If you own a small business and you’re ready to do whatever you can to improve the morale and productivity of your staff, you should turn to employee satisfaction surveys. Although it may seem unusual, you should know that most businesses have begun to use this type of surveys to hear what their employees have to say, especially since every opinion remains anonymous.

Most business owners consider that their job is to search for new ideas and make new decisions related to marketing and finance. However, this attitude is pointless if their staff is not happy with the working conditions. Every employee has unique opinions when it comes to what can be done to improve their staff’s capabilities. If these opinions aren’t listened, your company has no chance of evolving. 

Besides, once you turn to employee surveys you’ll manage to improve their performance in several ways. For example, they will feel more appreciated knowing that their opinions count and as a result, their work will be more efficient and productive. Employee surveys can also improve the confidence in both management and leadership, since they prove that owners care about their staff. Besides, these surveys make employees understand that job security is very important and that they are responsible for it. 

In case the employee survey reveals that your staff’s morale and productivity can be improved, you can adopt one of the following tactics:

1. Help your employees feel that what they do is more than a job

Your employees need to know that their work has high purposes. That’s why helping them understand their job’s value can be essential. You can do this by circulating real-life stories told by job seekers who have had a hard time getting a good job.

2. Celebrate every accomplishment

Most business owners focus only on what lies ahead. However, reflecting upon recent achievements is a great way of helping your employees become aware of the results provided by their work. For example, you can ask every department of your company to make up a list of remarkable accomplishments achieved by their team. Then you can take a look on that list and select a few accomplishments that you consider to be more important than the rest and reward the members of the team who are responsible for them.

3. Provide your employees with time to pursue their own projects

Personal projects are a great way of taking a break from the responsibilities they have at work. Several famous companies have established a day in which all employees are allowed to work at their own projects, as long as they have something to do with the company’s products or processes. Every project is then analyzed and the best ones are rewarded. This method is good not only for your staff, but also for the company, since you can adopt a large number of projects suggested.

4. Include fun activities

Fun should be included in the schedule of every business. For example, you can organize monthly competitions such as Wii bowling matches. Your employees will come to work more determined if you decide to pay attention to their needs, and the competition will keep them motivated.

5. Adopt a positive attitude

A positive attitude is essential for every company because employees learn how to get rid of the accumulated stress. During the financial crisis, several famous companies created classes where the employees watched and discussed several inspirational videos. There are numerous other methods of promoting a positive attitude. In fact, that’s why employee surveys are so important nowadays: you can use them to find out what kind of activities will help your staff maintain a positive attitude.

6. Provide your employees with time to do something for their community

It has been proven that community service can help people build a strong morale. Several companies have turned to this method by giving their employees a number of paid hours if they offer to volunteer for an organization or charitable initiative. As a business owner, you should never overlook the needs of your employees. If you identify them and manage to fulfill them, there’s no reason why your company wouldn’t have a prosperous future.

Davis Miller is a regular contributor at many websites. He writes about small businesses, negotiation and other business related topics. He believes on the site http://www.peopleinsight.co.uk/ for employee engagement surveys for many well-known UK organizations.