Mungo Dunnett Associates: Management and Marketing Consultancy

Staff Satisfaction

Background

Many companies take soundings from their own staff, either on an occasional or a regular basis. These are intended to highlight areas of dissatisfaction that may not otherwise be appearing on the management’s ‘radar’; to indicate the gap between where the staff believe the company to be, and where management would like the company to be; and to indicate what progress is being made from one period to the next.

We find that the companies for which this is particularly beneficial are either large companies, where individual staff focus can easily be lost; or small companies which have grown from an entrepreneurial background, but which are starting to reach a size where the ‘start-up’ personnel practices and culture are coming under pressure.

This type of survey is frequently mismanaged, either because its findings are not acted upon, or because no meaningful connection is made between ‘soft’ satisfaction measures and the financial performance of the company.

We outline the approach we took for a company that had grown over a 10-year period from a small single-office operation to a multi-site employer of c. 70 staff.