Conducting Employee Satisfactionat a Large Regional Bank:A Polaris Case Study

Situation:

Polaris was hired by a large, regional bank where management was concerned by indications that employees were increasingly dissatisfied even though one of the company’s core values was “to be a great place to work.”

Objectives:

Polaris conducted in-depth interviews with key managers and online surveys with the bank staff to identify:

True, objective measures of the status of employee satisfaction at the bank
Drivers of satisfaction for employment for current employees,
Employee satisfaction with individual elements of benefits and working conditions.

Outcomes:

The research showed that employees were generally satisfied, but not thrilled with their employment. The driver analysis identified the following to be relatively strong predictors of overall job satisfaction:

Overall satisfaction with career development,
Satisfaction with pay,
Overall satisfaction with benefits, and
Overall satisfaction with work environment.

Polaris made many recommendations for boosting satisfaction among employees. Following are a few examples:

There was a sense among employees that favoritism and internal politics had a bearing on promotion. There was also some concern about politics. Polaris suggested that through a collaborative process, a formal standard be outlined containing a set of qualifications/procedures for reviews and promotion consideration.
There is some indication that employees believe Bank X has unrealistic expectations with regard to workload. Polaris suggested:

Benchmarking employee workloads against other local companies and industry norms and communicating the results to employees to help clarify employee expectations of workload.
Reviewing employees’ workloads and making slight adjustments to help increase overall job satisfaction.

This case study illustrates how an employee attitude survey can help identify underlying issues in need of improvement.

Contact Us to learn more about our employee attitude surveys.