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Lessons from the Annual Employee Satisfaction Survey

By Nancy Truitt Pierce


The Puget Sound Service & Support Consortium (SSC) hosted a Job Satisfaction Survey of Service and Support personnel across the country. Members of ASP were invited to participate along with the SSC members and many did. The survey resulted in some interesting information.

Conducted in September, the 374 respondents rated satisfaction on a 1-7 scale, 7 being "total satisfaction". Findings included:

1)  The highest mean score was 5.98 for the question "I can go direct to my supervisor and
      discuss ideas and things that bother me". It's great to see that management across the
      board is making themselves so accessible to their employees. But we aren't surprised
      given how much care and concern most support managers bring to the job!

2)  The lowest mean score was 4.79 for "I am provided with the training necessary to do my
      job." This was also the lowest rated question on the same survey in 2002. Clearly, our
      support reps crave to learn!

3)  Manager and Team member responses unusually were within about .2 of each other. The
      largest single difference (Managers 5.81, Team Members 5.43) was for the question "My
      direct supervisor gives me recognition when I have done a good job, and credit where
      credit is due." It's good to see the high score from the managers but we would like to see it
      pass through more to the team members!

4)  For all questions, job satisfaction scores decrease from the "less than one year"
      respondents to the "1-3 year" respondents. The "over 5 year" respondents had scores
      consistently lower then the "less than one year" respondents. This trend is worrisome and
      should be a wake up call for all managers. Are you doing what you need to help your
      employees continue to enjoy the career of support as they grow in the job? We also suspect
      this is related to the low score on the training question above. Are we giving them the training
      they need to continue to be satisfied with their jobs?

5)  But the best news of all! 85% of respondents said they either would not be interested in
      working for another company, or would do so only for a lot more money. You have earned
      their loyalty! Now go give them the training and tools to do the quality of job they want to do!

The survey also asked for input on two open-ended questions. The themes that resulted yielded some very interesting information about what the support reps want in their job. We think there are some lessons in here for all the leaders of support organizations!

For the question: "I enjoy my job because" there were a number of clear themes:

  • The top theme mentioned by over half of the people was the chance to learn, to work with a variety of problems and the challenge of the job.
  • The next most often noted aspect was working with the people on their team.
  • The next aspect they mentioned the most often was the chance to help customers and to solve problems.
  • Many people also mentioned their great culture and working conditions (like flexibility, casual dress and the family atmosphere) and specific benefits and perks.
  • A good number of folks praised their direct manager and many mentioned the autonomy and freedom to solve problems on their own.
  • The last major theme was supporting good products and gaining respect for their abilities.
For the question: "I would enjoy this job a lot more if" there were a number of common themes that emerged, too:

  • The most mentioned theme was MORE PAY. It was mentioned by over half of the people in the survey. They often mentioned the opportunity for advancement in this theme, too.
  • The next most common theme was getting the training, resources and tools to do a good job. They often mentioned getting better product training as a specific part of this but there were many, many mentions of better tools, equipment and resources (database, phone systems, etc).
  • The third next highest theme was getting more respect from other departments and senior management. This included a voice in decisions and product development and discussions on what customers wanted.
  • They also mentioned having more realistic workloads, having more time to do a good job / solve problems and less routine / more challenging work.
  • The final major theme was frustration with management including concerns for the security of their jobs, lack of direction from management, lack of clarity for policies, the slow process for implementing new ideas and a sense that management didn't honor and respect their work.

    • The way this survey is structured makes the information much more useful for the participating companies but we hope the rest of you can also gain some insight from some of the themes in this aggregated report. We plan to host this survey each year so if you are interested in participating in future surveys, let us know.


    Nancy Truitt Pierce
    Executive Director
    Puget Sound Service & Support Consortium
    ntp@woodscreek.com.


    December 2003