How Employee Sentiment Can Help You Improve EX

When you create strategies to improve the employee experience, are you including employee sentiment analysis in your plans? We want to share why sentiment data can be one of the best ways to gauge how positive your EX is and where it needs the most work. Keep reading to learn more!

What is Employee Sentiment?

Employee sentiment is, simply, how employees feel about their work and employer. It encompasses the feelings, opinions, and perceptions that employees have about their work environment, company culture, leadership, and experience.

This is a metric that can be tracked over time and is often measured alongside things like employee engagement to get a fuller picture of how positive the overall employee experience is.

Measuring and understanding employee sentiment is crucial for internal communication and HR professionals as it provides valuable insights into the health of the workforce. By analyzing sentiment data, you can more easily identify areas for improvement, address issues, and implement strategies to make the workplace better.

Why is Employee Sentiment Analysis Important?

Employee sentiment analysis is critical for companies that want to improve the employee experience and their performance. Here are several key reasons why:

1. Deeper understanding of engagement levels. Employee sentiment gives us a clearer understanding of why employees are or aren’t engaged.
2. Early detection. By monitoring sentiment, you can more easily identify emerging issues or concerns before they escalate. This proactive approach allows for timely interventions, mitigating potential disruptions or disengagement.
3. Data-driven decisions. Measuring sentiment provides concrete data that can inform strategic decision-making. Instead of assuming how your employees are feeling, this gives you an actual metric to track and work towards improving.
4. Understanding wellbeing. Employee wellbeing is one of the most important factors of the employee experience. Naturally, employee sentiment will be deeply linked to worker stress levels and how supported they feel.
5. Competitive advantage. Not all companies measure things like sentiment or engagement. Tracking employee sentiment and taking action to improve it will help you stand out from your competitors and be more likely to keep top talent.

Measuring Sentiment

There are many ways to measure employee sentiment. We recommend using a variety of methods and finding the cadence and tools that work best for your company.

Ways to Measure Sentiment

Let’s start by looking at the various methods of measuring sentiment at your organization. 

• Surveys. One of the most common ways to measure sentiment is with employee surveys. This can be done as pulse surveys or as a part of your annual employee engagement survey. We’ll share a few question ideas in the next section!
• Employee listening. Paying attention to employee comments on your internal comms channels is a great way to gauge how employees are feeling. This includes monitoring the questions they’re asking as well as the general tone of their comments. Remember that you aren’t trying to police their comments but to genuinely understand where your people are coming from so you can better support them.
• Anonymous feedback. We recommend creating confidential channels where employees can openly share their thoughts and concerns.
• Focus groups and interviews. You can conduct focus groups or one-on-one interviews to gather in-depth qualitative insights. This approach allows employees to elaborate on their feelings and provide context to your survey results.

Survey Questions to Ask Employees

If you choose to use surveys to gauge worker sentiment, consider asking the following questions:

1. How satisfied are you with your current job role?
2. Do you feel your skills and contributions are valued in this organization?
3. How would you rate your work-life balance?
4. Are you comfortable sharing your opinions and concerns with your immediate supervisor?
5. Do you feel aligned with the company’s mission and values?
6. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this organization as a great place to work?
7. Are there any specific challenges or improvements you’d like to see within the company?

How Often Should You Analyze Employee Sentiment?

The frequency of sentiment analysis depends on your business. Pulse surveys can be conducted frequently (weekly or monthly) to capture immediate changes, while in-depth surveys might be performed once or twice a year for a broader perspective. The key is to strike a balance that provides timely insights without overwhelming employees.

Consider how often you’ll be able to analyze each survey, communicate the results, and share an action plan. If you can’t commit to doing that for every major survey you conduct, then you’re running too many surveys.

Putting Employee Sentiment Data to Use

Don’t make the mistake of doing all this work to collect employee sentiment data and then not do anything with it. The real value is how you use sentiment data to drive positive change for your business.

You should be looking for key areas of improvement. It’s impossible to tackle every single issue right away, so start with the biggest ones. 

What’s the low-hanging fruit that will not only help the company but also make the biggest difference in the lives of your people? This might include things like poor culture, bad management, lack of career development, or even workplace safety.

Once you have a list of actionable improvements you’d like to make, be sure to communicate your intentions. Don’t just share the results of the survey, communicate what you intend to do about it. This not only shows employees that their voices are being heard, but it also helps you build more transparency and, in time, trust.

But remember that this is an ongoing process. Employee sentiment is going to fluctuate over time. And sometimes how employees feel might be heavily influenced by the world at large, not just what’s happening within the company.

Things like layoffs, recession, and other crises can have a huge influence on how positively employees feel about where they work and what they do.

So, keep measuring sentiment and understand what is within your control, and what isn’t. 

But if you’re finding that events in the world are negatively impacting employee attitudes, use your communication channels to help reassure them and support them through these crises.