In the last ten years or so, there has been a move to better understand how employee satisfaction and attitude affect corporate profitability. Though the relationship between profitability and morale is indirect, and can be difficult to measure, it is an important part of what makes a modern business successful. Until recently, however, there has been relatively little data on how to gather and analyze information on employee opinion.

Employee Surveys Can Increase Corporate Profitability

One of the most common methods for gathering data that has emerged is the employee survey. Employee surveys are traditionally used to help management assess the effectiveness of a particular corporate intervention, such as a training program or the introduction of a new procedure. Surveys can also be used, however, for measuring other, more abstract aspects of an employee's experience, such as interaction, leadership, motivation, and the like.

To make ties between the success of an employee or program and corporate profitability, the analysts must gather data from all aspects of the job. One gathered, the data can be analyzed and conclusions can be drawn using statistical analysis methods rooted in multivariate statistics (a method of connecting multiple variables and discovering causal relationships). The conclusions that follow data analysis may lead to job actions or other changes in the organization of the business--changes that ultimately affect corporate profitability.

To have the greatest effect on profitability, the survey must be a well-defined business utility from beginning to the end. As many surveys are kept as short as possible (a single page is a common length), objectivity is of the utmost importance. Though surveys rarely solve any of the problems of a business, good surveys will encourage discussion about what conditions or aspects of a business may be detrimental to the business as a whole.