) Do you believe that you have the necessary resources and training required to perform well in your work?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

4) Are you satisfied with the feedback loop from your manager?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

5) Do you believe that the work atmosphere is conducive to you being at your productive best at work?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

6) Do you feel comfortable in general with the rest of the team and the work culture?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

7) Do you feel that your point of view is respected and matters?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

8) Do you feel clear about your career map and the road ahead with our organization?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

9) Are the company policies and procedures clear and fair according to you?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

10) Do you feel that the management at all levels is transparent and ethical?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

11) Are the company HR and other support functions approachable and helpful?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

12) Does working at contribute to a sense of pride and joy in you?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

13) Are you comfortable with hygiene standards followed at the workplace?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

14) Do you agree that we are an equal opportunity organization that encourages diversity?
    a) Yes
    b) No
    c) How can we improve? _______________________________________

 

15) How would you rate your supervisor on a scale of 1 to 5 on the following parameters?
    a) Knowledge about your work ()
    b) Feedback regularity and method ()
    c) Coaching skills ()
    d) Empathy and active listening ()
    e) Enabling you with resource and training ()

 

Open ended questions

 

1) Can you list the top three factors in your current work that contribute to your success?
    a) 1
    b) 2
    c) 3

 

2) Can you list the top three factors that make you happy working at ?
    a) 1
    b) 2
    c) 3

 

3) Can you list the top three qualities that you appreciate in your manager?
    a) 1
    b) 2
    c) 3

4) Can you list the top three qualities that you would like to see change in your manager?
    a) 1
    b) 2
    c) 3

5) What would be the top three reasons for it, if you were to consider leaving this organization for a different opportunity in the future?
    a) 1
    b) 2
    c) 3

 

 

Putting this into action

While these questions are intended to help you gain rich insights on how your employees perceive their engagement with your organization, they will also help you assess the likelihood of churn. You can take proactive measures to prevent it and improve employee retention.

For instance, you can use employee referrals while making use of this data. Referrals are a proven method which contributes to better retention and higher productivity. If an employee is referring a candidate, then they are probably happy with your organization. And the new hires who have been referred are coming in with a positive image about your company anyhow.

But there is one thing to watch out for: you need to be subtle with your approach, and a critical prerequisite to get accurate results is that you should have built an honest rapport. An employee retention survey should build the trust with the employees that candid and honest feedback will be appreciated. And the best way to do that is to be approachable and openly convey that the objective of asking for a questionnaire to be filled is to improve the organization’s relationship with the employee such that it benefits both over a sustained period of time.

Also, it is equally important to remember that this is not a one off exercise, nor a rigid template. Feel free to improvise and customize according to what would suit your organization’s needs.