What is an Employee Sentiment Analysis?

What is employee sentiment analysis?

Employee sentiment analysis is a method used by organizations to understand and quantify how employees feel about their work environment, management and company culture. It utilizes natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to automatically evaluate employee feedback from various sources, such as surveys, performance reviews and internal communications.

The primary goal of employee sentiment analysis is to gauge the workforce’s overall mood, perceptions and concerns. By systematically analyzing this feedback, organizations can get insights into employee satisfaction, engagement levels and areas of improvement.

Employee sentiment analysis highlights:

• The organization’s strengths and areas for improvement.
  
• Employee reactions, both positive and negative, to new initiatives or policies.
  
• Overall feelings about workplace culture and organizational changes.

Why is employee sentiment analysis important?

Your employees spend most of their time at work, so it’s essential to ensure they feel heard. According to Gartner HR Practice, nearly 70% of employees feel disengaged and lack a meaningful connection to their work. This indicates a significant gap between employee engagement and feeling heard.

Here is how the employee sentiment analysis method can help you:

• Improves retention by addressing concerns early.
• Helps identify employee satisfaction and engagement levels.
• Boosts productivity by creating a positive work environment.
• Enhances company culture through actionable feedback.
• Reduces burnout by detecting stress and workload issues.
• Shows commitment to employee well-being, attracting and retaining talent.

Key aspects of sentiment analysis

Key aspects of employee sentiment analysis include:

• Employee brand perception: Relates to how employees view the organization’s values, mission, and reputation. Conducting surveys for employee engagement can reveal valuable insights about this perception.
• Workplace experience: A strong workplace experience drives productivity, efficiency, enhances morale, and impacts your organization’s success. 
• Employee recognition: A culture of appreciation that goes beyond saying ‘good job’. Regular recognition of achievements contributes to a positive work environment. Effective reward systems, both monetary and non-monetary, keep employees motivated.
• Learning and development: Effective learning and development strategies result in high employee retention and low turnover rates, as employees feel valued and motivated to contribute to organizational success.

How does employee sentiment analysis affect business outcomes?

Undeniably, how we work today makes it harder to hear, see, and understand the depths of employee emotions and attitudes. Therefore, utilizing an employee sentiment analysis is important for actionable insights, as any organization’s sustainable success depends on its employees.

Employee productivity

Employee productivity, or workforce productivity, is significantly influenced by how engaged employees feel about their work. As per Accenture, businesses that invest in technology to improve employee productivity have observed a 7.4% increase in revenue growth. However, poor mental well-being can slow down productivity, for which consistent employee sentiment surveys can be conducted to identify employee sentiment.

Employee performance

According to a Deloitte Survey, engaged employees who feel supported by their managers are 14% more productive, 23% more profitable, and 70% less likely to experience burnout. This results in enhanced performance in the workplace. Effective performance management systems and regularly collecting feedback through tools like employee surveys can measure performance and spot disengagement pain points in the responses.

Employee retention

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2023 Report found that most employees were engaged in quiet quitting, and more than half of them were actively or passively seeking new options. To avoid this, understand the impact of sentiment analysis, as it will help you recognize why employees want to leave and what measures you can put in place to keep your best people.

How to conduct employee sentiment analysis?

Conducting an employee sentiment analysis is just more than a survey. As an employer, it is important to proactively address concerns, celebrate successes and create a workplace culture attuned to the needs and aspirations of its workforce. In short, enhancing the employee experience.

• Define your goals: First things first — identify your goal. What do you want to achieve with this analysis? Are you looking to measure overall satisfaction, pinpoint specific pain points or evaluate the impact of a recent change?
  
• Choose your data sources: You can use employee surveys, feedback forms, social media insights, exit interviews or even performance reviews. A mix of these sources will give you a well-rounded view of employee sentiment.
  
• Implement conversational analytics: Analyze unstructured data from internal communications using natural language processing (NLP) to understand the workforce’s nuances and trends.
  
• Select a sentiment analysis tool: Look for software that can help you analyze qualitative feedback and provide insights into employee emotions and attitudes. The right tool will make it easier to process and interpret the data.
  
• Collect feedback regularly: Analyzing employee sentiment and acting on it isn’t a one-time thing. Make it a habit to collect feedback regularly. Whether through pulse surveys or informal check-ins, consistent data collection helps to stay updated on how employees feel over time.
  
• Analyze key results: Use your chosen sentiment analysis tool to identify key themes and sentiments in the feedback. Look for common themes that highlight both strengths and areas needing improvement.
  
• Monitor and evaluate impact: Don’t forget to act on what you’ve learned! Share your findings with relevant teams and develop action plans to address employee concerns. Communicating changes based on their feedback shows that you value their input and are committed to improving their experience.

How to measure employee sentiment?

To observe and understand what truly impacts employee sentiment in the workplace, measuring the different levels of employee sentiment is essential. Here are a few of them:

Utilize employee sentiment surveys for engagement

One of the best ways to understand how your employees feel is by using surveys and feedback. Gone are the days when employers relied solely on gut feelings or informal chats to gauge employee sentiment; now, structured surveys provide timely and relevant sentiment insights to improve EX delivery continuously.

You can use a mix of open-ended and multiple-choice questions, but it is good to let your people write their feelings. Anonymous surveys are recommended to encourage participation for those who do not feel comfortable.

Real-time insights and pulse surveys

Robust surveys take time to put together and review, sometimes taking months. This is time that you might not have to address potential employee sentiment issues.

Being able to rather real-time insights 

Thus, reviewing real-time insights and running pulse surveys on announcements can be a good strategy to keep a pulse on your organization.

Having an advanced intranet with the robust AI analytics, where short surveys can be done and answers with a yes/no can be categorized into shareable reports, bandwidth can be freed for more strategic work.

Employee net promoter score (eNPS)

The eNPS is a simple way to measure how happy and loyal your employees are to your company. It asks employees a straightforward question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company as a place to work to a friend or colleague?”. The numerical value reflects overall employee satisfaction and loyalty. Higher eNPS indicates a more engaged and satisfied workforce.

Focus groups

Workplace focus groups are small, structured discussions where employees can openly express their thoughts and feelings about different aspects of their jobs and the organization. During these sessions, a neutral group leader asks questions to spark discussion. So, ask a question like: “If you could change one thing about our company policies, what would it be?” to get actionable feedback. Listening to your employees is important, and differences in opinions are expected.

Social media listening

Pay attention to what people say on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram and internal communication tools. This method allows organizations to capture real-time insights into employee sentiment, identifying emerging issues and trends that might not surface through traditional surveys. Social media analysis can help organizations find value influencers to improve their marketing strategy

Employee sentiment software and tools

With more ways than ever for people to express their feelings online, the ability to automate sentiment gathering and analysis has never been more critical. With the integration of a robust AI-enhanced sentiment analysis tool, you don’t have to analyze large volumes of text to determine whether it is positive, neutral, or negative sentiment. This can help you spend less time interpreting employee data.

Tip: Rather than measure program success by one or two metrics, broaden the tactics used to measure success.

Benefits of using an employee sentiment analysis tool 

Here are some of the reasons to deploy an employee sentiment analysis software: 

Boosting employee engagement 

• Increased job satisfaction: Regular sentiment surveys provide employees with a platform to express their opinions. A study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that people with greater job satisfaction tend to have positive moods beyond the workplace, impacting positive well-being.
• Better engagement: Through employee engagement surveys and real-time insights, organizations can identify what motivates their employees and what areas need improvement. For example, if employees express frustration about a specific policy, management can address it immediately, preventing disengagement.

Enhancing employee retention rates

• Reduced turnover: According to 2024 Forbes’ Key HR Statistics And Trends, employees are three times more likely to explore other options if they don’t feel supported and heard. To build a supportive and positive workplace, proactively address negative sentiments and encourage positive sentiments.
• Builds loyalty and trust: When employees see their honest feedback lead to genuine workplace changes, their confidence in leadership strengthens. This boosts morale and cultivates a sense of belonging, encouraging employees to remain committed and loyal to the company over time.

Improving organizational efficiency

• Better decision-making: Understanding employees’ feelings and thoughts helps leaders make data-informed decisions using AI-powered personalized insights that drive meaningful actions.
• Enhanced communication & collaboration: Integrating a central digital hub helps organizations gather and analyze employee feedback from various sources, such as employee surveys and social media. This automated approach helps identify patterns that may indicate disrupted team collaboration or communication.

Measure and enhance employee sentiment analysis with Simpplr

Picture this: an intranet that not only serves as an information repository and communications powerhouse but also acts as a perceptive ally in gauging how employees feel and making them feel heard. That’s exactly what Simpplr is. 

Simpplr is an AI-powered employee experience platform that uses ‘out-of-the-box’ analytics to maximize human potential, not replace it. To enable two-way communication between companies and employees, we at Simpplr have launched an AI-powered Employee Listening Solution to empower business leaders to drive change by delivering a good employee experience.

Unlike traditional employee surveys, Simpplr’s AI surfaces a broad range of sentiment data gathered throughout the Simpplr platform, incorporating polls, pulse surveys, sentiment check, awareness check, and everyday interactions like comments.

Ready to see these features in action? Watch a quick demo to learn how Simpplr works.