Top 5 Benefits Questions Employee Satisfaction Surveys Should Ask

Employee satisfaction surveys are all the rage right now. Employers trying to find out what they can do to retain their workers want to know whether those workers are satisfied with their situations. So they conduct satisfaction surveys. A typical satisfaction survey includes questions about employee benefits.

Why employee benefits? Because they play a key role in both hiring and retention. When employees are happy with their benefits, they are less likely to go job shopping. The opposite is also true. Employees with benefits perceived to be inadequate learn what their friends and family members get and are motivated to start looking for a new job.

At BenefitMall, a general agency representing more than 100 carriers, employment satisfaction surveys are something normally recommended to brokers. Surveys give brokers a better idea how to put together ideal benefits packages. With that in mind, there are five benefits questions every employment satisfaction survey should ask.

1. Do you understand your benefits?

Numerous surveys over the years have demonstrated that employees do not understand their benefits all that well. Take health insurance. They know their monthly premiums and copays, but little beyond that. They don’t understand deductibles, coverage limits, etc.

Here is the problem: employees are not likely to utilize benefits they do not understand them. And if they do utilize them, the benefits will not be utilized to the fullest extent. That doesn’t make for very happy employees.

2. Do your benefits meet your needs?

In light of voluntary benefits becoming more popular, employers really need to know how effective their packages are at meeting employee needs. Some employees might benefit from childcare assistance. But others will not. Some employees want employer-sponsored life insurance while others have already invested in their separate whole life policies.

3. Are you satisfied with your benefits, overall?

While this next question is absolutely critical, employers need to be prepared to get at least some negative responses. Asking employees if they are satisfied with their benefits is a necessary question inasmuch as dissatisfied employees are not likely to appreciate what they get. Then, what good are they as a recruiting and retention tool?

Bear in mind that satisfaction is a personal thing. There is no black-and-white standard determining what it actually looks like. This suggests that not every criticism needs to be directly addressed. Personal preferences are sometimes just that. They do not affect the majority of a company’s employees.

4. Which of your benefits are most important to you?

Asking employees to describe or rank the benefits most important to them can help employers better understand how to prioritize in coming years. Let us say health insurance tops the list for most employees. This tells an employer that it is important to make sure the company health plan continues to deliver. In addition, the question can help employers identify benefits that need more attention.

5. Do company benefits influence your decision to stay?

Last but not least is the question of whether employee benefits play any role in retention. Do employees stick around because the company offers a strong benefits package? Do benefits play any role at all in whether they stick around? Framing determines the effectiveness of this particular question. Frame it the right way and it can yield invaluable data.

If your company is into employee satisfaction surveys, your surveys undoubtedly include questions about benefits. Make sure you are asking the right questions. The five discussed in this post are arguably the most important where benefits are concerned. The answers tell you exactly what employees think about their benefits packages.