Do I Need an Employee Satisfaction or Employee Engagement Solution?

Employees who feel properly recognized are less likely to move jobs within the first two years, by almost half. With that in mind, ensuring that team members feel content and motivated in their roles is essential for improving or maintaining retention rates across your organization.

When you think about employee happiness, it’s easy to use the words “satisfaction” and “engagement” interchangeably. But while satisfaction can drive engagement, they’re not the same thing. Focusing on just one and ignoring the other could mean bad news for your business outcomes or company morale. But how do you know which one to address?

Continue reading to learn more about employee satisfaction and employee engagement solutions, how they relate to one another, and how you can use them in your business.

Employee engagement vs. employee satisfaction

Employee engagement measures an employee’s level of involvement in their work. An engaged employee is often invested in their tasks and looks for ways to improve, innovate, and learn. Engaged employees are typically optimistic about their role, and are much more likely to stay with the company.

Employee satisfaction is the contentment an employee feels when their expectations about the job are met. It varies between individuals, but satisfaction often depends on whether the job feels like the right fit, whether the employee believes their work is meaningful, and whether they think they’re being compensated fairly.

Employee engagement solutions aim to boost employees’ participation, attention to detail, and commitment in the workplace, while employee satisfaction initiatives address their sense of fulfillment and alignment. Working on company culture can advance both.

Employee engagement

You might want to focus on employee engagement if you’re struggling to keep employees interested and are noticing a drop-off in work quality. Unengaged employees might:

• Be absent more frequently
• Cause more accidents or be involved in accidents
• Be more likely to leave the business
• Produce low-quality work

Investing the right time and resources into employee engagement can have huge benefits for both your employees and your organization.

Improved performance

Employees who are engaged at work are much more likely to be productive and perform to a better standard than disengaged employees. Some are even more likely to go above and beyond their job descriptions, actively seeking out ways to do more than what is expected or required of them.

Better relationships with clients and customers

It isn’t just your employees that can benefit from improvements to company culture; clients and customers are also impacted by employee engagement. Staff who feel connected to the work they do and enjoy working for a company tend to provide better company service than those who don’t. A good company culture leads to positive brand reputation and promotes customer loyalty.

Employee satisfaction

You may choose to focus on employee satisfaction if your employees are showing signs they’re unhappy. The most obvious sign may be a high turnover rate, but it isn’t always clear that staff are unsatisfied. Unsatisfied employees might:

• Be less productive
• Have a negative attitude towards work
• Appear closed off from their team
• Have a cynical perception of leadership

Improving employee satisfaction means happier employees who are more eager to come to work, and that can translate to some pretty substantial business gains.

Higher achievement

All business benefits aside, caring about employee happiness is the right thing to do. However, in this case, doing the right thing reaps many rewards. No matter what your organization’s mission is, investing in employee satisfaction can get you closer to achieving your goals. Simply put, happy employees are productivity powerhouses.

Happy employees perform better and elevate the overall mood in their work environment. Creating a happy, healthy, and motivated workforce doesn’t happen overnight, but putting in the work can quite literally pay dividends.

Increased retention

Employees who are happy and satisfied in their roles are more likely to stick with your company. Improve retention by focusing on a few key factors:

• Company culture: An org with a bad company culture can only last so long. Ensure your company has a solid set of workplace ethics, values, attitudes, standards, and behaviors. Strive to embody them in your day-to-day operations.
• Compensation: We’re not just talking paycheck, here. We mean the whole compensation enchilada—competitive salary, flexibility, PTO, and other fringe benefits.
• Rewards and recognition: We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. It’s important to recognize your team’s hard work, and to do so authentically. That means asking your people how they like to be recognized and celebrated, and doing your best to follow through.
• Professional development: Your team members are more likely to stick around if they know you’re invested in helping them develop their careers. Foster a culture of learning and growing, and you’ll create a happier, healthier workforce.

Addressing employee satisfaction and employee engagement

When staff are both satisfied and engaged, the benefits for your business are huge. Let’s take a closer look at how employee satisfaction and engagement solutions can give your organization a real boost.

What are employee engagement solutions?

The secret sauce to productivity and reduced turnover? Employee engagement. Those who just aren’t ‘feeling it’ are costing businesses big time.

Add “measure engagement” to the top of your to-do list. It’s easy with the right tools; think surveys and HR software that’s got your back.

Then, it’s all about building a positive workplace culture. How? Understand what makes your team tick, and then roll out the red carpet with regular check-ins, shoutouts, and opportunities for upskilling.

If employees aren’t engaged, you might see a dip in work quality and missed deadlines. Employee engagement solutions are designed to reengage staff and get them back on track.

What are employee satisfaction solutions?

If productivity is steady, but morale is low, you have an early employee satisfaction problem that needs to be addressed.

Because satisfaction is a feeling more than an action, it’s not as straightforward as engagement. But factors like pay equity, off-duty misconduct, harassment, and more could have your people on edge. Especially if there are problems your HR investigations haven’t exactly caught up with yet.

So, what can you do about it? First, you need to get a better idea of what’s going on. An employee net promoter score (eNPS) survey like BambooHR Employee Satisfaction® is a quick entry point into exactly how your employees feel.

Net Promoter, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks, and Net Promoter Score and Net Promoter System are service marks, of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc. and Fred Reichheld.

How to boost employee satisfaction and employee engagement

Whether you’re looking to improve the employee satisfaction or engagement of a specific team, or your wider company culture, you have options. To get the best results, combine several of the following strategies to create a cohesive plan for your organization.

How to boost employee satisfaction

Learn what matters to employees

Taking the time to learn what matters to your employees can help you identify positive changes needed to boost employee satisfaction. Conducting regular surveys and feedback interviews is a great way to gauge how employees are feeling. You can then analyze the data to find patterns and trouble areas within your organization.

Review pay and benefits

Let’s cut to the chase—getting your team’s pay right is a big deal. It’s not just about the numbers on their checks; it’s about how valued they feel. Take it from a recent Gartner survey—a third (just 32%) of employees think they’re being compensated fairly. And here’s the kicker: those who think they’re not being paid well are 15% more likely to eye the door and 13% less satisfied with and engaged in their work than those who feel they’re getting a fair deal.

Ensure employees feel safe and respected

Safety should be the bare minimum expectation for job satisfaction. Moreover, a safe and healthy workplace environment that respects and demands the fair treatment of all employees can help your people feel valued within the workplace, leading to greater employee satisfaction. Look for signs of a bad company culture and listen closely for employee feedback that indicates people are feeling unsafe or disrespected.

Recognize employee efforts

A great way to boost employee satisfaction is by acknowledging employees for the great work they’ve done. A little recognition can go a long way, helping employees take pride in their achievements and nurturing a more positive workplace culture. In addition to a formal recognition program facilitated by company leadership (like Employee of the Month), you can also encourage your team to share the small things they appreciate about their colleagues on a day-to-day basis, using a rewards and recognition platform.

How to boost employee engagement

Invest in onboarding

Did you know that within their first 44 days, new hires are already deciding if they’re in for the long haul? In fact, a whopping 70% will make up their minds within the first month on the job. Put your best foot forward with an engaging and memorable onboarding experience, and reap the rewards of motivated, invested employees.

Keep communication open

Feedback is a fantastic motivator, and as a manager, your thoughts can really drive your team’s success. Regular check-ins give team members the chance to learn where they’re excelling and where they need to stretch. But, for this to work, each feedback session should be a two-way conversation. You need to know how to listen, and your team should feel safe sharing their thoughts. When you both come to the table with the intention to learn, you can create a culture of growth and trust.

Encourage work-life balance

A good work-life balance can help reduce stress and contribute to the overall wellbeing of employees, which in turn can help foster a more engaged workforce. A simple way to encourage work-life balance is by offering flexible work arrangements that cater to the diverse needs of employees. You can also encourage employees to take regular breaks and disconnect from work by introducing company benefits such as unlimited paid time off, wellness days, and early Friday finishes.

Provide Opportunities for Professional Development

No employee wants to feel like they’re stagnating. A great way to prevent this feeling is to provide opportunities for professional development. This could involve giving employees allocated time for professional development once a month, or introducing mentorship programs where experienced employees support help more junior employees further their skills and knowledge.

The best part? When employees feel like they’ve got room to grow at your company, they’re more engaged and satisfied.

What to look for in employee engagement and employee satisfaction solutions

Employee engagement and employee satisfaction solutions ‌often work towards a similar goal. Both aim to get the best out of individual employees to create a working environment that benefits everyone. Both also want to create a productive workforce that’s less likely to leave.

Since these solutions often go hand-in-hand, we recommend prioritizing a few key features when looking for employee engagement and employee satisfaction tools.

Ease of use

According to a 2024 Gartner survey of more than 1,200 employees, 69% experienced at least one barrier when interacting with HR technology over the past year. Finding employee satisfaction and employee engagement solutions that are easy to use can largely impact the quality of adoption across your organization. An easy-to-use solution can help simplify complex processes and ensure key features can be fully deployed across your business.

Performance management tools

​​Look for a comprehensive suite of performance management tools, from assessments to 360-feedback. These tools can help strengthen the connection between an employee and their manager, promoting open dialogue and making sure they’re both on the same page when it comes to the employee’s development and goals.

Customizable features

​​When selecting the right employee satisfaction and engagement solutions for your business, remember to keep your unique needs front and center. With the right platform, you can tailor your employee engagement or satisfaction solution to fit what your team really wants. And those employee surveys? Don’t forget to customize those, too, with just the right questions to measure how satisfied your employees are with the company’s goals.

Analytics and reporting capabilities

Keeping a pulse on your team's mood is key to boosting their job satisfaction and motivation. With the right HR tech, you can tap into real-time data, slick analytics, and comprehensive reports to see what's what and keep the good vibes rolling.

People prioritization

If your employees are dissatisfied or disengaged, it could be a sign that their needs aren't being met. The smart move? Put your people first. Connect with them on a personal level, acknowledging their unique needs, worries, passions, and quirks.

No, you don't have to be a mind reader or a doormat, but showing that you see them as more than just cogs in the wheel can work wonders. There's a whole world of employee engagement and satisfaction tools out there that let your team build stronger connections, from sharing comments and kudos to spreading the word on the latest news or wins.

Not every employer can implement a radical change overnight. Even with an unlimited budget and a dedicated workforce, it won’t always be smooth sailing. Using a dedicated employee-focused platform might just provide the interpersonal cohesion you’re looking for.

How to choose employee satisfaction and employee engagement solutions

If you’re concerned about the satisfaction and engagement of your employees, BambooHR can help provide the solutions to get everyone back on track. Whether it’s measuring the general mood in workplace with an eNPS, or giving a much-needed boost to employee wellbeing, we can help.

Our platform empowers you to:

• Get to the bottom of how your employees really feel about working in your organization
• Identify underlying issues within teams or departments
• Break down employee satisfaction scores with powerful, AI-driven analytics
• Gain the insight you need to take action and improve overall employee wellbeing