Practical ways to find out how your team really feels about work, using short surveys, conversations and the data you already have.
Satisfied employees are more likely to stay, show up and treat customers well. Measuring satisfaction helps you spot problems early, such as a scheduling practice or a manager that is driving people away, and to see whether changes are working. It also tells employees you care what they think. See the employee satisfaction glossary entry for definitions.
Pulse surveys are short, frequent surveys of five to ten questions. Example statements to rate from 1 to 5:
Run them monthly or quarterly with the same core questions so you can compare results over time.
eNPS asks one question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this company as a place to work?” Employees who answer 9 or 10 are promoters, 7 or 8 are passives and 0 to 6 are detractors. eNPS is the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors, giving a score from -100 to +100. Add a follow-up question asking why, because the comments explain the score. The eNPS glossary entry has more detail.
A stay interview is a one-on-one conversation with a current employee about what keeps them and what might make them leave. Ask open questions, listen and agree on one action. Our guide to the signs an employee is about to quit includes a stay conversation outline.
When employees leave, ask why, what they valued and what would have kept them. Use a consistent set of questions, such as our exit interview form, so you can see patterns across departures. Exit interviews are too late for the person leaving but valuable for everyone who stays.
| Metric | What it may show |
|---|---|
| Voluntary turnover | Overall satisfaction and retention; see our retention rate guide |
| 90-day turnover | Problems with hiring or onboarding |
| Absenteeism and call-outs | Burnout, schedule problems or disengagement |
| Open shifts picked up | Willingness to work extra |
| Shift swap and time-off request patterns | Schedule fit |
| Internal promotions | Career growth |
| Training completion | Engagement with development |
Look at these by team, location and manager. Differences between teams often point to management or scheduling practices you can fix. Our guide to HR metrics for small business explains how to calculate them.
| Measure | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Pulse survey average (1 to 5) | Trend over time matters more than the exact number |
| eNPS | Watch direction and the reasons employees give |
| Voluntary turnover rate | Compare by team and with the same quarter last year |
| Call-outs per 100 shifts | Rising numbers can signal burnout or schedule problems |
| Open shifts picked up | Falling numbers can signal disengagement |
| Actions completed from last survey | Shows employees their feedback leads to change |
Keep the scorecard to one page and review it with managers each quarter. Use it to start conversations, not to rank or punish teams.
These questions often reveal the practical issues that matter most to hourly employees.
Nothing undermines a survey program faster than asking for feedback and then doing nothing with it. Even a small visible change shows that speaking up matters.
EZTime lets managers send short surveys to frontline teams through the mobile app, so employees can answer from their phones. Combined with attendance and scheduling data from the attendance clock, you can see how satisfaction relates to overtime, schedule changes and call-outs in each team.
With short surveys, eNPS, stay and exit interviews and HR data such as turnover, absenteeism and internal promotions.
Employee Net Promoter Score: the percentage of employees who would strongly recommend the company as a place to work, minus the percentage who would not.
Short pulse surveys monthly or quarterly work well, with a longer survey once a year if needed.
Usually yes. Anonymous surveys get more honest answers, as long as results are only reported for groups large enough to protect identities.
Share the results, pick a few issues to address, involve employees in solutions and measure again.
Any score above zero means more promoters than detractors. The trend over time and the reasons employees give matter more than comparing with other companies.
Share summary results with the whole team and more detailed results with managers, while protecting the anonymity of individual answers.
The EZTime company feed supports surveys, open questions, read confirmations and thanks, and survey results export to Excel. See current plans and what each one includes on the pricing page.